Food & Farming

The Challenge:
“Probably the most obvious manifestation of the oil addicted and carbon hungry lifestyles we lead is our food system. A more ineffective model for turning oil into food is hard to imagine. In our communities, money pours out in vast quantities every day, in order to subsidise a globalised food system which is unjust, unsustainable and which has ruthlessly destroyed competition, usually in the form of the small scale grower and processor. Everyone needs to eat. Yet the current system that feeds us is so terrifyingly oil vulnerable that we are all the poorer and less resilient for it.”

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/patterns/ongoing-deepening/local-food-initiatives

Our Response:
Transition Hereford is forming a Food & Farming WorkingGroup to make sure that Hereford and District – part of Herefordshire which has 7 times the people involved in food and farming as the UK average – meets this challenge.

Already many local individuals, organisations and businesses active in food and farming are working to reduce and minimise their carbon use. We aim to extend the scale, scope and impact of existing initiatives and create new ones where none currently exist. Since our food may be responsible for as much as 20% of the UK’s entire carbon footprint (Guardian 2007/06/07), there is some urgency to this work.

If you’re interested in joining the Working Group then contact us (details below). It is a working group so you will be required to make an active contribution to the work of the group (attend meetings, read papers, make calls and go to events and talks on behalf of the group and report back, etc.)

Otherwise, you are very welcome instead at food and farming events advertised on this website.

Remember, as an individual, you can also:

• Grow and process your own food (organically). If you don’t have a garden, why not join our gardenshare scheme
• Join with others to grow together (you learn more by sharing experience)
• Buy your food locally direct from local (organic) growers
• Buy your food locally direct from local retailers and other outlets such as farmers or village markets
• or as a last resort….
• Buy local food at a supermarket (but remember it will have travelled from the local grower to the local supermarket via a regional distribution hub, a journey of 160 miles or more.)
• and for those foods we need to get from abroad
• Remember to buy fair trade.

Information about sources of local food and drink can be found here.

Working Group contact: David Keltie (david.keltie@gmail.com). T: 01981 540024