Local Plan

Sustainable Food Guide

PLEDGE

REVIEW

POLICY

INVOLVE

TARGET

IMPLEMENT

CHECK

PROMOTE

Issues

ENVIRONMENT
Climate Change
Energy Efficiency
Organic Produce
Pesticide Use
Fish
Water

SOCIAL
Fair Trade
Social Audit
Local Sourcing

ECONOMIC
BSE Lessons
Hormones
Antibiotics
Additives
Internal Operations

ALL
Hygiene
Health & Nutrition
Animal Welfare
GM Debate

Local Plan..

"The food and grocery is the biggest user of road transportation...while levels of empty running have decreased over the last 30 years, one quarter of food and grocery miles are still estimated to be running empty. Sharing transport resources through backhaul and front-haul, are ways in which companies can work together" Details of cooperative project successes from IGD.

One award winning organic scheme, called Growing with Nature adopted a 'box scheme' where boxes of vegetables are delivered to people's homes. Eighty-five percent of sales are within a 15-mile radius. An independent environmental audit carried out by Sustain in 1999 gave a figure of 2.8 miles travelled per bag of vegetables from field to plate in the box scheme. The same survey showed that a UK-grown cabbage in a city supermarket travelled nearly 400 miles.

Review
Find Out where your food comes from.
Several supermarkets are now making moves to source more British food. ASDA were the first with their Buy British campaign "Good, Honest Value - Celebrating Home-grown Produce, followed by TESCO who is sourcing an extra £15m from UK farmers.
Plotthe miles your food travels.
Checkwhether you can get the same food locally.
Consider the rules for procurement

There are complex logistics to move food around. Logistics is the integrated management of all the activities required to move products through the food supply chain. For a typical food product this supply chain extends from a raw material source through the production and distribution system to the point of consumption and the associated reverse logistics. The logistical activities comprise freight transport, storage, inventory management, materials handling and all the related information processing. A research project is examining ways of reducing the damage to the environment and achieving a more sustainable balance between economic, environmental and social objectives.

Involve Discuss and decide what phrases you can use to encourahge local food procurement

Possible Policy Statement: "Our food will be sourced locally wherever possible."

Suggested Indicators: Energy needed to transport produce.
Distance travelled by produce.
Availability of locally sourced and locality produce.

Middlesborough show the way with "Urban Farmers".

Get some grants from £50 mill Funding for Local Food.

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