The Dynamic Food Procurement National Advisory Board (a mouthful in itself!) has the aim to divert a third of all public sector spending on food and drink, to fresh local produce from sustainable local SMEs producers.
It seeks to achieve this within three years.
It is a Board not without influence: it contains members from Government Departments, Local Authorities, the Soil Association and Sustain.
They published, in March 2020:
A Manifesto for a resilient, adaptable and sustainable UK food system: Fast lessons from COVID-19, calling for:
- Local food procurement by schools, hospitals, care homes, prisons and the armed services across the UK;
- Certainty, to allow local food provision planning;
- Supply made conditional upon sustainable production methods;
- Short ‘food miles’ across production, processing and consumption;
- Identification of public sector food demands and wide publicity.
These are radical ideas that suggest considerable change in local food supply chains.
The full report can be read here.
Local food news from our blog
Nourishing Lincoln
£268 billion. This is the cost of poor diets to the UK economy, according to the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission. That’s not far off 10% of GDP. Indicators for Lincoln show that dietary health here is worse than the national average, and the trends are going in the wrong direction. Anyone serious about inclusive…
Schools Carrot Competition
The British Carrot Growers’ Association launches School Carrot Growing Competition with Elsoms Seeds A nationwide competition to encourage primary school children to grow, harvest and menu plan with carrots is launched today. In partnership with Elsoms Seeds, a UK independent seed company, the British Carrot Growers’ Association aim to inspire young people to increase their…
What does resilience mean to Lincolnshire?
Resilience – the ability to weather the storms, to bounce back after a disruption, adapt quickly to change. In the face of increasing turbulence, from weather events to global geopolitics, discussion of resilience is coming loudly to the fore here in Lincolnshire. I’ll give you a few examples: Farm resilience This year’s Lincolnshire Farming Conference…
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