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.
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