There was, as at our Café Conversation in February, a lot of passion in the room and a strong desire to work with the region’s producers to get a wide choice of healthy and tasty foods into our kitchens.
This is not to say that things are easy – there was, at times, a palpable feeling of frustration in the room for being caught in systems we don’t have much control over.
We source our food from supermarkets, mainly, the local butcher and grocer, fish and vegetable van, community larders, farm shops, our own production, community gardens, online deliveries, a co-op delivering organic produce … There is a strong desire for more diversity but feel trapped by the market power of supermarkets, fear the environmental footprint of what’s on offer, bemoan the low number of alternatives …
A producer who supplies various national food-chains felt sad he is unable to address consumers’ demands. He too feels like a piggy in the middle, forever trying to catch the ball that markets and government policy are lobbing at each other. Global politics affect energy and fertilizer costs; supermarkets set prices; and there is a disconnect between our demand for cheap food and the imposition of costly constraints on production.
Two smallholders producing seedlings and organic vegetables talked about their passion for what they do, but cannot make ends meet through their production alone, supplementing it through other activities that keep them away from their core business.
An explanation by a prominent producer in the Borders about how our food system got itself in the current bind was an eye-opener for me and I strongly advise you read more about this in our extended report of the event.
We also heard about the Regional Food Plan that the Council and NHS are drawing up and about the design of a Food Hub pilot aimed at forging stronger, more stable local markets for local produce – watch this space. Some other ideas raised by participants included:
- Improving information about who does / offer what and where
- Getting government procurement to buy local produce
- Community Supported Agriculture
- More foodhubs / fairshare outlets to offload excess local produce
- Re-building a strong food culture via education
Read the full report of the discussion here.
The meeting ended at 8:30 with a call for a Coalition of the Willing and many of us stayed behind for a chat – mine was with a local supermarket representative on ways to engage with them directly. The noise in Chris’ space in the Wynd seemed to show this was not the only conversation …
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