Transition Evesham Vale |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
.... |
.. |
Press Release by Transition Evesham Vale (TEV) 18th May 2010
Call to support Local Farmers and Growers
A lively audience of over sixty people on Monday night in Evesham Town Hall heard Patrick Holden CBE, Director of the Soil Association, encourage the people of the Vale to support their local agricultural industry. He said we needed to recover our identity as a food-growing community, enjoy local produce and cut down on the ‘food miles’ which importing so much fruit and vegetables creates. He pointed out that, given the average food expenditure per year, a population of some 25,000 in and around Evesham spends £50 million a year on food. Even if only 10% of people shifted their purchasing power by a third that could result in another £2m being spent locally. The TEV ‘Local Food Directory’ was launched at the meeting, which lists the places people can buy local vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy products, eggs and honey. Copies will be available free in shops which sell local produce. One of these will be the ‘Word of Mouth’ café, which entertained Mr Holden to what he said was an excellent meal prior to addressing the meeting. Ten of the twelve items in the meal were produced within twenty miles.
Holden also praised the virtues of organic farming, to which the Soil Association is firmly committed. He said this is the way of the future. We cannot continue to rely on cheap oil-based products whether it is petrol, diesel, fertiliser or packaging. Society is in denial about the changes that are coming. Hardly anything was said about this in the Election campaign, he said, but it is likely to be the most fundamental challenge of the twenty-first century.
David Haslam of TEV, who introduced the meeting, said that TEV was in correspondence with local supermarkets to urge them to purchase more local products. However they had such a massive distribution system they found it hard to relate to their community. He had visited all five local supermarkets last Friday afternoon and none of them were stocking local asparagus. ‘It may not have been easy to get asparagus locally’, he said, ‘but the nearest was Tesco who had some from Warwickshire and Morrison’s who had asparagus tips from Herefordshire. However Morrison’s also had large amounts from Peru, as did Tesco and the Co-op. Tesco also had organic asparagus from Italy, Aldi had some from Spain and Lidl said they did have some from Norfolk but had run out! ‘
Robin Walker, Chair of TEV, said it had been an excellent meeting, and that TEV hoped to be working with the local Town Council, the Market Town Partnership (which he met with last week) and Wychavon Council, as well as other local bodies, to promote the aims of TEV towards a more sustainable future for our community and our world. Patrick Holden encouraged people to see the film ‘Food Inc’ being shown on June 18th at Number 8 in Pershore. He said it was profoundly changing American people’s thinking about how their food was produced, and would do the same for us.
Patrick Holden - Talks on 'You Tube'
• Food Security - part 1,2,3.
• Future of Farming - part 1,2,3,4.
• Back to the Land - part 1,2,3,4.