Food for the Planet

Examples of local authorities declaring climate emergency and making specific commitments to act (mainly on energy, transport and infrastructure so far).

Sustain have published a declaration of a Climate and Nature emergency

Brighton & Hove Council with the support of the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership adopted a Food Growing and Development Planning Advice Note in 2011. The PAN made provisions for the incorporation of community food growing into new commercial and residential developments.

A 10 year Allotment Strategy was agreed and signed off by both Brighton & Hove City Council’s Environment Committee and the Allotment Federation in March 2014, laying out a framework for managing allotments over the next ten years. Whilst there is an aspiration to find more allotment land to meet the substantial waiting list demand, the strategy focuses on protecting and enhancing the existent.

Brighton & Hove City Council is in the unusual position of holding (in public ownership) 11,923 acres of ‘downland’ farmland. A City Downland Advisory Board has been established (includes representatives from farmers, City Council, wildlife specialists and Brighton and Hove Food Partnership) to develop policy which supports a viable local farm economy; to support diversification such as eco-tourism; to reconnect farmers and city residents; and to promote sustainable food production.

Bristol City Council Parks and Open Spaces (which includes allotments and smallholdings) led an internal resource assessment mapping exercise to identify all available land for food growing. The team are also working with Bristol Food Producers to link up with people seeking land for food growing. They have provided free ‘set-up agreements’ and early years peppercorn rent on larger areas of land for community growing projects. (see evidence in Bristol Method 18: How to encourage food production in the city– https://www.bristol2015.co.uk/method/food-nature/)

Croydon’s Local Plan (p56) uses the concept of ‘productive landscapes’, recognising the wider benefits of food growing. The policy a) protects, b) supports temporary use and new provision in major residential developments, and c) looks for flexibility in landscape design.

Brighton Permaculture Trust offers a permaculture design course which looks at how to design resilient, abundant human 'ecosystems'.

Capital Growth is the main project through which the Greater London Authority and the London Food Board have supported training and advice for farmers and growers in London, including explicitly promoting the adoption of low ecological impact production and management techniques such as organic, permaculture and pesticide-free production, involving a wide range of partner organisations that provide specialist support on these issues.

Islington Council adopted a Parks and Urban Green Spaces Habitat Action Plan concerned with the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity. This plan is seen as a way for the borough to mitigate the impacts of climate change. One action relates to the reduction in pesticide use.

Leicester Transition group offers various permaculture courses, from a simple introduction to design courses.

Manchester based Kindling Trust runs a Commercial Organic Horticulture Course for those wanting to develop a career and business in organic growing.

Cambridge Sustainable Food (CSF) is helping restaurants, catering businesses and food outlets across the city to measure and reduce their food waste as part of its ‘Taste Not Waste’ programme.

North East Lincolnshire Council produced a handbook to help businesses reduce waste including food waste and packaging.

North London Waste Authority's 'Waste Less, Save More. A guide for North London Businesses' provides top tips, how to measure success, useful contacts and case studies.

Refill Bristol aims to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the sea by discouraging the consumption of single-use plastic bottles.

Sustainable Food Places Network members are delivering local Sustainable Fish Cities and Veg Cities campaigns.

Cambridge Sustainable food challenges are designed to get community residents talking and thinking about reducing our carbon footprint.

FoodFuture Bridport campaigns to ‘Spend a Tenner Locally’ on locally and sustainably produced food, independently retailed. Their local research found that every £10 spent locally is actually worth £17.60 to the local economy because money is re-spent locally and retained much longer. In other words, if the 9000+ households in Bridport shifted just 10% of their weekly food shop to independent retail outlets this would inject £2.6 million a year to boost the local economy.

Our Every Mouthful Counts report aims to support places to respond to the climate and nature emergency through food system change and making the case for local action on food.

Carbon Trust provides advice to businesses throughout the food chain on how to cut their carbon emissions and save energy, including specific advice for the agricultural industry.

Garden Organic provides advice and guidelines on organic growing as well as training through their Master Gardener programme.

The Global Calculator is an open-source model of the world’s energy, land and food systems that allows you to design your own version of the future up to 2050 and see the implications for the climate.

Global Justice Now's policy briefing Silent but Deadly - Estimating the real climate impact of agribusiness corporations.

The Permaculture Association offers a wide range of courses on permaculture design and approaches and has a network of support groups.

Pesticide Action Network provides guidance on Integrated Pest Management for farmers, growers and land managers to help reduce their use of pesticides.

The Soil Association provides training, advice and support to farmers and growers on all aspects of organic production.

The Soil Association’s Innovative Farmers programme supports farmers and growers to undertake field labs and develop innovative organic farming techniques such as using natural predators to keep pests down, composting, planting companion crops or using green manures to fix nitrogen from the air. This support to farmers enables them to reduce their ecological footprint as well as increasing their yields in an ecologically sustainable way.

Sourdough September, run by the Real Bread Campaign, is a series of events promoting small bakeries and home baking of sourdough bread.

Organic September is an annual campaign run by the Soil Association to encourage more people to try organic as a way to promote and educate people about organic food and farming.

Meat Free Monday is a campaign to promote vegetarian food one day a week.

FairTrade Town and the annual Fairtrade Fortnight campaigns run by the FairTrade Foundation encourage commitments from Councils, communities and individuals to buy only Fairtrade products.

Sustainable Fish Cities is a national campaign run by Sustain to persuade restaurants and caterers to adopt sustainable seafood policies and practices. They have already reduced the impact on fisheries by changing the fish procurement policies of millions of meals served every year thanks to local campaigning.

The British Dietetic Association's One Blue Dot project brings together information on healthy diets and sustainability to tackle the “urgency of change” that is needed in how people eat.

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s Planning for Health Supplementary Planning Document increases the protection of existing allotments and community food growing space and provides for the creation of new spaces (p15) arguing that they ‘provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, contributing to physical and mental wellbeing’ and ‘provide a place for people to interact and to produce healthy locally grown food, which can help to improve the diet of residents.’

Croydon Council applies a presumption in favour of development provided applications assist in the delivery of a Green Grid which includes:

• Protecting and enhancing allotments, community gardens and woodland.
• Supporting food growing, tree planting and forestry, including the temporary utilisation of cleared sites; and encouraging major residential developments to incorporate edible planting and growing spaces at multiple floor levels.
• Ensuring landscaping is flexible so that spaces may be adapted for growing opportunities.

The policy derives from the London Plan (p323) which includes several strategic policies promoting productive landscapes and encourages boroughs to identify other potential spaces that could be used for commercial food production or for community gardening, including allotments and orchards.

Hull City Council’s Local Plan Policy 46 supports the use of land for local food growing. This covers the temporary use of vacant or derelict land or buildings as well as housing estate greenspace and any new development.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has included food growing in the Infrastructure schedule of its Local Plan 2019 (p275) stating that ‘To improve underused and neglected areas of open space [the RBKC will] provide food growing facilities for residents, schools and community groups’ by ‘Installing food growing gardens (community kitchen gardens)’ with a budget of £50 to £100K per year.

The Borough has also introduced planning policies (36.3.13) that recognise the role that locally grown food plays in reducing food miles.

Breckland Council ’s Core Strategy (p52) aims to protect the best and most versatile agricultural land: ‘Development should nevertheless avoid the unnecessary loss of high-grade agricultural land which is a finite resource and is important to the rurality of Breckland’.

Bath and North East Somerset’s overarching Environment and Climate Change Strategy 2016-2020 fully recognises food as a key issue and aims to secure and promote a local, healthy, sustainable and ethical food supply.

In Brighton and Hove, the corporate plan for 2020-2023 includes becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030 and includes support in the bid to become a Gold Sustainable Food City.

Islington Council adopted sustainable policies for grounds maintenance which include increasing the use of ground cover planting to reduce weeds and water loss and to create habitats for wildlife; reducing the use of pesticides; increasing the use of organic mulch to increase soil fertility, improve soil structure, increase soil fauna and increase water retention; and protecting wildlife and biodiversity with the Parks Habitat Action Plan.