Creating a vibrant, prosperous and diverse sustainable food economy.
We believe that to make good food a defining characteristic of where you live depends, ultimately, on ensuring healthy and sustainable food businesses - from producers and processors to retailers and caterers - are mainstreamed as part of a revitalised local food economy. Putting good food entrepreneurs and enterprises at the heart of local economic development and promoting them to consumers not only ensures that buying healthy and sustainable food becomes the easy choice but also creates jobs, businesses and prosperity while regenerating high streets and city centres.
Birmingham Food Council published an interim report in December 2014 that confirmed how significant the impact of food and how it is produced, distributed and consumed was and explored the various tensions that exist.
Carlisle Plan 2015-2018 under ‘Healthy City Programme’ includes: ‘Continue to support and develop the Food City Partnership: Local Healthy Eating Options; Carlisle Food Charter; food sector supply chain development; food skills; education and tourism.’
The Food Tourism Action Plan for Wales 2015-2020 defines food tourism as ‘any activity that promotes a high quality, distinctive, local and sustainable food experience linked to a particular place’.
In Belfast’s integrated tourism strategy, food is identified as one of the city’s most significant tourism assets. The local provenance of restaurant food is one of the hospitality industry’s key marketing devices, strongly supported by the Council.
The importance of a strong, viable food economy is included within the Bath & North East Somerset Economic Strategy: ‘Increase local food production & consumption to raise the local multiplier effect, create income and job growth and enhance the cultural offer’ (p8).
The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Strategic Environmental Economic Investment Plan (SEEIP) suggests that ‘farm shops, farmers markets and other initiatives to promote local food sourcing have the potential to add value to farm produce’ whilst recognising that ‘the scale of most of the agricultural operations in Oxfordshire and the lack of a local supply chain for processing and distributing food limits the potential at present’. It names local food partnership Good Food Oxford as a partner in exploring solutions. (p26)
The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership’s Strategic Economic Plan (2015-2030) makes important reference to supporting the local food system and consequent benefits to the economy, and the wider influencing role of the LEP. (p20)
Leicester’s Indoor Market redevelopment aims to regenerate a historic market and create new business opportunities for local producers and processers.
Brighton and Hove City Council owned Open Market has been redeveloped and handed over to a community interest company, with a commitment to “local, Fair Trade, free range and organic produce, and other goods that demonstrate a considerate approach to the environment”.
Cambridge Sustainable Food Hub has been set up as a storage and distribution centre for locally produced, sustainable food from farms in the Cambridgeshire area, a retail outlet, a café and a community space. The facilities will be available for ‘one-off’ bookings as well as for training events, farmers’ markets and conferences. The Food Hub will also feature incubator kitchens for local sustainable food enterprises.
GCDA provides free food business training for food entrepreneurs which covers menu planning with sustainable and healthy food, procurement, financial management, business planning and promotion.
Bristol City Council (p40) has developed its ‘Bristol High Streets/Local Centres Action Plan’ and has actively supported the Bristol Pound, the Bristol Independents campaign, the Food Policy Council, Bristol Food Network, Bristol Green Capital Partnership and the development of street markets and independent businesses through financial grants and support in kind such as business rates drop-in sessions.
Manchester’s FarmStart is the first farm business incubator in the UK and aims to make the route into farming easier by providing access to affordable land, shared equipment, training and a growing market.
Tamar Grow Local in the Plymouth area launched the Mill Lane Acres Farmstart project to provide new growers with land, support, and routes to market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Lambeth Council offers business rate relief to support high streets and supported start-ups in Brixton Village by offering zero rent to take over empty shops.
Oldham Council provides business rate relief for small businesses and food retailers (including shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants).
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets (p31) developed a number of projects aimed at helping local market stall-holders to increase sales of fruit and vegetables within a deprived area, leading to revitalised local markets. It supported the delivery of retail and marketing advice to traders which boosted the fruit and vegetables sales in the targeted markets by over £1,492,500 a year during the project. On top of this initial project, the Borough developed an award scheme specifically rewarding increases in fruit and vegetable sales. Finally, it piloted the Healthy Start Vouchers scheme to the benefit of low income families and local market traders.
Oxford Community Markets aims to create a truly alternative shopping experience by bringing together of the city’s numerous community owned and organised markets.
Brighton’s How It Should Be (hiSbe) is a new independent supermarket chain based on ethical trading practices, sustainable local sourcing and affordable produce.
London’s People’s Supermarket is a successful example of a food business embracing sustainable local sourcing.
Manchester’s The Unicorn Grocery is a worker’s cooperative offering a huge range of affordable, wholesome food with a focus on organic, fair-trade and local sourcing.
Your Local Pantry is a network of community food stores in Stockport run by volunteers for the benefit of their local communities, increasing access to affordable healthy food.
Oxford’s VegVan sells fresh, locally-produced food at regular weekly mini-markets throughout the city and county.
RUAF Foundation look at how the private sector can help shape more sustainable city region food systems and what business and policy environment is needed.
Sustain's new survey report on Good Food Enterprises outlines how good food enterprises have been affected and responded to a year of disrupted supply chains, lockdowns and changes in buying behaviours.
Mapping Local Food Webs Toolkit helps you to establish the connections in the food chain and to highlight their importance to your local community and economy.
A recent report published by Sustain's London Food Link and Food Coops which highlights the resilience of small food enterprises during times of crisis, what has helped them to do this and suggests recommendations for how councils could support their resilience.
Public Health England have published Encouraging healthier ‘out of home’ food provision toolkit to support local councils and independent food businesses to provide and promote healthier options.
Capital Growth and Growing Communities have produced the Urban Farming Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Help Prospective Growers Establish & Run a Growing Enterprise.
Sustain offers resources on how to run community cafés through Cracking Community Cafés.
The Food Ethics Council explores the business case for adopting and promoting sustainable diets in the foodservice sector.
"Future Farmers II: A guide to running a farm-based agroecological traineeship" aims to help small farmers take on trainees.
Making Local Food Work programme’s legacy includes guides on how to run community food enterprises.
Download our Good Policy for Good Food Guide
Policy lever 18 - Economic and tourism policies supporting a sustainable food economy
The local authority can adopt retail, tourism, planning and economic strategies and policies that promote and support the development and long-term success of healthy and sustainable food businesses.
The Food Tourism Action Plan for Wales 2015-2020 defines food tourism as ‘any activity that promotes a high quality, distinctive, local and sustainable food experience linked to a particular place’.
In Belfast’s integrated tourism strategy, food is identified as one of the city’s most significant tourism assets. The local provenance of restaurant food is one of the hospitality industry’s key marketing devices, strongly supported by the Council.
The importance of a strong, viable food economy is included within the Bath & North East Somerset Economic Strategy: ‘Increase local food production & consumption to raise the local multiplier effect, create income and job growth and enhance the cultural offer’ (p8).
Bath and North East Somerset’s Local Food Strategy (p16) includes as a core pillar: ‘to support and encourage more local and sustainable food production and supply’. It aims to achieve this by providing expert advice on environmental standards; supporting the reduction of agriculture’s carbon footprint by investing in renewable energy; developing planning policies to support the development and diversification of agricultural businesses; and addressing gaps in local infrastructure.
Carlisle Plan 2015-2018 under ‘Healthy City Programme’ includes: ‘Continue to support and develop the Food City Partnership: Local Healthy Eating Options; Carlisle Food Charter; food sector supply chain development; food skills; education and tourism.’
The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Strategic Environmental Economic Investment Plan (SEEIP) suggests that ‘farm shops, farmers markets and other initiatives to promote local food sourcing have the potential to add value to farm produce’ whilst recognising that ‘the scale of most of the agricultural operations in Oxfordshire and the lack of a local supply chain for processing and distributing food limits the potential at present’. It names local food partnership Good Food Oxford as a partner in exploring solutions. (p26)
The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership’s Strategic Economic Plan (2015-2030) makes important reference to supporting the local food system and consequent benefits to the economy, and the wider influencing role of the LEP. (p20)
Policy lever 19 - Business rate reliefs
The local authority can support new independent healthy and sustainable food start-up businesses by giving business rate relief. Local authorities are gaining increasing powers in this area, such as keeping 100% of local taxes generated from business rates and, since Section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1998 was amended by the Localism Act 2011, Councils can give a locally determined discretionary discount on business rates (for example to businesses that provide fresh fruit and vegetables). Since April 2017, small businesses that occupy property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less pay no business rates and there is a tapered rate of relief on properties worth up to £15,000.
In September 2015, Bristol City Council’s Business Rates team issued over 8,500 applications to business ratepayers believed to be entitled to up to £1,500 relief from April 2015, including a large proportion of food and drink businesses. To date, just over 1,400 ratepayers have responded, meaning an approximate total of just over £2m business rate relief has been claimed. (p35)
Lambeth Council offers business rate relief to support high streets and supports start-ups in Brixton Village by offering zero rent to take over empty shops.
Oldham Council provides business rate relief for small businesses and food retailers (including shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants).
In Scotland, Part 11 (Section 140) of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 allows local authorities to grant relief to any type of ratepayer and/or for any reason, as they see fit, provided that these comply with state aid rules. Relief can be granted to a sole property, a street, a town centre or a particular type of business or sector. The local authority must fully fund the relief itself.
Policy lever 20 - Invest in and protect local food infrastructure
The local authority can protect/re-establish vital food infrastructure, such as Grade 1 and 2 land, local processing and wholesale businesses, small independent retailers, food hubs and distribution networks.
Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk’s Joint Core Strategy Policy 5 (The Economy) (p47-48) states that ‘opportunities for innovation, skills and training will be expanded through […] the development of a flagship food and farming hub serving the needs of Norfolk and supporting the agri-food sector in and around greater Norwich.’ It further adds that ‘a food and farming hub will support local agriculture by providing opportunities for local producers to coordinate activity and access larger markets, provide a focus for ancillary supporting businesses and suppliers and an opportunity for the relocation of the livestock market.’
North Norfolk Core Strategy (2008) Policy EC5 (p94), Location of Retail and Commercial Leisure Development protects small independent retailers by stating that: ‘Proposals that would have an adverse impact on the operation of established weekly or farmers markets will not be permitted unless appropriate replacement provision is made as part of the proposal.’
Food and Land Use Coalition. September 2019. 'Growing Better: Ten Critical Transitions to Transform Food and Land Use.' Global Consultation Report. https://www.foodandlandusecoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/FOLU-GrowingBetter-GlobalReport.pdf
Critical Transition 7. Building Local Loops and Linkages "highlights the opportunity to strengthen and scale efficient and sustainable local food economies in towns and cities.” "Convergence on healthier diets will increase demand in all regions for fresh food products, especially perishable goods (critical transition 1). Urban food retailers of all sizes will seek to meet this demand through local sourcing because shorter supply chains reduce loss and waste when transporting perishable foods (critical transition 6). Productive regenerative farmers will create a market for nutrients recovered from circular urban food production (critical transition 2). Expanding urban and peri-urban supply will open up opportunities for young, skilled rural entrepreneurs (critical transition 9). And intensifying food production using regenerative agricultural practices in peri-urban areas will reduce pressure on forests (critical transition 3)".
High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition/FAO. September 2017. ‘Nutrition and Food Systems’. High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition/FAO. 152 pages http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/hlpe/hlpe_documents/HLPE_Reports/HLPE-Report-12_EN.pdf
This report makes the case for interventions that contribute to healthier food environments and shape dietary patterns in order to improve nutrition and food security. Recommendations include (pp19-20):
Department for Communities and Local Government. 16 October 2013. “Meanwhile use leases and guidance for landlords” via website Gov.UK. Accessed on 22nd June 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/meanwhile-use-leases-and-guidance-for-landlords
The introduction of meanwhile use leases by the Government aims to encourage the temporary occupation of empty town centre retail premises by non-commercial occupiers to contribute to town centre vitality.
The Great British High Street. 2016. ‘The Great British High Street of the Year Awards 2016. Good Practice Guide’. The Great British High Street. 27 pages. http://thegreatbritishhighstreet.co.uk/pdf/GBHS-Good-Practice-Guide.pdf?2
Encourages local authorities to offer rebates or cut business rates for new shops, bars and restaurants taking over vacant areas. One case study shows ‘Trafford Council developed a Town Centres Loan Scheme which offered businesses interest-free loans of up to £10,000 (£20,000 on specific streets) when opening in previously vacant units. This has enabled 14 new independent businesses to date to open in Altrincham town centre.’(p4)
Recommends that local authorities encourage the setup of pop-up shops to reinvigorate high streets. ‘Pop ups offer an easy, low cost way for burgeoning businesses to take their first steps and offer a great way to get new and different cuisine into local areas.’
Campaign to Protect Rural England. 2012. ‘Mapping Local Food Webs Toolkit’. CPRE. 194 pages. http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/farming-and-food/local-foods/item/3076-mapping-local-food-webs-toolkit
The Food Webs Toolkit stresses the importance of maintaining and building strong local food infrastructures to create new jobs, and small businesses, to ensure that more money is spent and stays in the local economy, to reduce food miles and food waste and to secure better access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.
The Toolkit makes apparent the connections between local production, local retail and local consumption and their importance for local economic prosperity. It aims to be an educative tool for community groups to help them understand, shape and communicate on the local food system.
Laughton, R. 2017. ‘A Matter of Scale: A study of the productivity, financial viability and multifunctional benefits of small farms (20 ha and less)’. Landworkers’ Alliance and Centre for Agroecology, Coventry University. 60 pages. https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/matter-of-scale/
The report makes the case for access to land for small farmers. It highlights how a diverse and vibrant sector of small farms is providing employment, attracting new entrants and incubating entrepreneurs. It provides a preliminary insight into the diversity, productivity, financial viability and multifunctional benefits offered by such farms. These include: reducing the trade gap for fruit and vegetables, providing employment for local people, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and food waste and better financial viability with 78% of the sample not receiving any farm subsidy.
PHE. March 2017. ‘Strategies for Encouraging Healthier ‘Out of Home’ Food Provision A toolkit for local councils working with small food businesses’ Public Health England. 63 pages. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/encouraging-healthier-out-of-home-food-provision
‘Local authorities are encouraged to disseminate [healthier catering advice] to local independent food businesses and use these tips and the wider aspects of the Eatwell Guide and 5 A Day alongside the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering (GBSF) as a basis for developing local guidance on healthy catering, and frameworks for food award schemes.’ (Annexe D p21)
SFP members
Organisations
LEP Network: The network of 38 Growth Hubs are local public/private sector partnerships led by the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). They join up national and local business support so it is easy for businesses to find the help they need
Better Food Traders accredits and supports ethical food businesses to sell sustainably grown fresh fruit and veg.
Sustainable Food Trust provides information and policy directions aiming to develop a better food and farming system with a focus on production and the supply chain.
Soil Association Future Growers scheme offers training and support for aspiring organic growers.
The Land Workers' Alliance works to establish farmer-to-farmer networks for knowledge exchange, and to influence land policy.
The Plunkett Foundation offers a wealth of resources and for sustainable food entrepreneurs and community food enterprises.
Groceries Code Adjudicator is a watchdog to protect suppliers and farmers from large retailers abusing their buying power.
NABMA works to protect and promote local markets. They host an annual event called Love Your Local Market.
The Meanwhile Foundation uses meanwhile leases to help capture the costs of empty properties and turn them into opportunities to create social and economic value for a neighbourhood.
Aberdeen Granite City Good Food's local food directory helps residents find where to access emergency food, find sustainable food producers, food growing opportunities and much more.
Local Food Dorset is an on-line directory of local food in the county.
Oxford's local food directory includes entries on box schemes, allotments, farmers' markets, local producers, grocers and sustainable retailers.
Growing Middlesbrough’s Local Food Directory provides a database of local food producers and restaurant serving locally produced food. There is also a link to the Middlesbrough Fairtrade Directory which lists all the retail outlets for Fairtrade produce in the town as well as a list of cafes and other venues where Fairtrade food is served.
Cambridge Sustainable Food has a Sustainable Food Directory which covers farmers’ markets and stalls, farm shops, retailers selling local produce, box and delivery schemes, wholesalers and sustainable eateries.
London Food Link’s Good Food Map pinpoints to local food being grown, made, cooked and saved in London.
East Yorkshire Local Food Network offers maps of ‘Farmers’ Markets, Food Festivals and Events’, ‘Local food and Drink Producers’, ‘Where to Buy and Where to Enjoy Local Food and Drink’.
Brighton & Hove Food Partnership’s directory & map includes searchable categories on Composting, Gardening, Food waste, Lunch club, Food bank, Community café. They have also produced a listing of where to buy local and sustainable food.
Bournemouth & Poole’s Sustainable Restaurant Hop evenings (p18) take paying guests to a different, ethically and sustainably sourcing restaurant for each course of the evening’s menu, increasing the visibility of these businesses.
A number of places have adopted the Healthy Choice Awards, including Brighton and Hove and Tameside to encourage food businesses to serve healthier food.
Bath’s Eat Out Eat Well Award has been developed to reward food outlets that provide their customers with healthier choices.
Bath & North East Somerset have produced a film which provides a snapshot of the activities which support local, healthy and sustainable food across the district and hope to inspire the local community to support the local food economy.
Belfast’s Our Food, So Good and award winning Taste of Ulster promotes locally produced food and drink.
Bristol's Eating Better Award is a free award for food businesses that sell healthier food options and promote sustainability.
Cambridge Sustainable Food awards businesses that successfully demonstrate their overall sustainability by making a series of pledges. The Business Awards are not only a way to stimulate discussion around sustainable food locally, they are also a great way to encourage action by providing a platform to showcase sustainable local businesses.
Derbyshire County Council (p36) has created an awards scheme to promote local eateries that sell healthy food. A local directory, and a series of pledges form this award scheme which gives profile to healthy and sustainable businesses developing smaller portions, using less fat, salt and sugar in products, but more vegetables, fruit and pulses.
London’s Healthy Catering Commitment provides food businesses that meet healthy catering criteria with a recognised brand to promote their efforts.
London’s Urban Food Fortnight is an annual celebration of fabulous local produce being grown, produced and cooked on London’s doorstep.
Plymouth is the first city in the UK to achieve the Fish2Fork Blue City Award, where half of the city’s restaurants are sourcing sustainable seafood.
Bristol Independents (“Keeping our high streets alive”) is a local marketing and branding tool developed in 2010 to help highlight and strengthen Bristol’s independent retail and café/restaurant sectors and local high streets, working alongside the Bristol Pound.
Bristol Pound is the UK’s first citywide currency with electronic accounts managed by a regulated financial institution. It supports local independent retailers by making them more visible, it strengthens the local economy by keeping more money circulating locally and it helps link local producers with local retailers. See also the Brixton Pound and the Totnes Pound.
Independent Liverpool Food Card encourages consumers to shop at independent local food shops and restaurants through year-round discounts.
Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset’s ‘Spend a Tenner Locally’ campaign and research found that if just 10% (£2.6m) of our current supermarket spend (£26m) was instead spent in our local independents, an additional £6.5m would be re-spent into the local economy.
London’s Urban Food Fortnight includes a series of meet the buyer events to help link caterers and buyers with London’s food producers.
Cambridge’s Organic Food Company delivers boxes of organic fruit and vegetables from local producers as well as supplying many local independent retailers.
Carlisle’s Fair Food Carlisle buying groups offers healthy local food to buying groups in workplaces, community centres or neighbourhoods.
Hackney’s Growing Communities harnesses the collective buying power of the community to support farmers who are producing food in a sustainable way.
Manchester’s VegPeople is a co-operative of local organic growers and restaurants working together to provide fresh, seasonal food of the highest possible quality.
RCMA (Riverside Community Market Association) Farmers’ Markets in Cardiff has grown to become a vibrant social enterprise running several weekly markets. The aim of these markets is to provide local producers and small food businesses with better access to customers in Cardiff communities, with a strong marketing slant towards local, healthy and sustainable food. Across the three main markets the average weekly footfall is around 1300 people, shopping at between 50-55 stalls resulting in annual sales close to £1million.
Stroudco is a CSA and food hub in Gloucestershire that links over 50 local producers providing more than 600 products directly to consumers.
Tamar Valley Food Hubs is an online Farmer's Market to encourage local shoppers to buy local and seasonal produce by providing a platform where they can access all products in one place.
Teesside University Student Food Co-op in Middlesbrough sells affordable, healthy, fresh and ethical food to students and the public through a membership scheme and bulk buying whilst working with local food producers.
Walthamstow’s OrganicLea is a food growing cooperative that sells allotment surplus through a box scheme, market stall, food centre and community café.
Newcastle’s very popular community run Jesmond Food Market was supported in setting up by Food Newcastle to increase the availability of healthy food whilst opening a new market for local producers.
Belfast Food Network set up a sustainable food directory to promote businesses based in NI.
Sustain Food Co-ops Toolkit covers issues such as how to buy fresh produce, food hygiene, pricing, planning, promotion and marketing. Download the toolkit. The toolkit is also presented in easy-to-navigate format on the Food Co-ops website. On the website, you can also browse the Food Co-ops Finder to locate co-ops selling food near you.
Growing Communities: Farmer-Focused routes to Market report: NEF Consulting, with the Soil Association, conducted an evaluation of the impact of Growing Communities.
This evaluation suggests that for every £1 spent by customers on veg box schemes or farmers’ markets, a further £3.70 is generated in social, economic and environmental value.
Evidence from the Bristol Eating Better Award provides insights for planning and delivering award schemes to promote healthy and sustainable food to consumers.
Sourdough September, run by the Real Bread Campaign, is a series of events promoting small bakeries and home baking of sourdough bread.
Local money: How to make it happen in your community is a comprehensive guide to developing a local currency.
Community Currencies in Action’s People Powered Money - Designing, Developing and Delivering Community Currencies provides practitioners and policy-makers with the currency innovation and tools needed to successfully re-engineer money.
The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Network UK has developed resources to start up or further develop a CSA.
Sustain holds a list of regional and national software systems that can be used to sell local produce.
PHE. March 2017. ‘Strategies for Encouraging Healthier ‘Out of Home’ Food Provision A toolkit for local councils working with small food businesses’ Public Health England. 63 pages. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/encouraging-healthier-out-of-home-food-provision
‘Local authorities are encouraged to disseminate [healthier catering advice] to local independent food businesses and use these tips and the wider aspects of the Eatwell Guide and 5 A Day alongside the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering (GBSF) as a basis for developing local guidance on healthy catering, and frameworks for food award schemes.’ (Annexe D p21)
The toolkit encourages local authorities to design and/or promote uptake of healthier catering schemes to encourage outlets to switch to healthier ingredients, products, menus and cooking practices. It compares the advantages and disadvantages of various schemes and offers tips to operate the schemes successfully including ‘publicly promoting outlets that gain a healthier eating award’. (Toolkit p35-36)
Friends of the Earth Europe. May 2016. ‘Eating from the Farm: the social, environmental and economic benefits of local food systems’. Friends of the Earth Europe. 27 pages. https://www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/agriculture/2015/eating_from_the_farm.pdf
FoEE look at various ways in which producers are linking directly with consumers through short-supply chains via farmers’ markets, using web-based technology for self-harvest gardens, Community Supported Agriculture, solidarity purchasing groups and local co-op shops. They demonstrate how ‘re-localising the way we produce, process, and distribute food […] can help shift our economy so that it addresses the problems of climate change and biodiversity collapse as well as the rising levels of social and economic inequality’ (p23).
High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition/FAO. September 2017. ‘Nutrition and Food Systems’. High Level Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition/FAO. 152 pages http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/hlpe/hlpe_documents/HLPE_Reports/HLPE-Report-12_EN.pdf
This report makes the case for interventions that contribute to healthier food environments and shape dietary patterns in order to improve nutrition and food security. Recommendations include (pp19-20):
‘Improve connectivity between rural, peri-urban, and urban supply and demand in order to propose to consumers a greater diversity of nutritious foods and support local economies, through appropriate infrastructure, markets and technologies, including e-commerce’.
New Economics Foundation. May 2015. ‘Money with a purpose. Community currencies achieving social, environmental and economic impact’. New Economics Foundation. 78 pages. http://b.3cdn.net/nefoundation/ff0740cad32550d916_o1m6byac6.pdf
‘Community currencies specific to particular geographical areas aim to keep more the wealth circulating in the locality in which they are created. Community currencies can thus ‘plug the leak’ in a locality or sector that otherwise allows profits to flow to the headquarters of large corporations, rather than back to the people that work for them. Why does this matter? Because keeping money circulating within a locality or SME network, through wages or supply chains for example, increases opportunities to reinvest in that community and strengthens both local economic and social infrastructures’ (p38).
SFP members
Organisations
BigBarn's mission is to give farmers a better deal and consumers access to fresher, cheaper food by fostering more direct trading relationships.
The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Network UK brings together CSA groups and enterprises across the UK.
Farm Drop is a flexible online platform that connects growers and customers to ensure a fair price for both producers and consumers.
Farmhopping is a platform set up by a group of small sustainable farms to provide customers with a new way of buying their food.
Food Assembly is digital platform where consumers can get together to buy directly from local farmers and food makers.
Open Food Network is a not-for-profit co-operative of food enterprises offering an open source online system to connect producers and shoppers.
Rural Regeneration Unit has formed many community food co-operatives across the UK and links these co-ops with local growers and suppliers.
Aberdeen Granite City Good Food's local food directory helps residents find where to access emergency food, find sustainable food producers, food growing opportunities and much more.
Sustain's new survey report on Good Food Enterprises outlines how good food enterprises have been affected and responded to a year of disrupted supply chains, lockdowns and changes in buying behaviours.
The Food Tourism Action Plan for Wales 2015-2020 defines food tourism as ‘any activity that promotes a high quality, distinctive, local and sustainable food experience linked to a particular place’.
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