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Campaign update

Farmers' marketBuying fresh produce from a farmers' market. Photo: T Fawcett

From farm to table – the food web
A food web is a way of linking together farming, food producers, local food shops, farmers markets, box schemes, community supported agriculture and food cooperatives, through to consumers.

Our Mapping Local Food Webs project aims to increase understanding of the benefits and ultimately demand for locally produced food. This should encourage local communities to support their local food network and by doing so help to maintain thriving local businesses and support for farming and their work to protect the countryside.

A thriving local food web benefits people, places and the countryside by:

  • Creating new jobs and small business
  • More money spent and kept in the local economy
  • Foods produced and sold locally, generating fewer food miles and less waste
  • A viable living for farmers and growers managing the countryside
  • Better access to fresh, healthy, affordable food
  • Greater choice of where to shop and what to buy

Encouraging local food initiatives
We are working as a partner on the Making Local Food Work project. There are six other partners: Co-operativesUK, Country Markets Ltd, Farma, The Plunkett Foundation, Sustain and The Soil Association. The project will be funded over the next five years by the Big Lottery Fund with £10 million being invested into local food initiatives across rural and urban England.

Find out more
You can find out more about our project by visiting the website:
> Making Local Food Work: Food Webs and Mapping

The Real Choice - cover

The Real Choice
CPRE published a report in June 2006, The Real Choice: how local foods can survive the supermarket onslaught, which surveys the successful local food economy which has developed in East Suffolk following a decision by the local council to refuse a Tesco superstore in Saxmundham. The report argues in favour of planning and retailing policies that will encourage local food networks like the one that is flourishing in East Suffolk.

Celebrity support
Several leading food celebrities have endorsed our campaign.
> Celebrity endorsements
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