Feeding the region - Forum for the Future
What is ‘Sustainable Agriculture’?
Sustainable agriculture is a better way to do farming. It protects and enhances your health and the environment, unlike current farming methods that strip your countryside of vital resources, poison rivers and reduce the nutritional quality of the food on your plate.
Sustainable agriculture ensures that your grandchildren can grow up to enjoy an equal wealth of natural resources as we have in the region today.
But it’s not just about better farming practices. At the heart of sustainable agriculture lies the idea of happier communities: improving the lives of local farmers, processors, retailers and consumers so they can enjoy enhanced economic wellbeing, health and fair treatment.
In some form or another, this would affect everyone in East Anglia.
The principles behind sustainable agriculture are:
- Localise food production, processing and retailing, so employment and economic gains are fed back into local communities, and to reduce the distance food is transported to reduce carbon emissions and climate change
- Ensure everyone in the supply chain enjoys fair treatment, even by supermarkets
- Produce food as near to the consumer as possible so food is fresher, with fewer food miles
- Retail and consume produce that is seasonal, making it healthier and tastier
- Reduce the size of farms and raise a wider variety of produce to increase choice and profitability
- Minimise the use of harmful substances in the treatment of soil, water, crops and animals by farmers and growers; to protect farmers, animals, rural dwellers and consumers
- Maintain or improve soil fertility and water quality
And what would these principles lead to?
Tim O’Riordan believes that with sustainable agriculture “we’d have a world of consumption and production of food which was really sustaining communities and the landscape, and giving a lot of health to people. That’s the line we’re heading for.”
Juicy Facts
60-70% of all food now passes through four companies; Tesco, Sainsbury, Safeway and Asda. A handful of supermarket chains now control 85% of all fruit and vegetable sales.
Between 60% and 90% of all wheat, maize and rice is now marketed by just six transnational companies.
More than 13,000 specialist stores, including butchers, bakers, fishmongers and newsagents, closed between 1997 and 2002, leaving many communities without accessible shops and services
There are 300,000 allotments in the UK, covering some 12,000 hectares, yielding 215,000 tonnes of fresh produce every year, contributing some £561 million in value to household consumption.
researched and written by Rowena Ganguli