The UK’s response to Covid-19 has highlighted weaknesses within our social, economic and political systems which will also be vulnerable to future crises; pandemics, recession and climate change; with potentially worse consequences for people if challenges are not met. A green recovery should include making the current food system in the UK more resilient and equitable to protect the most vulnerable people in society, the climate and the economy.
Global food production accounts for 26% of greenhouse gas emissions (according to the most recent reports), which includes all the logistics of supply chains. Food waste along the supply chain is responsible for one quarter of all food-caused emissions and equates to £19 billion.
Creating opportunities for small-scale, sustainable farming projects would contribute to national food security as well as the UK’s carbon reduction targets at home and abroad. Making areas of public and private land available and affordable to community-owned food enterprises could help to create regional and national social, economic and environmental resilience.
Ecological approaches to farming improves the health and sustainability of the environment and food, both of which benefit human health. The Environmental Land Management Scheme prioritises ‘public land for public good’, introducing incentives for protecting biodiversity and decarbonising, but it’s also important that this benefits all corners of society.
Covid-19 has been worse in urban, densely populated, deprived areas of the country, where BAME and other economically disadvantaged communities are more likely to live and have underlying health conditions as well as less access to green space. The kind of land that should be made available would depend on the geography and geology of the area as well as who it aims to be accessible to.
Local councils would be in the best position to identify land, land owners, and communities, in order to create opportunities for long-term land leases, deliver support to the initiatives and monitor their work. Councils could also help the projects develop financial sustainability and shorter supply chains through public procurement of food for local institutions.
The government would make a fund available to councils for this initiative, with support from departments across industrial and social development. Funding (which could even be an interest-free loan), would cover start-up costs such as land rent, equipment, seeds and management, with the aim to become financially self-sufficient.
A project-wide non-for-profit, community ownership model would mean food could be sold affordably and the money raised by sales would have to be funnelled back into the company or community. A certain amount of the food could be made available to emergency support groups, either as free surplus or at cost-price to government-funded food schemes.
A volunteering scheme for local community members could offer skills and employability benefits to those needing to get back into work, whilst projects also created paid job opportunities. Access to land, learning and jobs for those who might like to grow food but don’t currently have the space or knowledge, would improve social equality and diversity in the agricultural sector.
Additional funding from other financial institutions which share the strategic objectives of this initiative could support individual projects according to specific needs, with the help of a bid writer and the knowledge of local councils and organisations. Many of the national and local organisations working to build a fairer food system could work with councils to offer expertise and operational support in building and implementing the network of community farms. Such groups include Sustain, Ecological Land Cooperative, Landworkers Alliance, Soil Association, CSA Network, Sustainable Food Trust, Real Farming Network and Eating Better, many of which already collaborate on various initiatives.
The project would capitalise on the importance and appreciation of nature, the mental and physical health awareness, the need for new skills and outdoor activities, and community networks that have been bolstered by the pandemic. It would also be a solution to ensuring a sustainable, post-Brexit, British supply chain.
These kinds of community food-growing initiatives do exist on a small-scale already, but not in a widespread, fairly distributed and coordinated way, with government leadership and support. By offering councils the resources and incentives to facilitate such a pioneering, localised scheme, it would give local government the ability to stimulate their economies and tackle social issues in regionally specific and autonomous ways, which could help create national, as well as local cohesion, made ever more imperative due to the damage caused by Covid-19.
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