Greens highlight role of food in climate change (Status: Press release)
IN an address to the Green Party Spring Conference in Reading Town Hall last weekend, Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for the South East, revealed just how important eating local, organic produce can be in tackling climate change. Mark Stevenson, Green prospective parliamentary candidate, is putting Green policy into action locally.
A recent study [1] shows that 18% of global green house gas emissions are caused by agriculture, livestock farming contributing about 80% of this, whilst research conducted by the Soil Association [2] found that UK organic farming was an average 26% more fuel efficient than non-organic. The surprisingly high contribution of farming to climate change means that eating organic food is now shown to be an important contribution to tackling climate change. Reducing meat consumption will make this even more effective, as well as being healthy.
Mark Stevenson, Green prospective parliamentary candidate for the Henley constituency and local organic farmer, said “This really helps to show the truth of my belief that tackling climate change can be a positive thing. Eating better quality food, grown in a way that encourages soil life and biodiversity, is now known to reduce our carbon footprint as well. Indeed, eating well could be more effective than doing those boring things we are always being exhorted to do like rinsing yoghurt pots for recycling and turning off the standby.”
He added “we all know about the food miles issue, but having access to locally produced organic food is a problem. Supermarkets have made it increasingly difficult for ordinary local food shops to exist, to survive they usually end up targeting the luxury end of the market. Farmers? Markets are often monthly, several miles away and at times when many people cannot go. I have tackled this problem over the last five years by getting involved with local residents to set up independent weekly local markets. They operate at times chosen by the local community and vary according to the needs and requests of the residents but all aim to provide local, organic food on a regular basis at affordable prices.”
“Anyone can set up a market like this,” Mark continued, “All you need is a group of people who want to make it happen, I would be delighted to tell people how we have done it. This is a fantastic example of Green politics in action: one simple thing, a local market, which tackles a range of issues. It empowers the local community, cuts carbon emissions, develops the local economy, encourages organic farming, improves our diet and is fun.”
The latest market to open is Wallingford Local Producers? Market [3], which opened last September with the encouragement of the Town Council, the help of Wallingford Masons who provide the venue and a grant from the Mindcounties Cooperative. Every Saturday morning the market offers seasonal local vegetables and fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, meat, jam, honey, and other produce. It has a cafe and is intending to develop its community role as a source of information and developing contacts.
FACT FILE
1] The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) report ?Livestock?s Long Shadow?, 2007 can be found on www.fao.org. Statistic quoted from p.112.
[2] Soil Association report ?Energy and Organic Farming?, 2007, based on Defra data in ?Basic Horticultural statistics 2005? and ?Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2006?.
[3] Wallingford Local Producers? Market, every Saturday 10am-1pm, Wallingford Masonic Centre, Goldsmiths Lane, Wallingford. Contact Mark Stevenson 01865 341838
[4] Mark Stevenson has been involved in setting up Wolvercote Farmers Market (2003), East Oxford Farmers and Community Market (2006) and Wallingford Local Producers’ Market (2007). He and his partner run The Clays Organic Market Garden, situated in an ancient orchard near Warborough in South Oxfordshire. They are a part of Defra’s OELS scheme and have a number of rare and unusual species of wildlife on the farm.
