'Square Meal' - a report about food and farming put together by no less than 10 organisations

Square Meal - a report about food and farming put together by no less than 10 organisations

I think this is really important for us all working on projects related to improving and developing new ways to involve communities in food production. It appears to make many shocking statements and observations on the state of our health and environment.

I've not read it all yet but it downloadable from the web at:
http://foodresearch.org.uk/square-meal

I am particularly interested to hear comments from anyone who feels strongly about anything discussed and please leave all thoughts on this blog or email me at laurence@communigrow.org




This new discussion document highlights the overwhelming evidence for major changes to national food and farming policy. It’s been written by a collaboration of 10 UK organisations: the RSPB, Friends of the Earth, the National Trust, the Food Ethics Council, Sustain, the Wildlife Trusts, the Soil Association, Eating Better and Compassion in World Farming working with the Food Research Collaboration.

It calls for stronger government leadership in planning the future use of land, food policy, farming and conservation in England and for wider public engagement on issues that affect the whole of society.

The report focuses on four key inter-connected areas and proposes solutions for:
- Improving health: getting a grip on the growing crisis of obesity and diet-related ill-health
- Good food for all: tackling food poverty, ensuring fair food supply chains
- Sustainable farming: investing in a resilient farming system in the face of climate change and dwindling resources
- Enhancing nature: to bring back colour to the countryside and protect the natural environment on which we all depend.

Square Meal aims to start a wider conversation about how to secure a healthy countryside and healthy food for everyone, and get greater public benefit from our food and farming system.

Key facts from the report
- 33% of under 18’s in the UK are overweight or obese.
- 913,138 people in crisis across the UK were provided with three days emergency food in the year to the end of March 2014, (by the Trussell Trust alone).
- 75% of the protein fed to our livestock in the EU is imported.
- 25% of all UK farmers live in poverty.
- In less than 50 years we have lost over 44 million pairs of breeding birds.