#FOODTALKS: is local food enough?
The last event in our online 2020 #FoodTalks series – which has had an overarching theme this year of ‘We are all emergency respondents now’ – addressed the question ‘Is local food enough?’
When does local food and localised food systems make sense – and when doesn’t it? How can localised food systems build community resilience and improve the environment? How can we relocalise? Can mainstream food businesses meaningfully ‘do local’? How is a localised response compatible with a globalised world? These were just some of the questions we explored in this Zoom discussion.
This #FoodTalks was hosted by Dan Crossley, Executive Director at Food Ethics Council and co-hosted by Avrilia Diamanti, Senior Programmes Manager at Impact Hub Kings Cross. Our speakers were:
- Professor Tim Lang, City, University of London
- Lynne Davis, Open Food Network
- Shiri Shalmy, Cooperation Town
- Vera Zakharov, Sustainable Food Places Local Action Coordinator, Sustain
You can hear contributions from all our speakers in the full Zoom recording of the discussion below. Do listen back and share your thoughts on twitter using the hashtag #FoodTalks!
Speakers concluded by sharing an action and/ or call for optimism. These included calls:
- For a better waged food system (particularly to primary producers)
- To shift to low impact diets
- To be more humble and get over the imperial assumption that someone should feed us
- For everyone to build one more food relationship (with a producer, community, local movement)
- To organise and to build movements
- To expect a HUGE rise in community food activity, when we can meet in person again
- To get political – and to make sure food is on the agenda in e.g. upcoming local council, mayor and Devolved Nation elections
- To have space for more meetings like this – for people to talk sensibly about food politics
Participants were asked to share key insights they took away from the discussion. A select few of the many positive responses:
“There’s better hope in localised food than I thought”
“Never realised there was so much to think about regarding local food”
“If you’re looking down, don’t forget to look up”
“(I’m) Inspired to work in a more connected way”
#FoodTalks is brought to you by a partnership of the Food Ethics Council, Impact Hub Kings Cross, Organico, and London Food Link, part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.