Corporate control of the food economy has led to wasteful absurdities. Apples from New Zealand regularly appear on supermarket shelves in parts of Europe and North America where apples are grown anyway. In Mongolia – a country with 10 times as many milk-producing animals as people – shops carry more European dairy products than local ones. Approximately 75 percent of the world’s agricultural diversity has been lost in the last century.
From energy use to biodiversity to social justice – no matter the perspective, it’s clear that taking control of our food back from transnational corporations is essential if we really want to feed the world.
In this webinar, we tackled the subject of local food economies from an international perspective. Our presenters highlighted successful local food projects in the global North and South, and discussed how to localize all stages of the food supply chain – from farm to market to table.
Presenters:
Chris Sands (UK) is the founder of Totally Locally, a grassroots, award-winning, free to use, open source Town Kit to help bring vitality to town centres. Totally Locally’s proven method is being used by towns across the UK, and now the world: from New Zealand to France, Austria to Australia. Totally Locally is not funded by any organisation, and is run purely as a labour of love by Chris and his fellow director Marc Briand.
Marina O’Connell (UK) is director of The Apricot Centre, currently in the process of creating a new farm, Huxhams Cross, in Dartington, Devon. This farm will be part of a new learning campus for farming on the Dartington Hall Estate. Marina studied Horticulture at Bath University, then apprenticed herself with her family in the Netherlands and USA. Her first job was at Dartington Hall Trust in the late 80’s where she set up an organic market garden and trained people in horticulture. She then became a lecturer at Suffolk College of Agriculture, teaching sustainable agriculture and horticulture from FE to HE level.
Anja Lyngbaek (Denmark) is the Associate Programs Director of Local Futures/ISEC. She holds a BSc in Rural Resource Management and an M.Phil. in Agroforestry from the University of Wales, Bangor. Anja has a special interest in organic food and farming and has worked on these issues for over 30 years in different parts of the world. In 2000, she helped start Local Futures/ISEC’s Local Food Program – the first of its kind in the UK. In Costa Rica, she worked with small organic coffee producers and made the first comprehensive study comparing the social, economic and ecological impacts of organic and conventional coffee production in Costa Rica.
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