Sustainable Food

'Sustainable food' is produced, processed, and distributed in ways that protect the global environment and local economies while ensuring health and fair wages.

What does 'Sustainable'mean?

What do we mean when we say 'sustainable'? You will get all sorts of answers. 'Sustainability' originally relied on three main concepts, often called the "triple bottom line": Environmental: Using renewable energy, reducing waste, and protecting ecosystems so that natural resources do not run out. Social: Fostering fair, equitable, and healthy communities, upholding human rights, and ensuring equal access to resources. Economic: Creating financial systems and business practices that support long-term growth without exploiting people or the planet. In recent years 'sustainable' has come to mean the ability to maintain or continue a process over the long term without exhausting resources or causing severe damage. Here, we'll go for doing business in an environmentally friendly way. There's lots of wiggly room but that is part of the fun.

"Sustainability is not simply about reducing environmental impacts, but about restoring relationships – between soil and gut, animals and landscapes, farmers and communities, people and nature."
Sustainable Food Trust

Our version of 'sustainable food' for UK.

UK food production is pretty unique in several ways. Few countries eat as much food from abroad, or import and eat as much ultra-processed food, nor are as obese. These are not unconnected and mean that it is too 'reductionist' to analyse the environmental imapcts of the food system in one element - carbon. Life is a whole lot richer. Seeing it like that, the environmental impacts of UK's food production go far beyond a 'carbon offset' and have implications across the world. That is why we consider 'as local as possible' being the best guide to take in the various aspects of sustainable. Yet 'food' rarely features in the list of 'green issues' of political discourse.

Why? And can we change that?

Take my tour of the NW of England as to how we could grow more healthy food right here. Just Grow

10 Principles of Sustainable Food

Most cities and public organisations with sustainable food programmes have adopted a set of principles to guide their efforts. The following 10 principles try to capture the full breadth of critical food issues and provide a framework for people and places wishing to develop their own programmes.

Health and well-being for all

Access to affordable, healthy and sustainable food should be fundamental for everyone in society.

All food providers - manufacturers, retailers and caterers - should promote safe, healthy and sustainable food for the people they serve.

Environmental sustainability

Food production should conserve and enhance ecosystems and natural resources, including soil, water and air.

Food should be produced, processed, distributed and disposed of in ways that minimise both its local and global ecological footprint.

Local economic prosperity

Planners and policy makers should support local food economies by promoting diversity of food enterprises.

Public and private sector bodies should procure and provide healthy and sustainable food .

Resilient communities

Everyone, particularly young people, should have an opportunity to develop food growing, cooking and buying skills.

Planners should ensure communities can access land and buildings to take more control of the food.

Fairness in the food chain

Workers everywhere should have good working conditions and be fairly paid .

Institutions and policy-makers should tackle food poverty and improve food security.

The UK imports about half of our food and feed (by value). This has a disproportionate impact on the environment. According to Royal Society Report, 70% of land used to grow our food is overseas, and about 2/3 of the GHG emissions associated with our food is emitted abroad.

This site is primarily for public and private organisations to develop their profiles. Individuals cannot expect people to balance the economic, environmental and social aspects of food as they check out at the supermarket. We need to do it collectively.

Your organisation will need a system. We know our quality, environmental and safety and health systems. So we've, we produced a Sustainable Food Guide modelled on a classic Environmental Management System to get you going.

OR!! Take a trip through the Ribble Valley in Lancashire to see how our food could be more 'sustainable' with 'Ribble Nibbles'

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