We think it might be. Over the years there have been various local and national initiatives promoting a growth in sustainable local food, amongst them the Allotments Regeneration Initiative, the Local Food Programme, Making Local Food Work and the Sustainable Food Places Network. Our partners in the Urban Agriculture Consortium have all reported a rise in new projects and start-ups, and these are increasingly looking at scaling-up local and regional regenerative food production and distribution.
There has been an exponential Increase in understanding of the immediacy of the climate emergency, and food security has also come into focus with the impacts of Brexit and Covid. The multiple and various health crises have added to febrile opportunity. People and communities, and increasingly local authorities and enterprises realise the urgent need and collective desire to build resilience in a post-Brexit and post-Covid world.
And with COP26 at Glasgow this year we have an ideal focus for politicians at all levels to step up to the plate (pun intended) and commit to supporting a re-localisation agenda with food at its heart. The Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration
Starting to re-localise our food production is a part of the solution and is leading to the start of a sea-change in urban agriculture, the development of new farmstarts, patchwork farms, and urban-fringe farming projects.
The Urban Agriculture Consortium is one of many agencies promoting and supporting this movement – we are pleased to have found what we see as a positive and complementary role amongst an expanding constellation of partners all working towards the same end. You can find out more about our work, our collaborations and plans on this website. We are always pleased to receive feedback – do get in touch.