Our monthly round-up of news from around the web; useful resources; funding updates; actions to take and interesting publications to read.
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Organic September is a month-long campaign from the Soil Association designed to raise the profile of organic in the UK and shine a light on the amazing organic farmers, producers and brands who work hard to produce food as it should be.
Skills Bridge is a joint University of Bristol-UWE project which helps connect local organisations with both universities to access the huge amount of student capacity available for student research projects, volunteering and paid internships. If you already have ideas for projects students could support you with, then please go to ‘Suggest a Project’ section on the website and one of the team will be in touch. University of Bristol also have some funding for internships – they are offering £900 towards 140-hour student internships. These can be full- or part-time and must be paid at Living Wage, so your organisation will need to contribute £150. MORE HERE
See the inspirational film ‘Putting Down Roots’ from St Mungo’s Bristol Recovery College on how gardening can really make a difference.
Toolkit to encourage more veg in food retail Food Foundation’s evidence based toolkit for retailers demonstrates how veg can help increase sales and improve the health of their customers whilst providing a list of actions they can undertake.
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Take part in the Parents’ Jury Children’s Food Campaign is giving a voice to parents on the food available and promoted in their children’s schools, in shops, on the high street, and beyond. Add your voice to help push for healthier, more sustainable food and the policies which will support that. APPLY
An Empty Swimming Pool Transformed Into an Urban Permaculture Farm READ MORE
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The Rise of the “Megafarm”: How British meat is made from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism charts the increase in intensive livestock production in the UK.
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Eating local in Bristol: What is produced and where? Steph Wetherell takes a look at where Bristol’s meat, dairy, fruit & veg, and cereals are produced locally.
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PUBLICATIONS & RESEARCH
Eating Better’s ‘Beyond the CAP: policies to support better UK meat and dairy production post-Brexit’. The report calls policy makers involved in Brexit and future trade deals to set high environmental standards, especially for meat and dairy products. Arguing that the EU’s Common Agricultural policy (CAP) insufficiently addresses important issues such as climate change and pollution, it sets out ten recommendations for a new food strategy to replace the CAP.
Uncertain harvest: does the loss of farms matter? The latest paper in CPRE’s Farming Foresight paper looks at the data on farm numbers and sizes and raises questions about the loss of farms and their diversity. This report argues that farm size diversity is a crucial consideration as we move towards Brexit. It could help deliver the many public benefits that we need farming to provide and that public funding – and the market where possible – should foster and reward.
The Landworkers’ Alliance New Entrants policy paper announces a number of targeted policies to support New Entrants in post-Brexit UK agriculture. The proposals include increased funding for training and apprenticeships, a new-entrant capital grant scheme and an immediate halt to the sell-off of council owned farm estates.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger has launched an inquiry into the extent and causes of hunger amongst older people in Britain. The findings are due to be published by Christmas. The deadline for written submissions is Friday 20 October.
FUNDING
New Food Power programme – tackling food poverty through people-powered change Food Power is a new four-year UK-wide programme run by Sustain and Church Action on Poverty funded by the Big Lottery Fund. The programme will support communities to develop responses to food poverty with the support of their peers from other communities across the UK. The first round of support for alliance development will open in early September. SEE MORE
