Look Local for Real Food
Today I went to the launch of the new Real Food Markets at London’s Southbank Centre. The market, which will run on the first weekend of every month, but if successful may run weekly, aims to give Londoners the opportunity to buy quality, fresh produce direct from the producer. It is not all local (not that any of the food suffered from it) from what I saw of the producers today – perfectly ripe French cheeses from Mons fromager-affineur, and excellent Austrian wines by Merry Widows Wine – but the vendors are all local, small businesses who know their produce inside out, are happy to answer questions, supply samples and build a relationship with their customers.
This spirit is what Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food, sums up when she speaks of ‘the importance of local food’ and how ‘these markets will bring food back to the streets’. She goes on to describe how every town would once have had a local weekly market and it is time to bring back the food that was once very much ‘in their midst’. The aim of London Food, Boycott explains is to ‘champion London’s vibrant and diverse food sector in order to boost accessibility to healthy, locally sourced food.’
Nothing could be further from the truth in a culture that has come to rely upon out-of-town hypermarkets, stocking imported produce or even home-delivery, without the social contact with producers and vendors. Yet in London we are reasonably lucky with regular Farmers’ Markets and local independent retailers. There are initiatives to grow and supply vegetables from plots within London itself – for example Growing Communities has pioneered urban food growing in Hackney and now supplies salad for their box schemes as locally as you can find it.
The Women’s Food and Farming Union’s London branch has also raised awareness of the importance of buying local and has teamed up with the People’s Supermarket, the brainchild of eco-chef Arthur Potts-Dawson from Acorn House Restaurant. This membership foodstore, staffed by volunteers in order to keep food prices affordable champions fresh, local and seasonal produce and the WFU has thrown down the gauntlet with a challenge to shop local, avoid supermarkets (although they acknowledge the increasing effort made by some supermarkets to encourage British producers).
This is something close to my own heart, as anyone who has read my Shopping Beyond the Barcode rant will know. So, with all these forces for good at work I am going to attempt to put the premise to the test, do my bit and only buy local, seasonal British-grown/reared/made food this week. Tomorrow is my weekly Farmers’ Market, where I am guaranteed that everything is from within the nearest 100 miles so that’s a good place to start. We shall see how easy and how practical it is to shop local.
Watch this space for updates and confessions I expect, I’m already thinking of all my daily ingredients that have no hope of growing on these shores: olive oil, lemons, parmesan, pasta, risotto rice. I know the Savvy Cook is embarking on her own Look Local challenge, to ‘(re)connect with your local community and retailers, support British Farmers and growers and help reduce our collective carbon footprint’ as she nobly puts it. We’re planning to compare notes so maybe between us we can make it easier for the rest of you!
