Food Future (From Hereford Times)

Food Future

12:29pm Thursday 7th June 2007

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With increasing frequency we are being urged to re-connect with the source of our food, and gain a better understanding of how it is produced. Experts from different areas are agreed it will bring many benefits, such as: helping to tackle obesity ; linking farmers directly to their customers; and encouraging more environmental awareness.

This Sunday, June 10th, is Open Farm Sunday. Here in Herefordshire, and all over the UK, a number of farms will open their gates to the public and we will have the opportunity to see what goes on, and get a closer view of food production and how the land is managed and cared for.

If we take this idea of connecting a logical step further, where would it take us? There are ways we can go even more directly to the source of our food, such as growing our own, collecting from the wild, or becoming part of a ‘Community Supported Agriculture’ scheme or CSA.

A CSA is where people can invest in a farm, an orchard or even a box scheme, and take a share of the crop as a reward. The farm has resources up front, and the risks and rewards are shared. There are an increasing number of these schemes around the UK, of varying types. Most encourage shareholders to get involved, which can range from simply visiting at key times of the year, like planting or harvest, to actively working the farm as a co-operative.

Near Ledbury, Dragon Orchard is one such example of a crop-sharing CSA scheme, and further North near Market Drayton in Shropshire, Fordhall Farm was saved from the threat of development when it was bought by the community. Both of these farms will be open to the public on Sunday.

We will always need food, and if we look to a future where oil is becoming scarce, rising sea levels are claiming back land, and the world population is increasing rapidly, it would seem to me that the wisest investment now would be in our food security. In re-connecting to the land our nearest farm, community farm, CSA, Land Trust, allotment or back garden all have a role to play. It’s time to take a good look at where our food comes from and invest in its future.

www.farmsunday.org
www.fordhallfarm.com
www.dragonorchard.co.uk