UNITED KINGDOM-LOCAL FOOD CHAMPIONS.
WOMEN gathered yesterday to celebrate 10 years of an organisation set up to champion local food and heard from a series of speakers on how to continue promoting the cause.
Women Working Together (WWT) in Devon comprises the county’s Women’s Food and Farming Union, Women’s Institute and Townswomen’s Guild.
It was set up in 1999 and since then has campaigned for better use of more local ingredients and joined the Western Morning News’ Buy Local campaign – the precursor to the current Think Local campaign.
In a campaign called The Great Milk Debate, it has also fought for a fairer share of the milk price for dairy farmers.
Yesterday, the group celebrated its anniversary at Bicton College in East Devon, with speakers, a special lunch of locally produced food and a farmers’ market.
Among those who addressed the members were WWT patron and former WMN editor Barrie Williams, chairman of governors at Bicton College John Lee, and chief executive of Taste of the West John Sheaves.
Mr Sheaves told the members that, despite concerns that the recession may have an adverse impact on "premium" food brands, research showed that ethical shopping had grown rapidly over the last few months.
While organic and fairtrade producers may be suffering slightly as a result of the economic downturn, he said evidence showed people were committed to buying local food.
He said: "Ethical shopping is firmly established in the UK and people are unlikely to move away."
He added that more people were now cooking from scratch and praised the WWT members for all the campaigning they had done on this issue over the last few years, saying he though the message had "finally got through".
However, he said to take this to the next level, the region now needed to turn its attention to marketing its produce – and this was particularly important in the run-up to what everyone hopes will be a good summer season.
He said visitors to the Westcountry spent in the region of £4.6 billion and local produce is a major draw.
"Food is in the top three reasons why people want to visit Cornwall. Visitors now expect to find local food when they come down here and if it’s not there they’re disappointed."
He said big names such as Tesco had caught on to this and were "bombarding" small producers with requests for supplies that they could not possibly keep up with. Taste of the West set up its own regional food range to address this issue.
The idea, Mr Sheaves said, was to sell local food under the Westcountry banner and try to get more produce from smaller producers into bigger stores.
The range is already available at Mole Valley outlets and Mr Sheaves is starting a trial with Waitrose stores in the region.
Westcountry producers should also not "shy away" from marketing themselves in Europe, which is "crying out" for the region’s produce, he said.