We present these successes with pride, but also due modesty. No single organisation – not even one like Sustain, working with so many member groups and such extensive networks – can claim that it, alone, won on a specific issue. Nonetheless, we are confident that Sustain made a significant contribution to the progress outlined below.
- Protecting children’s health - Our campaign led to some of the strongest laws in the world to protect children from junk food advertising on television.
- Saving the fish in our seas - More than £16 million of taxpayers’ money will, thanks to us, now be spent on sustainable fish rather than endangered stocks.
- Greening our cities - There are more than 1,400 new food growing spaces in London, well on the way to our 2,012 target, and involving over 35,000 volunteers.
- Helping organic farmers - The UK’s first non-branded organic marketing campaign has almost £2 million, raised by us, to spend over three years.
- Going for gold - The efforts of Sustain and several of our members will mean 100% sustainable fish, 100% Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar and bananas, and 100% free-range eggs, for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For more details, see below under the campaign and project headings.
Current campaigns and projects
Capital Growth
Helping to create 2,012 new community food growing spaces in London by the end of 2012
Backed by a wide range of groups, including the Mayor of London, Capital Growth has, between 2008 and 2011:
- Created 1400 new community food growing spaces by providing grants, site visits, training, discounts, news, equipment and advice;
- Helped over 35,000 people get involved in food growing across London;
- Established over 50 community apiaries, and run a high profile bee campaign with posters on the London underground and viral animations viewed over 40,000 times on You Tube;
- Encouraged over half of London’s councils and over 11 registered social landlords to support Capital Growth and food growing on their land;
- Ensured food growing, and specifically Capital Growth, are explicitly mentioned in the London Plan;
- Run a training allotment in Regent’s Park and funded the creation of three other food growing training sites around London.
To see the latest progress, register your space, find a space to volunteer with, or to get involved in our training and events, go to Capital Growth.
Children’s Food Campaign
Improving food and food teaching in schools and protecting children from junk food marketing
The Children’s Food Campaign is supported by over 150 organisations and has:
- Led the campaign that resulted in some of the strongest legislation in the world to protect children from junk food advertising on television;
- Protected children from product placement of junk food in UK television programmes;
- Supported legally binding nutritional standards for school meals and removing junk food snacks, secured 24 hours of practical cooking lessons for every secondary school pupil, and persuaded government to look at introducing food growing into every school;
- Opposed an aggressive Kellogg’s advertising campaign which encouraged children to eat Coco Pops as an after school snack, resulting in the ads being withdrawn, and the company reducing sugar in the cereal;
- Forced baby food company Cow&Gate to withdraw a biscuit brand after exposing that they contained trans fats.
This campaign builds on work to promote children’s diet-related health spanning more than a decade and our expertise has become internationally renowned. To help us continue to improve children's food, go to Children's Food Campaign.
Good Food for Our Money
Campaigning for taxpayers’ money to improve food in hospitals, schools and the public sector
Established in early 2009, the Good Food for Our Money campaign rapidly attracted over 60 supporting organisations, and the number is still rising. With their help we have already:
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Successfully persuaded the Government to introduce compulsory ‘Government Buying Standards’ for more than £300 million of food bought by central government (comprising one-third of all public sector organisations) every year;
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Won the campaign to improve the compulsory seafood criteria in ‘Government Buying Standards’. This means that more than £16 million of taxpayers’ money will now be spent on sustainable fish rather than fish from endangered stocks or at risk of becoming endangered;
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Helped Joan Walley MP to introduce the ‘Public Bodies Sustainable Food Bill’ to transform all public sector food by introducing compulsory nutritional, ethical and environmental standards. This is the first Bill of its kind.
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Been awarded the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) ‘President’s Award’ in 2011 for our contribution to supporting health in public sector workplaces.
To help us make positive changes with more than £1 billion of food bought in the public sector each year, please go to Good Food for Our Money.
Good Food on the Public Plate
Using public money to improve public food
In 2004, Sustain worked with the Soil Association to run a two-year pilot Hospital Food Project, working with four London hospitals to increase the proportion of local and/or organic food used in routine catering.
- After two years the Royal Brompton hospital was getting more than 15% of its catering supplies from sustainable sources, including locally grown fruit and vegetables, free range eggs, and organic milk, beef and oatmeal.
- Independent health and economic evaluations showed that business improved for local farmers and other suppliers, and patients and others in the hospital knew more about, and appreciated the benefits of sustainable food.
Based on this success, Sustain continued to develp this initiative, working with local authorities, schools, universities and care homes, as well as hospitals.
- During just one year (2010), independent assessors showed that the project contributed to some £1.4m of sustainable food being bought by London’s public sector.
- Working with Greenwich Cooperative Development Agency (GCDA), we helped to develop training in healthy and sustainable food for over 2,500 public sector food staff. The project is now run by GCDA as a successful social enterprise.
- The project helped influential caterers to adopt sustainable food policies, including London Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Transport for London, City Hall and the University of Greenwich.
For details of Sustain's current work on healthy and sustainable public sector food procurement, go to Good Food on the Public Plate.
Good Food in London
Linking people in the capital who are working for good food
London Food Link brings together a growing network of people and organisations keen to produce and buy good food. Established in 2002 the project:
- Helped to set up a new mayoral food policy board, London Food, the first official strategic approach to the capital’s food for almost 20 years, helped develop the mayoral Food Strategy for London, launched in May 2006, and is now helping to implement parts of the strategy (see Capital Growth, Capital Bee, Good Food on the Public Plate).
- Established The Jellied Eel, London’s leading magazine for ethical eating, which now has a 20,000 circulation. The quarterly magazine highlights the many dimensions of a vibrant food system in London.
- Runs a network of almost 900 caterers in the capital through the Ethical Eats project, which has so far advised over 100 businesses. Ethical Eats also played a key part in helping to establish the Sustainable Restaurants Association.
- Arranges popular events, including the first ever meeting for London’s farming community.
- Has advised on the creation of more than 10 London borough food strategies, thereby weaving food into local government policies and practices, and produced maps showing which boroughs do best (and worst) on a range of issues.
To get involved in improving London's food system, see London Food Link.
Making Local Food Work
Helping people take ownership of their food and where it comes from
This five year programme, begun in 2007, is run by the Plunkett Foundation and involves the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Country Markets, FARMA, the Soil Association and Sustain.. Making Local Food Work uses social enterprise approaches to help create more economically viable local food systems, and Sustain is responsible for:
- Helping seven community-run social enterprises that trade in locally grown food, in Gateshead, Hillingdon, Manchester, Walthamstow and Bridport in Dorset. One Manchester organic food-growing co-operative is now supplying the University of Manchester with fresh and sustainably grown vegetables.
- Supporting a Growing Communities Start-up Programme. Launched in 2010 there are already five new enterprises trading in sustainable food around the country, based on the Growing Communities model.
- Assisting over 200 food co-ops around the country, including with a popular online Food Co-ops Toolkit and Food Co-ops Finder (there were over 200,000 visits to these webpages in the last four years.)
- The Local Action on Food network has run a range of well-received workshops to tackle issues commonly faced by community food enterprises.
For more information see Making Local Food Work, and join Local Action on Food.
Food for the London 2012 Olympic Games
Taking the opportunity to go for gold-standard food and farming
In 2006, Sustain worked with the Soil Association and New Economics Foundation to write the report “Feeding the Olympics: How and why the food for London 2012 should be local, organic and ethical”. In 2008, Sustain joined the London Food Board as members of the new London 2012 Food Advisory Group, developing recommendations for food standards for the London 2012 Games organisers (LOCOG).
- Published as the London 2012 Food Vision in 2009, the standards have been enshrined in 2011 into the catering contracts for the 13 million meals to be served to athletes, spectators, staff, dignitaries and international journalists at the Games.
- Sustain chaired the sustainable fish working group, involving industry, government and conservation groups. Its detailed and robust sustainable seafood standards have now been adopted by LOCOG, Central Government and many others (see Sustainable Fish City, below).
- The London 2012 Food Vision commits Games caterers to using 100% sustainable fish, 100% Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar and bananas, and only ethical chocolate, 100% free range whole eggs, a proportion of meat produced to higher standards of animal welfare, and a proportion of food from sustainable farming, such as organic.
To see how Sustain is building on these achievements see our Food Legacy site.
Organic farming and food
Helping the market for organic food to grow
In July 2010 the European Commission accepted our bid for funding to promote the organic sector.
- The funding raised from around 90 organic sector companies was £1million, double our initial target of £500,000.
- With £1million match funding from the European Union, the organic sector now has £2million for a three year advertising campaign, a first for the UK.
- The “Why I Love Organic” campaign launched in early January 2011 and there have been over 100 press articles so far (with a combined circulation of 149 million), representing a return on investment ratio of 1:14.
The website Why I Love Organic has already attracted thousands of visits, reaching out to people who buy organic because of its many benefits.
Real Bread Campaign
Fighting for better bread in Britain
Since launching in November 2008, we have met some of our original goals, are making great strides towards achieving others, and continue to set new challenges.
- Almost 1000 people have joined the Campaign, and they benefit from discounts, prizes, quarterly issues of our magazine True Loaf, and access to our online forum The Real Baker-e.
- We sold all 500 copies of our book Knead to Know within a few months of publication in January 2011, and readers have told us how it has helped them to start baking Real Bread for their local communities.
- In September 2011, we passed the halfway mark towards our Lessons in Loaf target of helping bread making to be taught in 100 schools. During 2011, Bake Your Lawn generated requests from more than 200 schools wanting free wheat seeds and our grassroots guide on how to grow it, mill it, bake it, eat it.
- We have published reports, and had complaints upheld about misleading advertising, which has led to extensive media coverage (and more members).
- The Real Bread Loaf Mark was launched in October 2011 to give busy shoppers an at-a-glance assurance that a loaf is what the Campaign calls Real Bread.
You can join the Real Bread Campaign or simply read about our activities on our website.
Sustainable Fish City
Making London the first city to buy, sell and eat only sustainable fish
Inspired by the success of persuading the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games organisers to adopt a fully sustainable seafood policy, in January 2011 Sustain launched this campaign to promote the same standards to the wider catering sector. Highlights of our exciting progress include the following:
- Pledges to serve only sustainable fish have come from: The National Trust, London Zoo, 15 top London universities, London Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, the Greater London Authority, and a wide range of others, together serving well over 100 million meals a year.
- Central Government now has a sustainable fish policy for catering, so only sustainable fish will now be served in Number 10, Whitehall, Government Departments, prisons and some parts of the armed forces –food served to around 400,000 people per year.
- Just a few days after the launch of Sustainable Fish City, European Fisheries Minister Maria Damanaki said: “Coming to London from Brussels I was informed that London has been challenged to become the first ever Sustainable Fish City. What a challenge. There is a clear message here and I have received it. We need a new European Fisheries Policy and we can have it!”
To help us spread the sustainable fish message to even more outlets, take the pledge at Sustainable Fish City.
Previous campaigns and projects
Organic farming and food
Helping the market for organic food to grow
In 1999 Sustain became the secretariat for the Organic Targets Campaign. In just three years we:
- Succeeded in persuading government to establish an Organic Action Plan aiming to increase the market share of British organic produce from 30% to 70% of the market, by 2010;
- Participated in government's (now abolished) Advisory Committee on Organic Standards, and in the group that monitored progress with its Organic Action Plan (OAP). The OAP group noted that less organic food was imported and organic farmers got better support for the public goods they provide.
Food and mental health
Forging new links between sustainable food and healthy lives
Sustain drew together information from a wide range of sources, for the first time, on the links between diet and a range of behavioural problems and mental illnesses. We:
- Produced the report Changing diets, changing minds: How food affects mental health and behaviour, in January 2006. With a companion volume from the Mental Health Foundation, this report received extraordinarily widespread and positive media coverage.
- Still provide regular, free updates on this issue to a network of organisations and individuals. You can sign onto this network here.
Food Miles
Promoting sustainable development through local food
The growing market for local food owes some debt to our long-term work on exposing the damage to our environment and our health from food miles – the long-distance transport of food that should be locally produced and consumed. We:
- Published, in 1994, the first report on the subject, The Food Miles Report: The dangers of long distance food transport, which stimulated widespread debate;
- Published, in association with the Organic Research Centre, Eating Oil: Food supply in a changing climate, which won the 2002 Guild of Food Writers Award for Investigate Journalism;
- Our latest work on the links between food and climate change is here.
The Grab 5! project
Promoting fruit and vegetables to primary school children
Grab 5! was a very successful and popular approach to helping primary school children in low income areas eat more fruit and vegetables. Funded from 2000 to 2003, the project:
- Contributed to an average 30% increase in consumption (from 1.7 to 2.2 items) of fruit and veg among the 7-11 year olds in the schools where we worked in Lambeth, Leeds and Plymouth;
- Developed a programme that ran in at least 1,000 schools in every region of the country, encouraging children to eat more fruit and veg;
- Produced the Grab 5! Pack (still available here) and ran a wide range of activities, a sell-out national conference and national cookery competition.
Food and low income
Helping communities get better access to good food
Over the years Sustain has worked in different ways to help people on low incomes more easily buy good food, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables:
- The Buywell project, as part of Well London, helped convenience stores in deprived areas increase their sales of fruit and veg by 60% on average, with some increasing sales by over 400%.
- The Food Access Network developed a Community Mapping approach to empower local communities to learn about their local food system and develop ways that they, and others, can improve it. Recently this has been taken up and adapted by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
The future of food and farming
In the aftermath of BSE and Foot & Mouth Disease, Sustain was among those calling for an independent commission to ensure a more sustainable farm and food system. The Curry Commission was set up in 2001 by the Prime Minister and made far-reaching recommendations to change the current food and farming system.
- The Sustainable Development Commission, commenting on Sustain’s submission to the Curry Commission, praised it as as one of “the most innovative and integrated submissions” of 16 they analysed;
- More recently, Sustain was among those contributing to the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit's report Food Matters, in 2008.
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