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London Food Link
2005 archive

Consultation on Mayor’s Draft London Food Strategy

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Jenny Jones the Chair of London Food launched a draft London Food strategy on Wednesday 14th September. London Food Link will be running this three month consultation.

As mentioned in a previous issue the draft food strategy focuses on the actions needed to improve Londoners’ health through better diet and the need to increase the choice, availability and quality of food for all Londoners, especially the most disadvantaged. It also celebrates and promotes the huge variety of cuisines available in London, reflecting the capital’s cultural diversity, and discusses how a more sustainable future might be achieved. The draft strategy examines what is working well in our food system and what needs to be improved.

The draft strategy has been produced by London Food and is funded and supported by the London Development Agency, Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Government Office for London. As part of the consultation, London Food Link have produced a questionnaire through which you can tell us your views on the strategy and London\'s food in general. If you go to www.londonfoodlink.org to fill in this questionnaire, you stand the chance of winning some great prizes.

We will also be consulting different groups at a number of events including the following:

Over the last month we have consulted at these events:

Sustainable food in Multicultural Communities

"You are about to enter a city brimming with culinary and cultural possibilities," was Gourmet magazine’s (influential American food publication) opinion of London. But when we eat outside the home, must we sacrifice the careful sustainable choices made when buying the food we eat in?

The total UK ethnic food market in 2003 had an estimated retail value of £1.25 billion. London’s 12,000 catering establishments serve food from over 70 different countries, creating niche growth opportunities for ethnic food producers and the food supply chain serving London. LFL has identified an opportunity to increase the proportion of sustainable food consumed by Londoners by researching the feasibility of getting ethnic food-sector businesses to include sustainable food.

“Food sector manufacturing companies owned by ethnic minorities are unwilling to include sustainable ingredients until consumer demand justifies the investment.” says Tanoj Shah of Gazebo Cuisine, processor and manufacturer of ethnic foods. To address this prevailing opinion, LFL aims to discover the awareness and consumer demand for sustainable food that already exists within multi-cultural communities. LFL has received funding from the Environmental Action Fund, run by Defra, and match funding from EU Objective 2 European Regional Development Fund. A report on our findings will be published in the new year.

LFL is emphasising consumer food choice by working with other Defra funded NGOs, such as London Sustainability Exchange, London Agenda 21 and Envirowise, who are raising consumer awareness of sustainable living amongst London’s diverse communities. London Food Link attended the founding meeting of ASLI, the Asian Sustainable Living Initiative, launched by The Asian Health Agency. The members represent organisations raising the health and well-being of multi-cultural urban communities across the UK. We will work together to make change and improve the availability of sustainable food through local shops and market stalls. With the help of ASLI members, LFL will set up a localised Asian food network to promote the benefits of sustainable food and share the knowledge and experience of community projects growing and cooking their own.

The Caribbean Cuisine Consortium launched the first Caribbean Food & Drink magazine promoting the quality and diversity of regional island cuisine. London Food Link were offered a monthly column to raise awareness of sustainable food, what it means and how to get it. At the Caribbean Food & Drink Conference, issues concerning Afro-Caribbean allergies to conventionally grown produce and the veracity of the Fair Trade standard were discussed. Our first column debated the pros and cons of Fair Trade for Caribbean islanders.

LFL is making the business case for “Sustainability as innovative economic driver” at seminars hosted by black and minority ethnic business support organisations, such as the LDA’s Inspiring Innovation, Business Link for London’s Foodwise and ABi Associates Mango Network. We aim to broker supplier relationships between local food growers and producers and ethnic food sector businesses who are willing to include a proportion of sustainable food in their business practice.