Bringing the London Food Strategy to the boil in London’s Boroughs
A vibrant and sustainable food system provides employment, encourages healthier lifestyles and protects the environment. London supports an extremely rich and diverse food culture and the London Food Strategy was published in 2006 to adapt London’s food system to support a world-class and sustainable city and to tackle the increasing problems with food the city faces. Some of the challenges the strategy aims to address are obesity and diet related diseases, struggling small businesses, the huge environmental footprint of how food is distributed, processed and sold in London and difficulties some Londoners face in getting fresh and affordable food.
It is important that the strategy is implemented across London and this can only be done with the full support of London Boroughs. This paper outlines our ideas on how to encourage local authority action across the capital.
Some London Food Facts
Climate change: Between 20-30% of UK greenhouse gas emissions result from our food system. In London, food creates 19 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year – more than from all of London’s transport, or all of London’s houses .
Health: Diet-related illnesses cost the NHS £7.7 billion per year. In London, 23% of women and 18% of men are obese and a further third are classified as overweight .
Community well-being: A thriving local food system, including markets, food-growing and celebrations can contribute to community cohesion and overcome isolation.
Employment: In London the food and drink sector employs nearly 500,000 people and is the capital’s second largest and fastest growing manufacturing sector. Some 80% of food manufacturing businesses employ fewer than 20 people, and around 25% of all London businesses sell food .
Crime: Crime can damage the viability of small businesses, especially in areas where food inequalities are a key concern.
Waste: It is estimated that we throw away a third of the food we buy: London’s food waste represents 6.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases .
The London Food Strategy
The current Food Strategy demonstrates the changes that need to be made to achieve a healthier and more sustainable food system in London. This progressive approach attempts to deal with the most important elements of the highly complex food system in a holistic way ensuring social, financial and environmental sustainability are considered equally throughout the strategy.
Implementation of the Food Strategy
This paper focuses on the importance of implementing the strategy in the 33 London boroughs. Through councils and local NHS trusts working together the health, economic and environment agendas can be aligned and the London-wide food strategy can be adapted for a local level.
We feel that work at the borough level should be supported in two key ways:
1) Encourage senior and co-ordinated support in local policy agencies for a healthy and sustainable food policy.
In many instances food policy is being tackled by different council departments, the local NHS trusts and regional government. This can lead to fragmented policy making, a complex variety of food initiatives which is not only inefficient but also makes it more difficult for interested stakeholders and residents to get involved.
We would like to see all boroughs:
- Develop an integrated approach to food across the borough, led by a strategic performance department e.g. corporate office in the council, and have a responsibility to work with the local NHS trust.
- Establish a food partnership made up of council departments who work on food, and other agencies including the local NHS trust, community groups, producers and food businesses.
- Develop, with the food partnership, a local food strategy and an implementation plan.
2) Promote sustainable food in policy and practice
Achieving a sustainable food system is a tough challenge and there are many different areas of work and priorities to take into account. The London Food Strategy provides councils with six priority areas:
- Ensuring commercial vibrancy. This could include better targeted business support, including training, to support food producers, specialist food manufacturers, hotels and restaurants, distribution partnerships and a diversity of food ‘clusters’, as well as promoting tourism, London’s shops and markets and London’s food culture.
- Securing consumer engagement. Programmes of awareness raising, education, skills and other support will all be necessary to enable all Londoners both to understand food issues and to be able to act accordingly.
- Using the power of procurement. Supporting and encouraging public and private sector organisations to incorporate sustainability in food procurement decisions will play an important role in any food strategy.
- Developing regional links. Brokerage and support systems will need to be developed to enable producers in and around London to understand and sell to the London market.
- Running healthy and sustainable schools. Improving school meals, providing training and equipment for cooks, and offering food education and cooking skills for pupils will all be needed.
- Reducing waste. Initiatives to bolster London’s efforts to tackle its food-related waste problems, for both households and commercial and public organisations, could include reducing food and packaging wastage and increasing composting.
We already have support from a number of partners, including local and regional government, to realise this vision, which has been developed by a sub group of the London Food Board. We are keen to hear from you if you are keen to help in your local borough. Please contact Suzanne@sustainweb.org for more information.
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