Searching for effective farming policies in Gloucestershire. Examining the scope for a 'Horticultural Belt' including food provisioning and prospects for agro-ecological initiatives.

CCRI (Community and Countryside Research Institute), University of Gloucestershire presentation chaired by Dr Matt Reed. 16-Feb-17 at the Oxstalls

campus, room LC102 from 12h15 – 13h15. Speakers: Nick James and Liz Child

Intro and outline1. us: who we are, the background to the Hortbelt Report, others involved, meetings so far [Nick]2. the vision: the policy element, the quest to understand the constraints, the insight to the

possibilities [Nick]3. Questions: what do we want to know from the academic researchers: policy within agrarian,

food, farming community, SDC, GCC; how to approach farmers; RAU; Hartbury; projects [Nick]

4. The report: Recommendations and explanation [Liz]

5. How to research among farmers and rural land owners: a) any funding [?], interest [Liz], b) approaches, methodology [Nick]c) NFU and so on [Nick]?

6. Collaborations and partnerships Stroud and CCRI: CSO and academics, a potential project [?]7. Conclusions: what policy? The emerging agrarian landscape?

BackgroundStroud District [Food] and Horticultural Belt Group is a small working group that has researched and drawn up this report over a period of four years. The main aim here is to search for and prescribe effective policy and action in the agrarian and food provisioning sector.

Agroecology• If "agroecology", recommended by the FAO and deliberated by UK

government, is to move into practice at the local level, then the policy structures for steering and enabling a transformation need to be considered within the context of the local authorities and institutions working with food and agricultural supplies. • “As a social movement, it pursues multifunctional roles for

agriculture, promotes social justice, nurtures identity and culture, and strengthens the economic viability of rural areas.” http://www.fao.org/family-farming/themes/agroecology/en/

November 2016 the regional symposium on title ‘agroecology for sustainable agriculture and food systems in Europe and Central Asia’ was held.• http://www.fao.org/europe/events/detail-events/en/c/429132/• FAO’s objectives of the workshop on agroecology in Europe and

Central Asia were to: • Facilitate exchanges on agroecology among different stakeholders to contribute to a

better understanding and initiate partnerships;• Show case existing practices, interventions and systems;• Starting a synthesis about the agroecology approaches in Europe, in reference with

the other three regions: Latin America, Asia & the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa;• At policy level: Identifying government initiatives and start to identify key entry

points policies in national policies and in common European policies.

APPG: Farmers in Parliament – ‘Opportunity for Change’ • All-party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology • What is Agroecology? What we do? • “The future of Britain’s post-Brexit food and farming system was

addressed in a Parliamentary event hosted by Jeremy Lefroy MP, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Agroecology for Sustainable Food and Farming. • The APPG were joined by some of the UK’s most innovative farmers

and food producers and organisations who spoke directly to MPs and Peers about the issues facing small, family, organic and agroecological farming today.”

Questions for this seminar• The main question is therefore: •what are the chances of finding such policy arenas that

may stimulate the local prospects for a response? •A secondary question is: •how do we work with farmers and land owners to

investigate the chances to enable a food and horticultural belt?

Presenters• Dr Nick James is a geographer and Associate Lecturer with the Open

University. His work is mainly in food, and environmental policy. Nick was part of the Transition Stroud Food Strategy Group from 2012.• Liz Child is a Human Ecology graduate and a local fresh food

campaigner. She is now retired and an allotmenteer in Stroud. While living in Nailsworth she was a member of GoGrow Nailsworth Valleys community group.

Globalized Water. A Question of GovernanceEditor, Graciela Schneier-Madanes

James, N. (forthcoming) ‘From ‘Fly Frontier’ to ‘Cotton Country’: Social Change and Agrarian Transformation in the Northwest of Zimbabwe’

What is ‘local’?

Map showing Stroud District in Gloucestershire

BBC Radio 4 Against the Grain • Food Security• Against the Grain, Series 1 • Britain last produced all its own food at the end of the eighteenth

century. Since then, our levels of food security - growing what we eat ourselves - have risen and fallen depending on world markets, domestic politics, and war. Now, in an unstable world, many people in farming argue that food security should once again be a real concern. But is that just a marketing ploy? In episode 8 of Against the Grain, Charlotte Smith debates the issue with farmers' leaders and economists.

Tim Lang• Food, Brexit and the Consequences: what can academics and the UK

food movement do? (July 2016)• http://foodresearch.org.uk/2016/07/food-brexit-and-the-consequenc

es-what-can-academics-and-the-uk-food-movement-do/• “These are extraordinary food times requiring special attention from

members of all the progressive food alliances which have grown in recent years …”

CCRI research• Mills, J., P. Gaskell, J. Ingram, J. Dwyer, M. Reed, and C. Short. (2016)

‘Engaging farmers in environmental management through a better understanding of behaviour.’ Agriculture and Human Values pp.1-17.• “Effective engagement between farmers, government and

environmental organisations can help create interest, responsibility and a social norm. However, to provide this support and advice requires a good understanding of farmers’ willingness and ability to undertake environmental activities and the social and cultural influences on farmer behavioural change.”

Food Availability in Stroud District Considered in the context of climate change and peak oil. • Local Strategic Partnership: Think Tank on Global Changes • 16th December 2008 • Fi Macmillan and Dave Cockcroft

• https://archive.org/stream/Food_Availability_in_Stroud_District/Food_Availability_in_Stroud_District_djvu.txt

Can Britain Feed itself? • The Land 4 Winter 2007-8• “At the moment Britain imports nearly 40 per cent of its food, most of

its energy and nearly all of its fibre. In years to come we might have to become more self-sufficient. If so, it would not be for the first time. Many people alive today remember the last time the UK had to resort to home production. Could we do it again? And could we do it with organic agriculture?” Simon Fairlie investigates.

Food Strategy group, • Stroud Food Strategy Group (2012) 'Proposal to Stroud District

Council on a local food strategy' Unpublished Document, Nov. 2012.• £100,000 grant among several groups.

People who have read the Report so far.• Dr John Meadley, Pasture for Life• Simon Pickering, SDC• Dr Matt Reed, CCRI• Martin Whiteside, SDC• Francis Barton, Independent Researcher, Stroud• Joy Carey, Sustainable Food Systems Planning, Bristol

Bristol

RecommendationsEstablish a Stroud District Food (Provisioning) Strategy

Assembly. Launch initial meeting of all participating community groups, charities and businesses.

Identify geographically suitable areas of the District to be designated as Horticultural Belt by a new survey of current land-use.

S.D. Planning Office would administer the apportionment of Horticultural Belt designated land and support a long-term lease model for a small-holding culture.

GuildThe Local Horticultural Belt group establishes a Guild of

producers who co-operatively develop their systems of production and local sales.

Stroud District Council (SDC) SDC’s role within the Horticultural Belt policy would support the Guild by:

• enabling change of use and low-impact dwelling planning applications,

• supporting access to start-up and capacity grants,

• licence regular daily use of Dursley, and Minchinhampton historical covered market buildings for farm-food stalls, and shops in Wotton-under-Edge, Berkeley, Frampton, Cam, Eastington, and Stonehouse by supporting reduced-rate premises or licensed standings,

• support an enlarged covered market-place for 4 – 6 day/week market, with easy vehicular access, in the District’s largest town, Stroud.

Allocation of specialist planning officer to progress and oversee an adopted Horticultural Belt policy.

Future work – research and consultations1. How to research among farmers and rural land owners:

a) any funding [?], interest [Liz], b) approaches, methodology [Nick]c) NFU and so on [Nick]?

Concluding points• Collaborations and partnerships Stroud and CCRI: • CSO and academics, a potential project [?]

• Conclusions: what policy? • The emerging agrarian landscape?• What are the prospects for “new” policy?• What opportunities are there locally SDC, GCC and other agencies to

influence land owners, users and farmers?

The role for civil society organisations• The search for gaps and opportunities to:• Enable farming and food provisioning to become more sustainable;• To seek-out policy that can be enhanced to make some transformation• To form a notional “belt” that form an agroecological nexus of local food,

decent livelihoods and concentrated around sustainable development.