Food activism UK

Crowds shopping at Borough market, south London. Attribution: Andy F

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of UK community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' Food activism. Learn about how communities positively impact through innovations, different projects and collaborations. This is an introductory article focusing on networks and events. Food activism UK resources is a separate article.

News

Video

Events

Networks and support initiatives

• Pitch Up!, "UK regenerative farming community inviting sustainable businesses and start-ups onto our land. Annual Applications Season runs 1–30 November." added 17:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
• Good to Grow, network "all about getting people involved in their local community garden." A project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. Map: goodtogrowuk.org, added 20:56, 14 March 2022 (UTC)
• Independent Food Aid Network UK, added 16:24, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:The Landworkers' Alliance

The Landworkers' Alliance (LWA) is an organisation in the United Kingdom representing small farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers established in 2012 under the name Via Campesina UK, and incorporated 2015. The organisation campaigns for better food and land-use systems.

The organisation works internationally on topics such as food sovereignty through membership of the international peasants advocacy organisation, Via Campesina, which represents over 200 million peasants, farmers and land-based workers through 182 member organisations. The LWA is one of two organisations in the UK affiliated to Via Campesina, the other being the Scottish Crofting Federation.

They launched a manifesto for tackling rural inequality at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in 2016, and are twinned to US based Farm Hack to bring their model of supporting new farmers to the UK.

The organisation has been critical of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), saying that Defra is preferential to Corporate farming and Agribusiness. On 17 April 2014, the LWA held a protest outside the headquarters of Defra. In June, the LWA welcomed the dismissal of Owen Paterson as Environment Secretary.

In February 2014, The Economist hosted a summit regarding food insecurity in Africa. Only one farmer was permitted to attend the event and representatives of LWA were excluded as none of them could afford the high entry fee.

The LWA supports land reform to hinder and regulate large estates. In July 2024, the LWA held a protest against Discovery Land Company's purchase of the 8,000-acre Taymouth Castle estate to turn it into a luxury resort, and advocate for stronger regulations on large estates. The LWA said the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill going though the Scottish Parliament was not enough to curb large estates and protect the interest of locals against the "super rich".

• Landworkers' Alliance
• The National food service, added 20:07, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
• Incredible Edible network, global network originating in, and with many members in the UK - 10 Steps Toward an Incredible Edible Town
• Open Food Network, "An open marketplace that makes it easy to find, buy, sell and move sustainable local food."
• Sustainable Food Cities

Food banks

• The Bread and Butter Thing, Video: The Bread and Butter Thing on youtube.com, News from The Bread and Butter Thing, breadandbutterthing.org, added 17:15, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Allotments in the UK

• National Allotment Society

Food security

National Conversation about Food

• nationalfoodconversation.uk, asking citizens directly: "what do we really want from food?", added 12:17, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

Campaigns

• Save British family farms, getfairaboutfarming.co.uk, added 16:48, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
• End Child Food Poverty
• GM Freeze
• People's Food Policy, People's Food Policy on foodsovereigntynow.org.uk
• Refill - "...national, practical tap water campaign that aims to make refilling your bottle as easy, convenient and cheap as possible by introducing refill points on every street."

Video archive

• Why start a Food Assembly?, The Food Assembly, 2016, on youtube.com

See also: Commons UK

local information can be found, or shared, via our many UK location pages

External links

• Refugee Community Kitchen, serves hot, nourishing meals to displaced people in the UK and France, added 16:22, 13 April 2021 (UTC)
• Veg School Meals UK, Towards a self-sufficient school for every child, added 10:28, 10 April 2021 (UTC)
• Food bank , Food waste in the United Kingdom
• Food Citizenship, added 19:11, 17 May 2020 (UTC)
• Cooperation Town, new (Jan 2020) project set to establish a series of food co-ops on housing estates and community centres across Britain.
• Abundance Network, a group of volunteers passing on information and support between some of the fruit harvesting groups across the UK
• The Climate-Friendly Gardener
• FareShare, fighting hunger, tackling food waste.

FareShare is an award-winning charity aimed at relieving food poverty and reducing food waste in the UK. It does this by rescuing good quality surplus food that would otherwise have gone to waste and sending it to over 700 charity and community projects across the United Kingdom.

FareShare only redistributes food inside its best before and use by date; in 2012 they rescued 3,600 tonnes of food which would have otherwise gone to landfill. FareShare works with all sectors of the supply chain; producers, manufacturers and retailers. All of the major UK food retailers have encouraged their suppliers to work with FareShare to minimise food waste. FareShare has also run two successful food drives with both Sainsbury's and Tesco.

FareShare contributed towards more than 8.6 million meals in 2012, which equates to feeding 36,500 people a day. This food is delivered to a broad range of grass root organizations all across the UK including homeless shelters, day centres, women's refuge centres and children's breakfast clubs.

• The Food Assembly's Blog, The Food Assembly on Social Tech Guide
• Food For All, "...registered charity based in London (also in other parts of the UK), which distributes over 1,000, spiritually enriched nutritionally balanced vegetarian meals, to different groups of people, including the homeless, disadvantaged, financially challenged and the 'needy' on a daily basis, for free!"
• Gleaning Network UK
• Helping Britain Blossom, information about community orchards
• Pesticide Action Network UK
• Reclaim the Fields
• Soil Association, charity based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1946, it has over 27,000 members today. Its activities include campaign work on issues including opposition to intensive farming, support for local purchasing and public education on nutrition; as well the certification of organic food. It developed the world's first organic certification system in 1967 – standards which have since widened to encompass agriculture, aquaculture, ethical trade, food processing, forestry, health & beauty, horticulture and textiles. Today it certifies over 80% of organic produce in the UK.
• Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming
• The Orchard Project, added 16:42, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

Food growing

• Community supported agriculture
• Social Farms and Gardens, UK wide charity supporting communities to farm, garden and grow together.

Food insecurity

• Food Foundation, charity working to influence food policy and business practice, shaping a sustainable food system which makes healthy diets affordable and accessible for all. "We work in partnership with researchers, campaigners, community bodies, industry, investors, government, and citizens to galvanize the UK's diverse agents of change, using surprising and inventive ideas to drive fundamental shifts in our food system. These efforts are based on the continual re-evaluation of opportunities for action, building and synthesizing strong evidence, convening powerful coalitions, harnessing citizens' voices, and delivering impactful communications."^[1]

Local food

• f3, local food consultants
• Local Food Initiative

Seeds

• Seed Co-operative, the UK's community owned seed company