Breadcrumbs
Take home the countryside - 21 August 2002
A report Eat the View - promoting sustainable local products, which is published today (21 August) by the Countryside Agency reports on the success of its 'Eat the View' initiative. The report shows how people have successfully set up new businesses and regional and local groups to sell food and other countryside products. These case studies illustrate what Eat the View is all about - products from the countryside, for example Bracken Down Soil Conditioner*, which are produced in such a way that they help conserve the countryside and link consumers with the landscape they come from, as well as bringing money into the local economy and supporting people who look after the countryside.
Making the call for people to think more about where the produce they buy comes from and how it is made, Countryside Agency chairman Ewen Cameron said: "As consumers, as visitors to the countryside, as taxpayers, or as producers and processors of food, we all have a role to play in encouraging more sustainable land management. The Countryside Agency through its Eat the View initiative is working to harness the power of the market, to encourage greater production and consumption of products that will help protect and enhance our countryside.
"Eat the View - promoting sustainable local products sets out how the Countryside Agency is doing this and gives examples of projects which are actively developing the market for local and sustainably produced products. We hope that the examples will stimulate still more ideas to help
sustain the English countryside."
Eat the View - promoting sustainable local products is available free from Countryside Agency Publications on 0870 120 6466 or downloadable from our website www.countryside.gov.uk. For more information about the Countryside Agency's Eat the View work contact your nearest Countryside Agency regional office.
Notes to editors
The Countryside Agency is responsible for advising government and taking action on issues affecting the social, economic and environmental well-being of the English countryside.
*One case study from the guide concerns Bracken Down Composting. The Mendip Hills AONB has entered into partnership with Fountain Bark Products, Langford Court Estates and Burrington Court Estates to create soil conditioner compost from bracken that has to be regularly harvested to manage how much it spreads.
Other case studies featured in the report are:
- The Freerangers - Devon and West Dorset group of four farming families who support each other and collaborate in the marketing and sales of their diverse range of meats and meat produce.
- Calderdale & Kirklees Food Futures - this programme run by the Soil Association from 1999 - 2001 brought the local food sector together and supported farmers and food producers, increased access for people on low incomes to fresh, locally produced food and informed them about the food they were buying and created a strategy for the ongoing development of a sustainable local food economy.
- Dean Oak - the Countryside Agency, Forest Regeneration Partnership and Forestry Commission have joined together to explore the craft and trade work potential of local oak thinnings from the Forest of Dean.
- Tastes of Anglia - this regional food group from East Anglia has now been bringing speciality food and drink out of the shadows and improving consumer awareness of the availability of a range of local products for the past 10 years.
- Hampshire Farmers' Market - this farmers' market started in 1999 when four markets were trialed in Winchester - by 2001 there were 62 markets taking place in 13 towns across Hampshire attracting around 4,000 customers each, although Winchester tops the bill regularly attracting 11,000 people each month (making it the largest farmers' market in England).
