Community farming has come to a field near you
17 August 2007
As food is increasingly flown and trucked around the world and climate change looms, more and more people want to reduce the carbon footprint of the food they buy by choosing local produce.
People in Warwick District now have a special opportunity to be involved in the production of their food – they can become members of Canalside Community Food, a new ‘Community Supported Agriculture’ scheme based in Radford Semele. This consumer-farmer partnership allows them to pick out their own organic vegetables every week, help out on the farm and walk around and see the crops they’ll be cooking whenever they like.
Using a local food supply is fantastic for the environment, but this isn’t the only benefit. 80% of all the food we buy comes through just 4 major supermarkets. This gives these big companies massive power over the people who produce the food, and often the prices paid fall below the costs of production. This in turn creates a pressure to compromise the welfare of animals, workers and the environment.
Members of Canalside pay by standing order each month, which provides a guaranteed regular income for the farmers and shares the risk of growing. Consumers are committed to the farm, and the growers know that their produce will be used.
Canalside supplies a bag for couples or a bag for families with all manner of tasty vegetables in it – at this time of year you might get potatoes, baby carrots, courgettes, onions, tomatoes, spinach and salads, all fresh and all organically grown. They plan to add soft fruit to the bag in the next year or so, and will be rearing pigs for pork again from spring 2008.
People who join Canalside as members commit to helping out on the farm for at least 3 half days a year. For people who work indoors it’s a good chance to get some fresh air and get back to nature. Many hands make light work on tasks like weeding a field of onions or installing a polytunnel (type of greenhouse), and workdays are also very social, often finishing up with a picnic.
So there you are. Community Supported Agriculture has come to a field near you and it’s a fun way to meet people, get fresh produce and reduce your food miles.
To get involved or find out more see: www.canalsidecommunityfood.org.uk
Or tel: 01926 423939