Local Food Web Mapping project invitation

A food web is a way of linking together farming, food producers, local food shops, farmers markets, box schemes, community supported agriculture and food cooperatives, through to consumers.

Ben Messer from Food Matters will introduce a toolkit to help us map the local food web. 

How much we do is up to us. Please come along to find out more about it and discuss what we could do here.

CPRE's Mapping Local Food Webs project aims to increase understanding of the benefits and ultimately demand for locally produced food. This should encourage local communities to support their local food network and by doing so help to maintain thriving local businesses and support for farming and their work to protect the countryside.

Benefits of this collaboration could be:

• you will gain a clear understanding of how your own local food web works and who is involved
• this could provide the basis for a refreshed and broadened food directory (building on the 2009 Local Food Guide)
• it would help strengthen understanding of who produces food locally, where they sell it, where they could sell it, and what local people think about it
•  It could also help to identify the potential for supporting local producers by identifying markets
• Ultimately this could strengthen the local food web, stimulate the local economy and help to counter potentially damaging developments
• It could also help to identify where efforts could be focused to stimulate your local food system as part of a wider food strategy

The amount of time and volunteer commitment that will be required depends on the detail and scope of the mapping process you decide to undertake.  The process would start by guiding you through that decision-making process - deciding on your scope (what you mean by local and what you will focus your attention on).  You would then survey and map relevant local retailers and food outlets – those selling local produce already.  This would identify those involved further out in the food web – the producers and processors of local produce who supply Forest Row.  The mapping process goes further than identifying how food gets from A to B – the survey also encompasses the impact of the local food web on the local environment, economy and community.

Read more about it here

FoddMapping-TOOLKIT-INTRO-A.pdf