FOOD Carlisle, part of the Sustainable Food Places national network, is looking to build more resilience into Cumbria’s local food supply chains by giving individuals and community groups the chance to buy direct from local suppliers and producers of high quality local food.

They are looking for farmers who are growing fruit and vegetables or raising pasture-fed meat or dairy; trawlers who might be interested in supplying fish and other seafood; and producers with delivery runs (possibly set up during the pandemic) who might have room on their vehicles to expand the range of goods carried.

Food Carlisle has set up a hub of the Open Food Network which is an e-commerce system using open source software designed for food producers and community food hubs to produce fairer food systems which put people and planet first rather than the current domination of agribusiness and supermarkets. .

The global pandemic has seen a growth in community food hubs providing good, affordable food to those less able to afford it. Through the Open Food Network these hubs have the potential to buy goods in bulk and also act as the links in the chain of supply of good local food throughout the county and beyond, enabling local producers and suppliers to directly reach more customers, particularly those who previously may have considered local produce to be something ‘other people’ purchased . One of these hubs is already demonstrating that this model can be sustainable.

A perennial problem in Cumbria for small producers, particularly in the north of the county, is long delivery runs due to low population density, large rural areas often with difficult access and no very large urban centres. Carlisle, for instance, is the largest city in England in terms of area, but has a population less than a quarter the size of Manchester and a very large, rural hinterland. The Open Food Network together with the Community food hubs and local supply routes have the potential to ease this delivery problem.

Over the years the dominance of supermarkets, centralised buying of uniform fruit and vegetables as commodities rather than as food and cheaper overseas imports has seen the number of fruit and vegetable growers in the county dwindle away. This is particularly noticeable around Carlisle. However the climate emergency and the global pandemic has made us acutely aware of how vulnerable global food supply chains are, the most obvious result being empty shelves at the supermarkets. The time is right for a revival in local fruit and vegetable growing and a taking-back control of where our food comes from.

A new growers’ initiative in Cumbria this year, Home Grown Here, has already started this revival. Food Carlisle envisages the two initiatives working together. Home Grown Here is the brainchild of the Eden-based growers’ co-operative VistaVeg, and is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund as part of Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership’s emission-reduction programme to make Cumbria carbon neutral by 2037.

Cumbrian- grown produce will reduce food miles, encourage people to eat seasonally, involve less processing and packaging, and reduce waste by picking to order and re-using boxes. All this is good news for Cumbria’s carbon footprint and for anyone thinking about moving to a low-carbon diet.

Earlier this year, 26 farmers and growers expressed an interest in growing at least one edible acre over the next five seasons. Five farms have brought a total of 17 acres into first-time vegetable production during 2021, in addition to a planned 12 acres of mixed fruit trees and grazing (agroforestry).

Henry Scholefield at Aikbank Farm at Calthwaite grew an acre of peas this year as part of the scheme. He said:

“I decided to get involved in the project as I was looking for a way to diversify the business and liked the idea of more locally produced food being consumed in Cumbria. Peas were a crop which suited our cropping rotation and require very few artificial inputs so work well in our system.”

Cumbrian farm shops, veg box schemes, greengrocers and wholesalers have been buying the first Home Grown Here harvest since the summer … and there’s plenty more potatoes, carrots, parsnips, swedes & beetroot to carry Cumbria right through the winter. For more information visit www.homegrownhere.co.uk or contact Lynn Barnes on 07584 251352 to buy direct from growers or start receiving an availability list.