When it comes to decarbonisation, and reducing our negative impact on the natural world, food systems change is a critical piece of the puzzle. The way in which food is currently produced, sold and consumed comes at a huge social and environmental cost.
The Food Pillar of the Hay Community Resilience Initiative was launched at our first-ever Community Assembly in January 2024. On the day attendees deliberated The Food Question:
“How might we support Hay-on-Wye, as a community, to become as self-sufficient as possible in sustainably-grown local food? Eventually producing enough to feed the town and its environs, much as we did in the 1950s and 60s?”
Note-takers at the Food Assembly jotted down what was deliberated and these notes were later subject to professional analysis. The priority action points that arose from the Food Assembly were:
Objective: Achieve self-sufficiency in agroecological food by 2030
1. The need for a central hub to gather and share information.
2. Encouraging awareness and increasing demand for local produce.
3. + 4. Removing barriers to accessing land, infrastructure, and scaling up.
5. Supporting food production in community gardens and public spaces.
The Resilience Initiative will implement these action points.
Our intention is to focus on growing the demand for the fantastic agroecologically produced food that is available here in Hay-on-Wye and supporting producers to reach new markets. We intend to set up our own Hay 'Real Food' Online Supermarket aiming to create a model that offers customer convenience as well as offering the social benefits of the CSA model which fosters stronger relationships between producers and consumers.
We welcome ideas and active participation in the shaping of our local sustainable food system. If you have time to offer and would like to volunteer on this project, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
Food Pillar
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