Secure The Future Of Welsh Food And The Food Conversation
SECURE THE FUTUREOF WELSH FOOD AND
THE FOOD CONVERSATION
Anyone driving along the Port Road and past Pugh’s Garden Centre recently would have seen the poster ‘Secure the Future of Welsh Food’. It is part of the National Farmers Union (NFU) campaign and it’s no surprise to see it in Wenvoe as we have a NFU Cymru Deputy President, Abi Reader MBE. Abi is a third -generation mixed farmer, farming in partnership with her parents and uncle at Goldsland Farm. Some of our readers may have also visited the farm, during Open Farm Sunday, which is home to milking cows, sheep, beef cattle and around 120 acres of arable farmland. There is plenty of background to the NFU campaign which seeks to highlight the growing concern of food quality and food production, and includes a campaign video featuring Abi, at https://www.nfu-cymru.org.uk/campaigning/secure-welsh-food/
Of all the elements of our economy, food is one of the most important things we cannot manage without. A basic human need, at the centre of some of the biggest challenges we face with, global populations continuing to increase, natural resources diminishing and climate change increasingly impacting on growing cycles. Issues that place increasing pressure on global supply chains, and although a steady decline was witnessed over the last decade, global hunger is now on the rise again, affecting as much as 10% of the world’s population. The issues facing the food landscape is not only to ensure that everyone has access to sustainable and nutritious food but also to raise awareness of the dangers of ultra-processed foods. A wider movement started in the summer of 2023 is ‘The Food Conversation’ which sets out to increase participation in the issues of not just food production but transport, distribution and retail aspects along with what Government does, or should do. designed to be easy to understand and engaging. Everyone can participate and it claims to be methodologically robust, enabling in-depth conversation and deliberation (similar to approaches developed for citizen assemblies). https://thefoodconversation.uk/
Have we got the appetite in Wenvoe to discuss this and take part in The Food Conversation? In doing so we can be part of a UK-wide conversation about food and contribute to a push for improving our food system and ensuring change that needs to take place happens. Look up The Food Conversation for further information.