'Local' produce

[BrandNewGuy]

When is local not local? When it's 150 miles away? The Forest Hill Food Assembly ? which looks like a good endeavour ? has posted here:

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?30,1519414

"It is 14 local producers, 2 hosts, almost 800 members and more than 150 fresh, local and organic products on offer every week. It is a new way to buy direct from local producers via a web platform and pay at a fair price. It is also a new way to meet other friendly people from your neighbourhood."

I popped along to their website, where it says, "All our producers come from less than 150 miles away. You will meet them during the collections."

Well, that's not my definition of local, as it covers anyone from Exeter to Grimsby, and from Sheffield to... er, Lille in France.

A while ago I saw that the Herne Hill Farmers' market has "locally-produced foods and arts and crafts from within 100 miles of the market". Again, that's quite some distance.

I appreciate that this is not the same as air-freighting "fresh" veg from Kenya and I don't want to sound like a moaning minnie ? I genuinely wish them well ? but a more transparent use of the word "local" would be good.

[miga]

I think <100 miles is a pretty standard definition of local for farmers' markets.

[Louisa]

IMO local would refer to the historic connections of the localities. For ED/Forest Hill, that would mean anything from the counties of Surrey or Kent (which these areas straddled before they were eaten up by London).

Louisa.

[BrandNewGuy]

I'm with Louisa. Even 100 miles would take you to Birmingham. Is that local? I suspect we've taken these 'standard' distances from farmers' markets in the USA, where a three- or four-hour drive is seen as a local journey.

[edhistory]

It appears to be a franchise operatiom.

Here is the local group:

http://blog.foodassembly.com/2015/03/26/meet-the-hosts-tim-vicky/

[DulwichFox]

It's good if local produce can be sourced but people are always going to want more exotic items.

It's interesting that Turkey is one of the few countries in the World

That is Totally self sufficient in all of its food needs and has been since 1980.

That is something to be proud of

Foxy

[FH Food Assembly]

Hi, I am Audrey and the host of the Forest Hill Food Assembly, that means that I organise the weekly collections (and as I earn 8% of the turnover; I don't consider it as a profession, almost volunteering to get good food).

Just to give more info to this discussion: our furthest producer (the meat producer) lives 49 miles away. And our average sourcing is 27 miles, because most of our producers come from London.

Here is the link to see on a map where all producers come from: https://thefoodassembly.com/en/assemblies/49/farms

And we always do our best to find producers who match these to points: local production and high quality.

Hope this can help understand what the Forest Hill Food Assembly and other Food Assemblies really are.

Kind Regards,

Audrey Bouttier

[email protected]

[BrandNewGuy]

Thanks, Audrey. That's very good to hear. Maybe the website needs correcting to reflect that.