From the Door, weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Oxford, Church of England
http://www.oxford.anglican.org/page/5069/
Churches urged to ‘care for creation’ and buy local food
Date Added: Friday 1st June 2007
Churchgoers in the diocese will be asked to buy local produce and support the farming industry if a motion going to synod gets the go-ahead.
Churches will be asked to use local produce wherever possible, and agree to do all they can to support local farmers, their community and the local economy.
The motion will go before diocesan synod this month and is expected to draw widespread support.
Revd Glyn Evans, diocesan rural officer, said it was designed to encourage churchgoers to think about the origins of the food and services they buy.
Many churches have signed up to the fairtrade pledge and already source their tea, coffee and biscuits from fairtrade co-operatives.
The local food motion will not detract from or clash with that, said Glyn.
‘We want to encourage churches and church members where possible to use local produce alongside fairtrade produce. The two don’t often clash; the typical fairtrade produce – tea, coffee, bananas and sugar – aren't grown locally anyway.’
While sales of fairtrade produce were up 40 per cent last year, just 18 per cent of us choose to buy British produced food.
And that choice is having a dramatic impact on farmers, their families and our landscape.
...
Through the stranglehold which the large food retailers now have on British farming, our dairy industry is in virtual meltdown with the rest of us not very far behind. Unless the buying policies of the retail trade are changed to reflect the cost of production we shall become a nation dependent on others to feed us. ...
British produced food really is on the edge, and perhaps as with so many products that we buy today, it to should have a warning label, ‘buy it or lose it’.
George Fenemore is a member of the Diocesan Farmers Forum, and is on Deddington PCC
http://www.oxford.anglican.org/page/5069/
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