Big stores ‘standing in way of local food jobs boom’

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is warning that local food is being poorly supported and under-recognised despite the critical importance it holds for England’s farmers, economy and landscape.

It says the number of jobs that local food could support could be as high as 137,000 compared with the 61,000 it currently does, if it were given greater freedom to operate and thrive.

The culmination of a five-year research project called Mapping Local Food Webs, the CPRE report said locally produced food presents a great opportunity to support England’s threatened town centres, as well as the countryside, but its role is being undermined by the dominance of superstores and large retailers.

Its figures show how the large weekly supermarket shop has increasingly displaced food from marketplaces and town centres, resulting in the weakening or closure of vital outlets for local food.

The CPRE claims national supermarket chains dominate grocery spending, accounting for 77 per cent of all main shopping trips.

The charity is now calling on the Government to re-examine the competition framework to support more diversity to support local food entrepreneurs.

Graeme Willis, senior food campaigner for CPRE, said: “Local food webs are essential to the character and attractiveness of towns and countryside across England.

”With around 50p in every £1 we spend in shops spent on food, it is a tremendous opportunity for businesses, from farms to retailers of all sizes, to engage shoppers in making a difference to the quality of their local area.

“But we have also found that the rise of out-of-town supermarkets and insufficient leadership from Government over many years have left many local food webs under siege.

“Action must be taken to support them, and revitalise our high streets and local economies.”

Its report, From field to fork: The value of England’s Local Food Webs, found across England local food outlets serve an estimated 16.3 million customers a week and that local food sales through independent outlets are worth £2.7bn a year to the economy.

It extols the virtues of local food, highlighting the diversity, distinctiveness and innovation in the food and farming sectors as well as how it broadens choice for shoppers, promotes seasonality and reduces food miles.

Supported by the Big Lottery Fund, the study recommends supermarkets should set themselves demanding targets for stocking and selling local food.

Among its other recommendations are that councils form partnerships to develop food strategies and action plans.

It calls for changes to the planning system to support local food webs and businesses.

The report is to get its official launch at the House of Commons today, with Farming Minister Jim Paice among those expected to attend.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “Tackling the challenges of increasing food production at less cost to the environment is at the heart of the work we are doing at Defra.

“We spend £400m a year on agriculture and food research, we are close to publishing the ambitious Green Food Project to make the whole food chain as sustainable as possible, and we are also pushing hard for food security to be high on the agenda at Rio +20 this month.”