Cilgwyn Community Group – December Update

This winter we have been working on ways to make our Weekly Local Produce market more sustainable. It is troubled by a technical issue: wind and economy. The main issue, wind causes the town council organisers to cancel at short notice for fear wind will blow stalls onto customers. This did actually happen once as the market is held on a street that is in a wind tunnel. The wind rolls of the mountain in sudden gusts which can do more harm than volume of wind. The second issue is that there is a spate of local markets and in the winter not enough people shopping locally. Our group has been researching how to increase the numbers willing and able to shop locally, and how to lure more back from the supermarkets. Vegware has been able to support our endeavours to hold discussions with small groups to see how they see the issue, what are the barriers to more local (and seasonal etc) growing and eating, and what are the attractions that could compensate for the barriers. More detailed results are on my website: www.ecocymru.org The picture is from an informal discussion last Tuesday following a meeting on our shared future. Vegware supported the vegetable production which provided the supper for the event.