Cilgwyn Community Group – January Update

TIME TO RESEARCH

Cilgwyn Community have spent the winter months exploring the potential for more local food for local people. We conducted a survey, which over 80 people filled in. The findings showed that although people want to support local food they don’t do it as much as they could. The main reason is cost, and there are other major reasons. Surprisingly people don’t know how to get it, or which food on sale is local. This has led to us preparing a plan of action, which is what we are working on now.

There were other findings, such as although some caterers, pubs and shops use or sell mostly local veg, some sell or use hardly any. This is because of convenience, the convenience of a distributer doing the delivering and choosing for them, in some cases the displaying too.

So we are also exploring how this could change. Good reasons to change to local seasonal veg are to help save the climate, use land efficiently so more can eat from less land use, keep people healthy and create work and employment. A lot can result from very simple and achievable changes.

The photo is of David Trem who runs what used to be a thriving nursery and market garden, but now sells mostly decorative plants. This is an example of the loss of local produce over the last 60 years.