Welcome to the 26th
Newsletter for the Greater London farming community
February 6, 2012
Produced by 
London Food Link/Sustain Jeanette Longfield jeanette@sustainweb.org
&
NFU South East Isobel Bretherton isobel.bretherton@nfu.org.uk
www.localfoodfinder.org is a service to help restaurants,
caterers and other buyers to identify food producers local to London.
If you’re a farmer or grower, add your details - it costs nothing to add your business.
Contents/Page(s): Page(s)
Raw milk vending in Selfridges 1
London wholesale markets 1
London calling primary food producers 2
Food for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games 2
A Sustainable Food Legacy from London 2012 2/3
Local Food Finder re-launches 3
The Big Smoke’s Best Banger 3
Taste South East 4
Launch of Land Partnerships Handbook 4
Diary dates 4
Raw milk vending in Selfridges
Selfridges food hall now has a vending machine selling raw organic milk from award-winning East Sussex NFU members Phil Hook and Steve Hook.
It is the only dispenser currently selling raw milk in England and has been the subject of considerable media interest since it was installed in December 2011.
Phil and Steve have a family farm at Hailsham, operating a milk round in their area and selling raw milk online.
The milk, which is stirred and kept at 3C, is selling well and the Hook family has seen an upturn in online sales as more people try their product in the city.
The family will also feature in a forthcoming film, The Moo Man, which is to be shown in UK independent cinemas soon. You can see clips here and read more online at www.hookandson.co.uk
London wholesale markets
Growers are urged to take advantage of the expertise of the three business development managers at London’s three wholesale markets.
They are:
New Spitalfields: Tim Williams: 07950 411513, timwilliams4@btconnect.com
New Covent Garden Market: Zeenat Anjari, 07810 482547, zeenat@sustainweb.org
Western International Market: Peter Clarke, 07947 764995, pclarkewim@aol.com
Western International Market’s BDM Peter Clarke is seeking the following produce for food service customers. They require English apples and pears, squash, potatoes for peeling, forced rhubarb, chillies for next summer, chicory, shallots, turnips, lettuce and other glasshouse produce.
London calling primary food producers
London Farmers’ Markets are looking for people with extensive understanding of primary food production to work with them in an advisory capacity, conducting farm visits and helping to improve standards. For more information, please email Mark Handley – mark@lfm.org.uk Also LFM is always keen to find new producers to sell at markets www.lfm.org.uk
Food for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
The London 2012 Games caterers have adopted sustainable food procurement standards and healthier catering, with specific commitments set out in the London 2012 Food Vision (published autumn 2009). The procurement standards contain commitments to British, seasonal, farm assured, RSPCA Freedom Food, free-range eggs and Fairtrade products, as well as sustainable fish. As the Games draw ever nearer, Sustain and the NFU have been working with the various food certification bodies named in the London 2012 Food Vision standards, and the London 2012 Games catering team to help make appropriate connections with the companies that will provide the food for London 2012. An important issue to be addressed is verifying the sustainability credentials of certified food supplies for the 13 million meals. The seven food certification bodies named in the London 2012 Food Vision standards have been invited by the London 2012 catering team to work with the London 2012 catering companies in the first quarter of 2012 to start this verification process. London 2012 is exploring an option to include an information box on London 2012 menus to highlight certified food and some assurance logos. If agreed, this would be a first for any Olympics, and a high-profile promotional opportunity for the certification bodies involved.
A sustainable Food Legacy from London 2012
We reported in the previous issue on the launch of the Food Legacy programme inspired by the London 2012 Food Vision. The new coordinator of this programme, Melissa Hayles, was appointed at the beginning of January 2012. Melissa comes from a background in promotion and marketing, most recently working with the Real Food Festival and Organic Food Festival. The programme is supported by the Mayor of London, New Covent Garden Market Authority and London Food Link and inherits the enthusiastic support of a steering group involving government, the NHS, London Food Board members and the London Food Board Chair Rosie Boycott, certification bodies, the NFU and Sustain and a wide range of health and sustainability groups. The Food Legacy programme will:
• Promote widespread uptake of the London 2012 Food Vision standards by the caterers, venues, events organisers, restaurants, hospitality and institutions with a Food Legacy pledge.
• Promote an online free-to-use Food Finder (working with Ethical Eats and London Food Link) to enable organisations to find suppliers of food and catering services that meet London 2012 Food Vision criteria.
An important principle of the Food Legacy programme is to enhance the work of existing sustainable catering programmes, such as Food for Life, the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Ethical Eats; and existing sustainable food groups such as food sustainability certification groups and sustainable food campaigns targeting the catering sector, including the CIEH Healthier Catering Commitment and Sustainable Fish City. A sustainable food legacy from London 2012 will include a thriving future for these important tried-and-tested approaches to health and sustainability in catering. In addition, Food Legacy will also seek to develop or enhance areas of work with caterers not covered by existing schemes.
Over the coming months, Food Legacy is building a programme targeting the food service and events sectors, to use more British, local, seasonal and sustainable food, including:
• Meetings with high-profile venues and caterers to adopt the London 2012 Food Vision standards, and encouragement of London 2012 events organisers to issue guidance to their food exhibitors and caterers to adopt London 2012 Food Vision standards
• Promotion of London 2012 Food Vision standards to hotels, tourist attractions, festivals, sports and cultural venues, Olympic training sites, Torch Relay and Live Site organisers
• Promotion of London 2012 Food Vision standards to London Boroughs, to include in food procurement for school meals, hospitals and Council catering
• Presentations to relevant trade bodies, for example Food Legacy has already presented to 200 delegates at the Food Consultants Services International (FCSI) conference held at the Queen Elizabeth II Hall in Westminster
• Features and news in the catering trade press
• Working with existing catering standards, such as the Food for Life Catering Mark and Sustainable Restaurant Association to build a sustainable food legacy from London 2012
• Collaboration with Fairtrade London on plans for a trade event in spring 2012, and with Sustainable Fish City on a Sustainable Fish Summit in January 2012, convened by top chef Raymond Blanc, and involving a wide range of commercial caterers and chains
The Food Legacy programme encourages those who buy catering services to get in touch and to adopt a Food Legacy pledge to healthy and sustainable food www.foodlegacy.org
Local and sustainable food suppliers are encouraged to sign up to the Local Food Finder to benefit from promotion via the Food Legacy programme www.localfoodfinder.org
Contact Melissa Hayles, Food Legacy, on 020 7837 1228; email: foodlegacy@sustainweb.org
Local Food Finder re-launches
The Local Food Finder - Sustain’s online tool to promote sustainable buying - has been revamped and re-launched. The Finder allows producers to advertise directly to London-based food businesses, who will be encouraged to ‘buy local’ in the run up to the Olympics and beyond. The searchable map is free to use, for buyers and sellers alike. Food producers can upload details of what they sell quickly and easily using an online form, and users can search listed suppliers by food type and accredited standards.
To upload your details please go to www.localfoodfinder.org
The Big Smoke’s Best Banger
The hunt is on to find the capital’s best local sausage. The Jellied Eel magazine is asking Londoners to choose their favourite from a selection available at farmers’ markets. The 20 sausages entered are all produced by farmers based within 100 miles of the city, and sold on stalls at London Farmers’ Markets (LFM). LFM runs 20 weekly certified farmers’ markets in London, providing sites for 183 farmers and producers to sell direct to the public.
To add a little extra flavour to the competition - which runs from 18 January to 20 February - producers are putting forward more than just plain pork, with venison and game options being entered as well. A short-list of those voted for by the public will be put to a tasting panel including food critic Charles Campion, chefs Fergus Henderson of St John and Alan Stewart of Manson, and butcher Charlotte Harbottle (aka @girlbutcher). “This is a great opportunity to celebrate the sausage, to buy local, and to support all those farmers that come into the city every week, bringing a taste of the countryside with them,” says Cheryl Cohen of London Farmers’ Markets. The competition is being launched with the latest issue of London food magazine, the Jellied Eel, which has a special focus on nose-to-tail eating. “People are increasingly aware of the importance of wasting less food, particularly meat, because of all the effort that goes into rearing animals,” editor Ben Reynolds explains. “We’re very keen to promote ways of using the whole animal, and the humble sausage is a great way of using up cuts that might not make the plate. It also helps that they’re pretty tasty!”
Londoners interested in taking part should goto their local farmers’ market to find out which is their favourite sausage, and vote for it via www.thejelliedeel.org. Entrants stand a chance of winning a meal for two at a London restaurant, a bumper banger bag including packs of all five short-listed sausages, and other prizes donated by the winning producer. Stephane Wise of Northfields Farm, which has entered its pork breakfast sausage, says: “I was delighted at the opportunity for us to enter our delicious rare breed ‘breakfast sausage’ into this competition. It will showcase how home-grown, traceable and ethically-reared produce can really be.”
Taste South East network
The South East Food Group Partnership has launched a new business development network – Taste South East - in January 2012. Membership is open to local food and drink producers, businesses selling and using local food, as well as businesses supplying and offering services to local food.
The introductory membership fee is £99.99 + VAT (introductory offer until 31 March 2012, 12 months) and provides access to a host of benefits such as trade alerts, meet-the-buyer events and journalist alerts.
Distributor Cotswold Fayre, based in Reading, joined immediately. Owner Paul Hargreaves says: “In these days of increased growth and competition within the speciality food sector, it is essential that small food producers maximise every marketing and sales opportunity. Taste South East will help them do just that!”
Find out more online at www.sefgp.co.uk and to access the E-bulletin about this new network click here.
Launch of Land Partnerships Handbook
The handbook was launched at the Oxford Farming Conference and sets out a more collaborative approach for land management between landowners and land entrepreneurs to ecourage people to use land appropriately. Five steps are outlined covering the key elements of negotiations for a land partnership. These are: taking stock of assets, finding the right partner for a reciprocal relationship, creating a fair agreement, selecting a legal framework and ensuring that long-term planning is carried out. The report features a number of case studies around which these five steps were built and should be a great help to those seeking land or skills to complete a growing project.
For more information visit: http://www.landpartnerships.org/
Diary dates:
All dates are for events due to take place at London venues, unless otherwise stated.
Borough market, SE1 1TL www.boroughmarket.org.uk
City and Country Farmers’ Markets www.weareccfm.com
London farmers’ markets www.lfm.org.uk
London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games – various venues, see www.london2012.com/ Olympic Games 27 July-12 Aug 2012; Paralympic Games 29 Aug-9 Sept 2012.
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee June 2/ 5, 2012
For further information about the Diamond Jubilee and the events taking place during 2012, please visit direct.gov.uk/diamondjubilee
Speciality and Fine Food Fair, September 2/4, 2012, Olympia (trade only) www.specialityandfinefoodfairs.co.uk/
More food and farming related events are listed on London Food Links events calendar http://www.sustainweb.org/londonfoodlink/events_calendar/
- upload details of your events here.
If you wish to be removed from this mailing list or would like to add another name/address to our contacts list, please contact London Food Link at Sustain - Jeanette Longfield jeanette@sustainweb.org tel: 0207 837 1228 or Isobel Bretherton at NFU SE isobel.bretherton@nfu.org.uk tel: 01730 711956.
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