Local Food Systems - how do we make this a reality?
I attended a thought provoking event today. It was a Science Policy Interface group meeting of the VISIONARY project . As you'll see on their website, the goal of this project is to identify ways to make Europe's food provision more sustainable (economically, environmentally, and socially). This particular meeting consisted of stakeholders (producers, customers, and staff) of the Tamar Valley Food Hub . The food hub connects local food producers with local customers living in and around the Tamar Valley, on the border between Devon and Cornwall. One of the questions we explored today was: how can we promote local food systems? We all acknowledged there is no easy answer to this question. Someone suggested maybe there is a lack of consumer motivation to buy local. Let's explore this idea with a thought experiment. Imagine a shelf in your local supermarket stocked with two lots of carrots, both at the same price and of the same quality. One lot is marked as locally grown with