Food justice: Bristol’s food producers ready to step up

One year on from the launch of the One City Food Equality Strategy, plans to safeguard food security in Bristol are being made behind the scenes while action on the ground is limited.

Bristol’s food inequality, exacerbated by Covid lockdowns, has risen during the cost of living crisis that has seen an increase in the city’s food banks.

To tackle this, the Food Equality Strategy proposes an expansion of local food growing, echoing a pledge made by mayor Rees in 2021 to make growing opportunities available in every ward.

The strategy states food inequality as a key driver of health inequalities. Making local food accessible to people of all communities and backgrounds across the city would therefore actively improve health.

Alongside greater food security provided by fresh local produce, opportunities to get growing improve physical and mental wellbeing. Social benefits include reduced loneliness, thriving local neighbourhoods and an improved natural environment.

Here’s Jim from Men In Sheds at @ambitionlw yesterday!
Men in Sheds built the bed, @blaise_plants provided the plants and @almondsburygc donated the compost!!
Team work and collaboration!!#foodjustice pic.twitter.com/bGqbKiqcq6

— IncrEdibleBristol (@EdibleBristol) May 16, 2023

Local food production has also been found to be more nature-friendly. Allotments support ten times more bees than parks, cemeteries and urban nature reserves; increasing allotment space gives the biggest boost to pollinators per unit area, according to research published in 2019.

Ped Asgarian is the director of Feeding Bristol, Bristol City Council’s partner on the Food Equality Strategy development. He told Bristol24/7 the last year has been less about projects and more about planning.

Action plans to make the sustainable, equitable local food dream a reality have been co-created with 350 people across the city. These will form the basis of the strategy’s next phase, laying out a route-map for action.

The strategy exists to ensure equality underpins all decisions taken on food. Ped is keen to see increased growing opportunities specifically in wards that are more disadvantaged.

“We’ll be beating the drum for communities that don’t have access to allotments and community gardening,” said Ped; “Growing is incredibly important from a mental health and social cohesion perspective.”

As director of Feeding in Bristol, Ped oversees a huge network of local food growers – photo: Community Farm

He’s encouraged that the main driver for action on local food growing is in place. “More than anything, we need political will,” he said.

“But I think it’s there. We’re lucky to have the local authority that we do – they’re generally more supportive than not.”

Ped is confident the necessary conversations around the use of public land are underway. He cites Bristol Food Producers’ recent land-matching event, bringing together aspiring growers with both public and private landowners looking to rent for food growing purposes.

It’s a long-term project, currently focused on mapping the city’s ‘hope spots’ that are suitable for food production.

“In the next three to five years we’ll start to see more secure tenancies as more land becomes available and local production opportunities increase,” said Ped.

While focus in the last year appears to have been on conversation and planning, Ped highlighted an on-the-ground project that has taken off in one of Bristol’s ‘food deserts’.

Volunteers at Hartcliffe City Farm produce discounted veg boxes for families in Bristol – photo: Ursula Billingdon

In Hartcliffe and Withywood, BS13, it’s difficult for people on low incomes or without transport to buy affordable, good-quality fresh food. Last year’s reopening of the Hartcliffe City Farm has provided a hub for local growing, with a market garden and horticultural training.

It also offers local people the chance to get out into nature, where there is otherwise little green space.

Visiting with her grandson on a Friday morning, Cathie told Bristol24/7 she has lived in Hartcliffe all her life and there’s nothing comparable to the farm in the area.

“It’s good to have somewhere to take the kids,” she said. “Harry was so excited to come back – this is the third day he’s chosen to come here on the trot. He likes the goats best.

“It’s so nice to have this on our doorstep.”

Community farms like Hartcliffe city farm offer an opportunity for families to access nature who may not be able to otherwise – photo: Ursula Billingdon

It’s not just space that’s needed – local communities need plants too. Here the council have offered tangible support, partnering with Blaise Plant Nursery in Lawrence Weston to provide crop plants to community groups.

In 2022 alone, the third year of the initiative, 10,000 plants were donated to 45 groups supplying those most affected by the cost-of-living crisis, including food banks and schools.

The scheme is funded by the council’s Climate & Ecological Emergency Programme. It’s had such a positive impact on communities that it is set to continue this year.

In an official statement on the scheme, councillor Ellie King said: “As a Gold Sustainable Food City, it is vital that we continue to be as self-sufficient as possible so that everybody is able to put food on the table”.

It’s clear there are many organisations rooting for a better food system in Bristol but joined-up plans for progress remain hazy.

The action phase of the Food Equality Strategy and the Bristol Good Food 2030 initiative, both due for launch at the end of June during Bristol’s Food Justice Fortnight, should bring clarity as to next steps.

Hopefully they will also provide the impetus for long-awaited action on the ground.

This piece of independent journalism is supported by The Extra Mile and Bristol24/7 public and business membership.

Main photo: Ursula Billingdon

Read next: 

• ‘Not everyone in Bristol can guarantee that their family will have a healthy meal every day’
• ‘We can challenge the huge amount of food inequality in Bristol
• A more accessible source of funding for projects tackling food insecurity

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