Think Local, Act Local! New Scheme Celebrates Peak Meats
18 July 2006
Peak District butchers and farmers are working in partnership.
What we’re trying to do is add value to the Government’s new raft of legislation on farming and the environment.
”Sue Prince, Project Consultant to Food From The Peak District
Where does the meat on your plate come from? Do you get your beef from Brazil and your pork from Poland? Do you even know?
More of us are interested in where our food is produced and the route it takes from the producer to where we shop. If we can, we’d also like to support our local farmers. But there’s a feeling we are not able to do very much…
Now, a new scheme in the Peak District means consumers can choose to buy locally produced meat, be confident it is farmed responsibly and support local business too.
Peak District Butchers – coordinated by Sheila Russell from the University of Derby Buxton’s Devonshire Campus – encompasses a network of butchers in the Peak District who sell meat produced locally on farms that contribute to the conservation of our internationally important landscape.
Sue Prince, Project Consultant to Food From The Peak District – which champions local food, said: "Chefs like Jamie Oliver have opened our eyes to the crazy things that happen in our food chain. Now, as a result, we feel impassioned and empowered to choose excellent local food benefiting the environment and local businesses. If we do this, we all win!"
When you walk into a butcher’s shop which is part of the Peak District Butchers scheme, you can be sure that you’re buying food produced on local farms that care for the landscape of the Peak District.
It’s a rewarding opportunity for everyone to support local butchers and farmers and to play a part in protecting the local environment. It’s also a tasty way to save food miles – you know the lamb you’re eating hasn’t been flown from the other side of the world and transported by road from airport to warehouse to shop. And it’s a fascinating way to get to know about local farms.
Those local butchers supporting local farmers through the Peak District Butchers scheme are helping to make a significant contribution to the local economy.
In 2004 Justin Sacks from the Connected Economies Programme of the New Economics Foundation reported – in his paper, Plugging The Leaks– that spending locally has an effect that multiplies benefits.
They found that every £10 spent on locally produced food gets re-spent locally and leads to £25.90 being invested back into the local economy, whereas £10 spent in a supermarket that does not make it a priority to buy from local suppliers contributes just £14 to the local economy.
If every person, tourist and business switched one per cent of their current spending to local products, it has been calculated that this action would put an extra £1million into the local economy every week.
Sue explains that the Peak District Butchers scheme aligns very well with new national initiatives on agriculture. "What we’re trying to do is add value to the Government’s new raft of legislation on farming and the environment."
Meat supplied through the Peak District Butchers scheme will have been reared on identified farms that care for the Peak District landscape.
Farms supplying the Peak District Butchers scheme must comply with all relevant legislation. Lambs should be born in the Peak District and spend at least their last 60 days on a Peak District farm. Beef cattle should spend at least their last three months on the supplying farm in the Peak District.
Sheila Russell, the scheme’s coordinator, says: "The Peak District Butchers scheme is as much a call to farmers as it is to consumers. If you’re a farmer who has already signed up to one of these schemes and you would like to feature in a local sourcing directory used by our butchers, contact me on 01332 594606, or email s.a.russell@derby.ac.uk."
-ends-
Notes to editors:
Meat supplied through the Peak District Butchers scheme will have been reared on identified farms that care for the Peak District landscape under one of the following whole farm schemes:
- Entry Level Stewardship (ELS)
- Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS)
- Higher Level Stewardship (HLS)
- Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS )
- Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA)
- Peak District Environmental Quality Mark (EQM)
- Other Organic Certification.
These schemes aim to safeguard the existing landscape. In varying degrees, they schemes conserve wildlife, enhance landscape quality and character, protect the historic environment and natural resources, and promote public access and understanding of the countryside.
For further media information, contact Simon Butt, Press and PR Officer, on 07748 920023, 01332 591891 or via email on s.butt@derby.ac.uk.
