Good Food for Festivals Guide
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The Good Food for Festivals Guide How festival and other event organisers can celebrate the best of fresh, delicious and sustainable food About this Guide “An ever-growing number Festivals and other events off er a of festivals in the United fantastic opportunity to celebrate Kingdom and around the the best of fresh, delicious and world have been at the sustainable food. forefront of promoting We understand that while many sustainability, whether festivals are keen to improve by reducing greenhouse their ethical credentials, tackling gas emissions, minimising the food being served can be waste, reducing their event’s daunting - hence this Good Food environmental impact for Festivals Guide, published or championing positive by Sustain in partnership with behaviour such as recycling. A Greener Festival. The guide With oft en large numbers of provides practical advice to festival people using shared catering, organisers on how to implement festivals provide an interesting positive changes. While the and enjoyable space to engage examples in the following pages are with the audience and promote drawn primarily from UK festivals, food sustainability. A Greener the topics and recommendations Festival has identifi ed food are relevant to the wider event and sustainability as a priority international festival community. for 2012 and we are actively By adopting the simple, aff ordable looking for bett er and healthier and eff ective actions outlined in this food at festivals, and to guide, many of which are already support sustainable farming. being taken by some forward- This clear and relevant set thinking festival organisers, your of guidelines is a real and event can play a part in improving important step forward and the health and well-being of will be a massive help to visitors, the livelihoods of farmers festival organisers and others and producers, the welfare of involved with live events.” farm animals, the conservation of precious wildlife and fi sh stocks, Ben Challis, Co-founder, and the long-term sustainability of A Greener Festival Photos © NCASS our food system. “Eating, drinking and throwing things away are some of the “At last a guide that most in-your-face impacts at festivals. Choosing to provide raises the bar for everyone local, seasonal, chemical-free, healthy and sustainably-produced involved in outdoor catering. food is something all considerate event organisers and caterers A wealth of well-researched, should take on. Likewise the huge volumes of waste created from practical information all that eating and drinking can be diverted from landfi ll if the which if implemented will right serveware is chosen, and - so importantly – if onsite waste revolutionise both the operations and bin segregation is set up to match the local waste quality and appeal of food processing facilities used. This guide shines a spotlight on these at festivals. Let’s all work important issues and gives a great up-to-date look at the things together to spread the word you need to think about when planning catering and related waste to traders everywhere on how management. One of my best achievements has been diverting they can stand out as the 92% of waste away from landfi ll at Latitude Festival by doing tasty option. You’ve given just what is recommended in this guide. It can be done and the them the tools to do the job… punters love you for it!” let’s hope they use them.” Meegan Jones, Author of Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Bob Wilson, Greenpeace Guide, and Director of Green Shoot Pacifi c Events Co-ordinator Contents Why sustainable food 2 Our top recommendations 3 An Olympic example Local, seasonal and organic food 6 Local alcoholic drinks 8 The organisers of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have taken a pioneering approach by committ ing to serve Sustainable fi sh and seafood 9 sustainable food for the 14 million meals served at the Games. In Fairtrade 10 their London 2012 Food Vision, the organisers of the Games set out their commitment to serve British and seasonal food, healthy Meat and dairy 12 options, animal products from higher-welfare systems such as Healthier food 14 RSPCA Freedom Food, verifi ably sustainable fi sh, and Fairtrade products, and to radically reduce packaging and food waste. They Water 15 also aspire to use food from environmentally-friendly farming Waste 16 methods, such as LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) and organic. Making sure your sustainability eff orts are… sustainable! 20 Inspired by the London 2012 Food Vision, event organisers such as the Greater London Authority and Thames Festival have already Communications 22 committ ed to adopt these same food and catering standards in Appendix 1 23 their work. Building on the response to the London 2012 Food Food Sustainablility Checklist Vision, the Food Legacy programme has been established to for Traders encourage other caterers and event organisers to join in. Appendix 2 26 You can fi nd further information on the Food Legacy website: Useful contacts www.foodlegacy.org. Appendix 3 29 Food Legacy Pledge Acknowledgements: Special thanks are due Thank you also to the funders and recognised good practice for sustainability. to Theresa Douthwright for her extensive supporters of the Food Legacy programme Please let us know of other ideas or work in compiling this guide, and to Kelly (www.foodlegacy.org) and the Ethical Eats examples of good practice that we should Parsons, Charlott e Jarman and Melissa project (www.ethicaleats.org), acknowledged promote. Food sustainability is always a Hayles, coordinators of the Ethical Eats and below. work in progress! Food Legacy projects at Sustain, and Kath Dalmeny for editorial support. Thanks also Please note that inclusion of commercial We have addressed what we believe to be the to A Greener Festival for all of their support, services and organisations in this document main sustainability issues for festival food contacts and enthusiasm, to Julie’s Bicycle, does not constitute an endorsement or in this guide. However it is not exhaustive, sustainable event consultant Meegan Jones, recommendation by Sustain; nor does and there are some considerations – such as and the many festival and event organisers exclusion of other similar services mean culturally and religiously appropriate foods, who generously provided advice, as well as that we have taken a view on the relative and dietary and allergy considerations – many inspiring examples of how they are merits of goods or services from diff erent which were beyond the scope of our work. organisations. Text is based on advice from Where possible we have included some putt ing health and sustainability principles into practice. the festival organisers and their support contacts at the back of the document. organisations that we consulted, and on food legacy Ethical eats Inspired by the London 2012 Food Vision Working with: Ethical Eats catering network is funded by the Big Lottery’s Local Food Fund. It is also supported by GreenCook, a pan-European project working to reduce food waste, funded by Interreg IVB, part of the European Union’s Regional Development Fund. Ethical Eats is supported by: Food Legacy is supported by: Why sustainable food at festivals? Festival organisers have a real opportunity to improve the sustainability of their festival, in a delicious way. How? Think with your belly, think about food. The following pages highlight key food and drink, water and waste sustainability issues facing the festival community, and provide advice, contacts and motivation for tackling the issues in a practical way. To start, take a look at our top More and more festivals are From a business point of view, tips for tackling festival food and working to make their events festival staff and food and drink drink sustainability environmentally friendly – from caterers are also beginning Our own research, specifi cally starting up renewable energy to recognise that providing looking at what festival-goers think initiatives to reducing waste sustainable food and drink is not about food, found that: through recycling and composting, only good for the health of their requiring environmentally- customers and the planet, but can 72% think festival organisers friendly packaging on-site, be good for business too. should ban the sale of post-event salvage eff orts and fi sh and seafood from Making sure that the food and re-thinking audience and artist overfi shed stocks, or caught drink served is local can help to transport. For most, making sure in environmentally damaging ensure that the festival is received the food and drink also measure ways positively by the local community. up ethically has been less of a 83% would choose free range priority so far. Food is a great way of bringing eggs to eat if given a choice people together. By involving local But food production and producers (and providing rural Nearly 80% would prefer consumption has an enormous jobs in the process), festivals are to eat meat raised to higher eff ect on the environment and on more likely to receive ongoing animal welfare standards our health, so addressing the food support not only from the served is a vital part of becoming Over 90% said they would community, but also, crucially, a truly green festival. separate their waste if facilities from the councils who grant site were provided. The pages of this guide are full permissions each year. of reasons why being sustainable So customers are asking for makes sense – for the health and it, caterers are beginning to welfare of people and animals, understand the demand and for the environment, and for embrace new food opportunities, society and culture. We also know and landlords may even require it, councils and other landlords are which leaves festival organisers in themselves increasingly interested a powerful position to improve the in ensuring that the events they sustainability of their events in a host meet certain sustainability big and delicious way.