Brighton and Hove Food Strategy Action Plan 2018-2023 Brighton and Hove Food Strategy Action Plan – 2018-2023 2 In collaboration with... Expert Panel Members • Brighton & Hove City Council • Department for Work and • NHS Brighton & Hove Clinical • University of Sussex* (including 26 departments) Pensions Commissioning Group* • UnLtd • Brighton & Hove City Council • Brighton & Hove Energy Services • Digital Brighton and Hove • Old Tree Brewery • Varndean College (BHCC) Cooperative (BHESCo) • Dorothy Stringer School • Paper Round* • Varndean School • • Brighton & Hove Connected Brighton & Hove Food Festival* • Downland Estate Farmers* • PigShare / SheepShare • Visit Brighton* • • Brighton & Hove Food Brighton & Hove Food • East Sussex Healthcare • Plastic Free Brighton • Western Sussex Hospitals Partnership (BHFP) Partnership NHS Trust* • Platf9rm NHS Foundation Trust* • • Brighton & Sussex University Brighton & Hove Impetus • FareShare Sussex* • Plumpton College* • Whitehawk Community Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH) • Brighton & Hove Organic • Fin & Farm* • Possability People Food Project • Community Works Gardening Group • Florence Road Market • Refill Brighton & Hove • World Food Project • FareShare Sussex • Brighton & Sussex • Food Banks via Emergency • Restaurants Brighton • NHS Brighton & Hove Clinical Medical School Food Network (EFN) • National Supporting • Saddlescombe Farm* Commissioning Group (CCG) Brighton & Sussex University • Food Pioneers* Organisations Hospitals NHS Trust* • South Downs National Park* • Possability People • Fork and Dig It • Southern Water* • The Living Coast UNESCO • Brighton and Hove Fairtrade • Eating Better • Gleaning Network* • Biosphere Steering Committee Stanmer Organics • • Greater Brighton Food Foundation • • Brighton Housing Trust • Stoneham Bakehouse University of Brighton Metropolitan College • Food Matters • • Brighton Open Market • Surplus Food Network* University of Sussex • Green Wellbeing Alliance* • Soil Association • Brighton Permaculture Trust* • Sussex Community NHS • Health & Wellbeing Board • Sustain Action Plan Partners • Brighton Unemployed Centre Foundation Trust* • Healthwatch • Sustainable Food Cities Families Project • Sussex Homeless Support • Healthy Weight • Adur & Worthing Councils* • Brighton Voices in Exile • Sussex Inshore Fisheries & Programme Board Special thanks to... • Age Space • Cardamom Pod Conservation Authority (IFCA)* • HISBE • Age UK Brighton & Hove • Carers Centre for Brighton • Sussex Partnership NHS • Impact Initiatives • Albion in the Community* and Hove Foundation Trust* • Impetus • Allotment Site Reps • Children’s Centres • Sussex Sustainability Research • Infinity Foods Wholesale Programme* • Amaze • Chomp • Lidl UK • Sustainable Business Partnership* • BeeZee Bodies • Circular Brighton & Hove • Living Loud • The Bevy • Befriending Coalition • City Region Employment Part of the Brighton & Hove • • • Bright Dials and Skills Board* Longhill High School The Living Coast UNESCO Food Partnership’s work, • Biosphere* including the development • Brighton & Hove Allotment • Common Cause* Moneyworks Brighton & Hove • The Real Junk Food Project of this food strategy, is funded Federation • Community Chef* • Moulsecoomb Forest Garden Brighton by the Esmée Fairbairn • Brighton & Hove Chamber • Community Kitchen • Natural England ChaMP Project* • The Sussex Peasant* Foundation. We are grateful of Commerce • Compass (at University • Natural Partnerships CIC* • University of Brighton* for their ongoing support. of Sussex)* *These partners are committed to actions that go beyond the boundaries of Brighton & Hove. Look out for the symbol throughout the Full Action Plan Brighton and Hove Food Strategy Action Plan – 2018-2023 3 Foreword By Olivier De Schutter – Low-cost food systems are able to remain in place UN Special Rapporteur on the right because they are deeply embedded in practices all to food 2008-2014, Co-chair of along the food chain and in many aspects of our lives. International Panel of Experts What does all this mean for building sustainable on Sustainable Food Systems food systems? First, sectoral policies are no longer sufficient. A whole-of-system approach is needed. Cross-cutting food strategies and food policies Increasingly, we live in a ‘low-cost’ economy are needed to spark a series of coordinated shifts, – from budget flights to pound stores, from none of which will happen on their own. discounted electronics to bargain buckets Second, these problems cannot be solved at of fast food. But the low-cost economy national level alone, but require local action is full of hidden costs and simply cannot to rebuild local food systems. be sustained. That is why Brighton and Hove’s food strategy Nowhere is this more apparent than in terms has been so welcome. Cities like Brighton and Hove of the food that we eat. Modern food systems are showing that new farming practices, food provide us with large quantities of cheap food, distribution and retail networks, and ways of but at a huge cost to people and the planet. valuing food in the local economy are all possible The costs are mounting, even if we don’t pay – and they are possible in unison. them directly at the supermarket checkout. Most importantly, cross-cutting food strategies Over 50% of Europeans are overweight and more can spark a fundamental shift in the logic than 20% obese. Chronic diseases, many linked to underpinning food systems – making the move obesity, account for 70-80% of Europe’s healthcare from volume to value, from cheap convenience costs, up to €700 billion a year. Food and farming to sustainability, from low-cost to true cost. systems contribute up to 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions and are a major driver of land This review of Brighton and Hove’s food strategy degradation and biodiversity loss. provides a timely opportunity to renew these commitments and to chart an ever more ambitious course towards the sustainable food systems of the future. Brighton and Hove Food Strategy Action Plan – 2018-2023 4 Refreshing the city’s Food Strategy Action Plan Launched in 2006, refreshed in 2012, Spade to Spoon The city is ‘not an island’ and should collaborate Brighton and Hove may sit in the affluent South East is the city’s food strategy and action plan. It brings more, especially in areas such as food production but the reality is one in five residents are concerned together food producers, food providers and the where stopping our work at the city’s boundaries about meeting their basic living costs next year, public to work towards an all-round healthier city. makes little sense, or where national policy influences including food. Our final priority therefore is to The city pioneered city-based food work adopting what happens locally. This will include working more ensure that the benefits of having a food strategy a partnership approach to food in 2003 and was the closely with our neighbouring councils, the South are seen across the city. There must be a focus first place to achieve Silver Sustainable Food City Downs National Park, The Living Coast UNESCO on reducing inequalities, including prioritising status in 2015. However, we are also now part of Biosphere and national food policy organisations. those with the poorest diets or least access to a much wider Sustainable Food Cities movement healthy food. If we are to bring more individuals, organisations learning from and being inspired by others. and businesses on board we need more evidence The food system continues to cause big and Although the food strategy’s 20-year vision (agreed on the impact of the approach and will work with growing problems. Yet food is also a force for good. in 2012 and signed up to by 50+ partners) remains our city’s universities to understand better the Well-nourished children learn better, community the same, its all-important action plan has reached its difference a city-wide approach is making. food projects reduce isolation and independent ‘use by’ date. food retailers can lead regeneration to name a Setting up the Food Partnership was one of the small handful. Let’s keep this positivity in mind Who six years ago had heard of, let alone understood, actions in the first (2006) food strategy and the as we move forward with new priorities, refreshed the terms flexitarian or Brexit? Clinical Commissioning importance of an independent organisation to actions and a singular vision. Groups didn’t exist, food retail was about the Big Four champion this work emerged as a theme during and plastic waste the concern of just a few. From this refresh. I am thankful for the trust placed in individual behaviour trends to macro-economic us over the years and continue to witness the factors, statutory sector reforms to emerging success of our partnership approach and what technologies, the external environment has happens when you put very different people in Vic Borrill – Director, changed so much. a room together to work on a joint problem. Brighton & Hove Food Partnership Most actions on the first action plan have now been Our city’s pledge to become a Veg City (see p12) completed, and the next again has space for everyone shows how actions that are scattered throughout – the butcher, the baker and the policymaker! But the the plan, from the school meals service, to planners plan also accounts for several new priorities which and lunch clubs, together form an ambitious, emerged during our consultations. systemic piece of work. We will remain committed to getting ever more people involved. Brighton and