Our view

Red Poll cattle graze in the Suffolk River Valleys Environmentally Sensitive Area and the National Trust's National Reserve at Orford Ness. Photo: CPRE

We need to make a greater link between the food we buy and the landscape in which it is produced. When we buy sensitively produced local foods we make this connection, and strengthen protection of the countryside and the landscape we love.

Sustainable local foods, such as England's speciality farmhouse cheeses, distinctive apple varieties and locally reared meat, can help reconnect us with farmers and producers and give us real choices about the food we eat, the way it is produced and its impact on the countryside.

Consumer demand can help local food producers and retailers survive. We have been working with a number of organisations – including the Government, Food Links UK and Sustain – to encourage an increase in the demand for local foods, as well as improve their supply. Whether we like it or not, much of that demand must come via supermarkets, because they dominate the food retailing market. We have been working with individual supermarkets chains, challenging them to increase their range of genuinely local foods, so that they support local suppliers rather than threaten them.

Supermarkets often fail to have a clear definition of what is even meant by the phrase 'local food'. Our definition is that the product should be grown and processed within 30 miles of the store. Supermarkets need to make a distinction in their labelling between local and locality foods. Locality foods are foods specific to a region and marketed on their origin, such as Wensleydale cheese or Melton Mowbray pork pies, and are often sold around the country. Sound definitions and clear labelling allow shoppers to make choices about what they are buying, based on information about where their food has come from and how it is benefiting local producers and their local environment. Through work with CPRE, Waitrose adopted a definition of local foods based on our recommendation. We hope that other supermarkets will follow its lead.

Local foods can:

• Encourage a more sustainable use of land, by promoting more environmentally friendly farming methods and linking the production of food to the landscape
• Reduce the traffic congestion, noise and pollution – including climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions caused by transporting produce, because local foods have low food mileage
• Create jobs that help ensure the long-term health of local rural economies – through the production and retailing of food, through the creation of 'value-added' products, by ensuring more money is kept in the local economy and through demand for secondary services
• Link shoppers with farmers and improve access to fresh, healthy produce
• Attract tourists to vibrant communities, which become recognised and valued for the food they produce and sell

The local foods sector needs increased support at a local, national and European level. CPRE wants better promotion and protection of the local foods sector through:

• Increased funding through the England Rural Development Programme and Regional Development Agencies
• Improved food labelling legislation, so that shoppers can see where food is produced
• Planning guidelines and retail policies that recognise the importance of local food producers and retailers and protect local retail
• Better support for critical local infrastructure, such as abattoirs
• Increased availability of local foods in local shops, supermarkets and restaurants