Bristol Food Strategy, UK

Targets & measures

The urban food strategy (UFS) for Bristol has been designed by the city’s Food Policy Council, a multi-stakeholder body that was formally created in 2011. The Food Policy Council is designed to be an important part of the UFS in Bristol because it is the main institutional mechanism for the design and delivery of the food strategy. The UFS is based on the principles set out in the Bristol Good Food Charter:

• Good for people (everyone should have access to information, training and resources that enable them to grow, buy, cook and enjoy good food)
• Good for places (the public and policy-makers should support and value food enterprises that promote local jobs, prosperity and diversity and treat workers well)
• Good for the planet ( food should be produced, processed and distributed in ways that benefit nature)

The main activities in the urban food strategy (UFS) are based on the principles of the Good Food Charter, and three activities have been adopted for the first two years of the UFS: (i) to use public procurement policy in schools and hospitals to support good food, (ii) to promote community growing schemes to help people to re-connect to nature, and (iii) to foster retail diversity in the city by defending independent traders. In addition to these activities, the UFS also organises a number of other community-based events, ranging from tours and visits to community growing sites to an annual food policy conference which invites overseas guest speakers to help local activists to learn from good practice in other countries.

Interaction and knowledge brokering activities

The key actors in the urban an food strategy are 

• the city council,
• Civil society groups, mostly coordinated under the Bristol Food Network , which is an umbrella group, made up of individuals, community projects, organisations and businesses who share a vision to transform Bristol into a sustainable food city
• the National Health Service team,
• ethical food businesses
• ecological bodies like the Soil Association,
• and researchers, mainly Prof. Kevin Morgan as a Chair of the Food Policy Council

Initiation

In 2007 the Green Capital Momentum Group was set up as a partnership between local state and local civil society (which includes the local business community). This group helped Bristol to be awarded top spot in the Sustainable Cities Index for 2008, and this group, together with the Bristol Food Network (an umbrella group for third sector food activity) laid the basis for the Food Policy Council. Since then, the main driving force for an urban food strategy in Bristol has been the Food Policy Council and this, in turn, is driven by the twin commitments of a very green city council and a very green civil society.

Further information

Website

www.bristolfoodpolicycouncil.org

Foodlinks contact

Ana Moragues Faus, Cardiff University