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Farmers in the City

Birmingham FOE praises Council's Support for Farming's Market Lifeline

Birmingham Friends of the Earth will be supporting the re-launch of the Farmer's Market in the city centre on Wednesday.

They are delighted to see the Council lending its full support to the city centre Farmer's Market, which has overcome bad weather and the Foot and Mouth crisis to gain a loyal band of regular customers.

Every first and third Wednesday of the month, hundreds of people take advantage of the reasonable prices and the chance to support British farmers. In amongst the farming fun, dodging the giant scarecrows and sampling the free food, Birmingham Friends of the Earth will be reminding people that what's good for their health, their pocket & England's farmers is good for the environment, too.

• Currently, we import most of our food, as supermarkets try to satisfy demand as cheaply as possible – less than 15% of our fruit is grown in the UK.
• Even food classified as "local" in the big supermarkets will have been shipped as much as 80 miles back and forth across the country, losing freshness and flavour all the way.
• The resulting traffic contributes to climate change, jams roads and causes air pollution.
• The distances animals travel from farm to abattoir was identified as one of the main causes of the Foot and Mouth outbreak.
• Profits for farmers are meager and vulnerable to big retailers' whims, so the system wrecks rural economies and drives small farms out of business.

Farmer's Markets are a valuable first step in the solution to these problems, as the Curry Report, the government White Paper on the state of British farming, indicates. The future needs to see local food transported straight from the farm to retailers on an everyday basis

Jeremy Beacock of Birmingham Friends of the Earth said: "The city centre farmer's market is a great place to buy fresh food from local farmers, and is the first step in returning our food economy to a greener, healthier local one The money goes straight to the producer rather than lining supermarket chains' pockets. It's great that the Council is doing what they can to help."

Editor's Facts:

• UK fruit growers provide under 15% of the fruit sold in the UK
• A tonne of food travels an average of 123 km (77 miles) within the UK from distributor to customer, up more than 50% over the last 15 years.
• Food makes up more than a quarter of the heavy goods on the road, more than any other commodity group.
• A researcher has estimated that the average apple sold in the UK has, in traveling from its source to the consumer, used up to 35 times the energy the apple actually provides!
• The five largest supermarket chains account for 80% of the food market, giving them a huge degree of power over prices and conditions
• Farmers lose out as distributors and retailers add their cut: one farmer lost £32 on a bullock that generated a staggering £800 margin for the distributors & retailers.