Food For The Planet
Sheffield
To kickstart our Food for the Planet campaign, here is a snapshot of the activity happening here in Sheffield to tackle the climate and nature emergency through sustainable food and farming, collated by ShefFood in mid-2021 for Sheffield's successful Sustainable Food Places Bronze Award bid.
Climate & Nature Emergency
Sheffield has a long established and thriving environmental movement. Sheffield has declared a climate emergency, prompted by public campaigning and engagement, involving Sheffield XR and Sheffield Climate Alliance with responses from Sheffield City Council (SCC) and the Sheffield City Region (SCR). There is an ongoing campaign for Sheffield to declare a biological and ecological emergency. SCC have published A Pathway To Net Zero. Public sector institutions, businesses and citizens are working to reduce the climate and nature impact of our local food system. For example, ShefFood is one of 35 organisations involved in a successful Sheffield bid to The National Lottery Climate Action Fund, recently co-hosted a Feeding South Yorkshire Regional Food Workshop with Green New Deal South Yorkshire (GNDSY), will present a keynote address at the forthcoming South Yorkshire Community Foundation SY100 event on tackling climate change, and will co host the forthcoming Feeding Sheffield Sustainably conference in association with the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food and the Festival of Debate.
Land
Sheffield is working to develop and deliver a land use and management strategy that protects, enhances and makes available all Grade 1 and 2 urban and peri-urban land for both community growing and commercial sustainable agriculture by accessing support and co-delivering three national programmes in Sheffield - the Sustain Fringe Farming project, the Green Futures Associates Urban Agriculture Consortium, and the Landworkers Alliance Community Resilience project. Recently SCC have commissioned a Rural Strategy and Estate Management Plan, ShefFood has published a Low Carbon Food Infrastructure discussion paper, and ShefFood partners, the GNDSY Food Group, has published a Nature Friendly Food Growing in South Yorkshire report.
Agroecology
ShefFood and partners have played an active role to develop opportunities for Sheffield farmers, growers and land managers to access training, advice and support on how to adopt agroecological production and management techniques. For example, Regather help to coordinate involvement of agroecological retailers, producers and wholesalers in the Sheffield food system to participate in DEFRA New Entrants Support Scheme and Environmental Land Management consultations to help shape future food system policy and support, and is working with the FarmStart Network to develop the agroecological sector in Sheffield.
Culture Change
Sheffield has been a Fairtrade City since 2004, and is home to many food system partners who are established, leading examples of enabling a mainstream shift to sustainable food, for example: Our Cow Molly - providing fresh and locally sourced milk and dairy products to Sheffield since 1947, whilst using grassland, anaerobic digestion and solar energy to actively reduce their carbon footprint; Heeley City Farm - a powerful presence in Sheffield for 40 years delivering a huge range of community food and farming activity across the city; Forge Bakehouse - producing daily bread and baked goods and promoting Real Bread, and the University of Sheffield Institute for Sustainable Food - leading H3 ‘Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People’ a £6 million, 5 year research programme to transform the UK food system, and involving Regather and other Sheffield organisations in cross-cutting engagement and impact activities.
To kickstart our Food for the Planet campaign, here is a snapshot of the activity happening here in Sheffield to tackle the climate and nature emergency through sustainable food and farming, collated by ShefFood in mid-2021 for Sheffield's successful Sustainable Food Places Bronze Award bid.
Climate & Nature Emergency
Sheffield has a long established and thriving environmental movement. Sheffield has declared a climate emergency, prompted by public campaigning and engagement, involving Sheffield XR and Sheffield Climate Alliance with responses from Sheffield City Council (SCC) and the Sheffield City Region (SCR). There is an ongoing campaign for Sheffield to declare a biological and ecological emergency. SCC have published A Pathway To Net Zero. Public sector institutions, businesses and citizens are working to reduce the climate and nature impact of our local food system. For example, ShefFood is one of 35 organisations involved in a successful Sheffield bid to The National Lottery Climate Action Fund, recently co-hosted a Feeding South Yorkshire Regional Food Workshop with Green New Deal South Yorkshire (GNDSY), will present a keynote address at the forthcoming South Yorkshire Community Foundation SY100 event on tackling climate change, and will co host the forthcoming Feeding Sheffield Sustainably conference in association with the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food and the Festival of Debate.
Land
Sheffield is working to develop and deliver a land use and management strategy that protects, enhances and makes available all Grade 1 and 2 urban and peri-urban land for both community growing and commercial sustainable agriculture by accessing support and co-delivering three national programmes in Sheffield - the Sustain Fringe Farming project, the Green Futures Associates Urban Agriculture Consortium, and the Landworkers Alliance Community Resilience project. Recently SCC have commissioned a Rural Strategy and Estate Management Plan, ShefFood has published a Low Carbon Food Infrastructure discussion paper, and ShefFood partners, the GNDSY Food Group, has published a Nature Friendly Food Growing in South Yorkshire report.
Agroecology
ShefFood and partners have played an active role to develop opportunities for Sheffield farmers, growers and land managers to access training, advice and support on how to adopt agroecological production and management techniques. For example, Regather help to coordinate involvement of agroecological retailers, producers and wholesalers in the Sheffield food system to participate in DEFRA New Entrants Support Scheme and Environmental Land Management consultations to help shape future food system policy and support, and is working with the FarmStart Network to develop the agroecological sector in Sheffield.
Culture Change
Sheffield has been a Fairtrade City since 2004, and is home to many food system partners who are established, leading examples of enabling a mainstream shift to sustainable food, for example: Our Cow Molly - providing fresh and locally sourced milk and dairy products to Sheffield since 1947, whilst using grassland, anaerobic digestion and solar energy to actively reduce their carbon footprint; Heeley City Farm - a powerful presence in Sheffield for 40 years delivering a huge range of community food and farming activity across the city; Forge Bakehouse - producing daily bread and baked goods and promoting Real Bread, and the University of Sheffield Institute for Sustainable Food - leading H3 ‘Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People’ a £6 million, 5 year research programme to transform the UK food system, and involving Regather and other Sheffield organisations in cross-cutting engagement and impact activities.
