Community food: a force for change

The Welsh Government wants to see community food driving change at a local level. Here we look at what the Biosphere has done, and what could happen next. Darllen yn Gymraeg.

Community cafe, Aberystwyth

Food draws people together, supports the economy, shapes our culture and can be produced in ways that supports the natural world – which includes us. It’s no wonder then that the Future Generations commissioner in Cymru Can has chosen food as a priority area for action, and the Welsh Government’s Community Food Strategy which came out in April hammers the point home.

The strategy’s aim is to encourage more action at a local level, empowering people to work together to build food culture. Key to that is the network of government-funded Local Food Partnerships coordinated by Food Sense Wales. Each of these consists of a local authority, Health Board, community groups and individuals, including farmers, teachers and caterers. Together they are developing a vision for food in their local areas, with particular reference to challenges like the cost of living crisis and food security.

The Biosphere overlaps with three such Partnerships – Ceredigion, North Powys and Gwynedd – and therefore doesn’t have its own. However, food and farming have been an important theme for some of our past projects, creating partnerships that have had lasting effects.

We started with Mixed Farming, Histories and Futures in 2018-19, which used tithe maps, oral histories and other sources to study changes in land use over the last 180 years. Even as recently as 50 years ago, agriculture in the area was much more diverse, with traditional meadows and arable farming. Our ancestors had a way of farming that fed everyone and maintained a thriving wildlife, with minimal inputs of fossil fuel – so there must be something we can learn from them.

A second project in 2021-23, Tyfu Dyfi - food, nature and well-beingi, was part of a Welsh Government programme that promoted access to green spaces. It had seven very different partners and although the strongest element was community gardening, it also included field-scale vegetable growing, composting, retailing, training and information management.

That was followed in 2023-24 by ‘Tyfu Dyfi - growing the local food economy’ funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in Ceredigion and Powys which concentrated on growing and selling food, as well as training new market gardeners and composting.

The partners and staff in all three projects brought their own expertise, in many cases going back a decade or two. The Biosphere contribution was to shape them into a partnership which allowed them to go beyond ‘doing a project’ and begin to transform food growing and trading in the area. The vision came from agroecology, which combines ecological food production with healthy and flourishing human society, and is advocated by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

It’s a sign of the power of partnership that the work is continuing. Criw Compostio for instance is a social enterprise that grew out of the first Tyfu Dyfi and is now transforming Machynlleth food waste into compost for sale, as well as providing training and consultancy.

In Aberystwyth, the online Bwyd Dyfi Hub established by Tyfu Dyfi (left) continues to trade as a project of Aber Food Surplus, providing a way for the public to buy more directly from local farmers and growers and increase local food production. It allows even very small growers to experiment with selling their produce, and also deals in meat and milk. In Machynlleth, Mach Veg Box does something similar.

The production of vegetables, grain and other crops at a field scale, championed by Mach Maethlon and supported by both Tyfu Dyfi projects, has continued as part of the field scale growing experiments coordinated by Tir Canol, who are working with farmers and others to increase the area of vegetables grown in the Biosphere.

These projects left other legacies. Around the Biosphere are community gardens that have fences, raised beds, polytunnels and pergolas that were not there before, and are more welcoming and productive as a result. There is also a new confidence about growing fruit and vegetables that is enlivening the Local Food Partnerships. Public procurement of vegetables for school meals, long a cherished idea, is moving a step closer to reality with the Welsh Veg in Schools project that is edging into Powys and Ceredigion.

Where next? The Biosphere ran these projects to fill a gap and to build capacity, but now as a ‘living lab’ for healthy futures we need to keep looking wider. How can food projects support the economy, providing careers for young people and benefiting wildlife, perhaps using ‘doughnut economics’ and the Well-being Economy approach that the Future Generations Office advocates in its 2025 report? How best do we deal with the cost of living crisis that affects everyone, and develop food security in the area?

We could also explore the contribution food makes to tourism, perhaps developing the Blas Dyfi Taste brand and making more of our local successes. The new project Awyr Iach will be an opportunity to explore the links between food growing and mental health. Meanwhile through our membership of the UK network of Biospheres we are sharpening up our understanding of how our very small organisation can make a difference, drawing on the power of UNESCO.