Who We Are
The regional food system is changing fast and there are many innovative local food businesses springing up across the region. Despite these innovations, it’s often very difficult for new businesses to become established and survive outside the mainstream food system.
The idea for the South Pennines Food Circle emerged from conversations between academic researchers, local growers and food producers who were looking to find solutions to this problem in order to enhance the resilience of the regional food economy.
Photography ©South Pennines Park
Although they often have different aims and objectives, many of these new businesses are inspired by nature and concerned about environmental sustainability. This brings social and economic as well as environmental challenges.
Do they compromise their ethical and sustainability principles by using traditional logistics and delivery methods that send products to depots miles away for distribution back to local people, or do they sell directly to the community via markets, direct sales channels and business2business networks?
The South Pennines Food Circle was formed to address these challenges and find appropriate solutions. It is still early days, and at the first meeting of the circle in 2023 we came up with some initial ideas to move forward, which you can read about here. It is only by changing the food system one step at a time from the bottom up that long-lasting, meaningful change can be implemented.
Join us on this journey in 2024. We are not promising that it will be easy, only that we need to make a start.