Northern Food and Farming is a collaboration of organisations and individuals individuals from across the food and farming sector in the North of England – you can see who those partners are on the front page of this website and we continue to grow in number!
We believe that the transition to a more healthy, fair and sustainable food and farming system is contingent on a network of support which is well connected and collaborative. As such, we were pleased to receive funding from Farming the Future’s field building programme to bring together our collaboration group to check-in on our individual and collective progress since our food strategy work was conducted and published. This also provided the opportunity for us to review priorities across the six identified action areas considering changes in the regional and political climate.
Everyone in the collaboration group is working towards transitioning to a resilient food system in the North of England. NFF provides a strong platform as the foundation for this work, being there to support partner organisations deliver actions. The different elements of the food strategy – ranging from public procurement to land access – illustrate that various and intertwined routes need to be pursued to achieve our vision.
You can read more about what we got up to at our convening event in this blog written by Luke Neve, North of England Regional Coordinator for Better Food Traders. Furthermore, each NFF action area webpage (under ‘Strategic Approach’ above) has been updated with revised, targeted next steps based on the discussions at the event.
Our strategy is a long-term one that will take many years to achieve, and the continued collaboration of the individuals and organisations involved means that NFF can facilitate effective progress that weaves together efforts achieving more than the sum of their parts. Each partner brings their own interests, expertise and practical experience and ensures that the work of NFF stays grounded in the realities of life and work in the Northern food and farming sector. Collective engagement means that we are confident that the strategy remains relevant.
Common challenges emerged at the event too, and we explored how the NFF team can address gaps and mutual needs. At the event we critiqued what facilitation and support work was most needed to advance agroecology in the North of England and we designed future work that will deliver cross-cutting activity on the ground in line with the six strategic action areas. Identified activities include raising the profile of existing successful initiatives through continued communications and knowledge sharing and building the capacity of agroecological farms across different sectors.
The Northern Food and Farming team and collaboration group are currently planning work for the upcoming years, sign up for the newsletter to be kept in the loop.