We have co-produced the Birmingham Food System Strategy with a city-wide partnership. Our vision is to create a fair, sustainable and prosperous food system and economy, where food options are nutritious, affordable and desirable so everyone can thrive. One of the work streams within this strategy is food sourcing and the objective is to increase both supply and demand for local, environmentally sustainable, ethical and nutritious foods in the food system.
There are various aspirations in this work stream including increasing the amount of local food in our city’s food system. This includes increasing demand and expectation of seasonal, local, sustainable food sourcing with ethical, transparent supply chains. Also, supporting businesses, especially those in the public sector, to adopt local sourcing in their food procurement. We also want to support more rural-urban connections, especially through solutions that help connect local farming cooperatives, independent and small producers with local businesses and communities. To achieve this, we want to proactively engage with counties that surround our city.
Drawing inspiration from other local authorities and institutions in Birmingham, nationally and internationally we are exploring projects and opportunities for new sourcing models. Food hubs are emerging as vital components in the local food systems, acting as intermediaries between food producers and consumers and we would like to examine feasibility of a Birmingham based food hub that could strengthen our local food network and promote and support small-scale businesses who are producing food in a sustainable manner.