The Local Food Project

The Local Food Project encourages people to eat and grow food in order to reduce carbon and restore biodiversity. Incorporating drawings, photography and text, the book is the culmination of three years of work. The book is creatively presented in journal style and is filled with ideas and actions for people who think global and want to act local.

 

According to the artist, ‘One day I bought a sandwich in a petrol station and I couldn’t believe that there were over 40 listed ingredients from all over the world including such things as Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, xanthan gum, emulsifier and stabilisers.


I started to think about the journey of a sandwich and where all these ingredients come from. It felt like this sandwich connected me to so many places, people, plants and animals from all over the planet. I started to think about the energy needed to bring this sandwich to me; all the electricity, fuel and water. It makes me sad that food, which lands on our plate, has travelled thousands of miles just to be eaten by us. I had been to Borneo and seen the destruction of the rainforest with palm oil plantations and here was palm oil in my sandwich.

I learned a lot from that sandwich. It made me question if there is really any such a thing as ‘cheap food’? Someone, somewhere is paying the price in terms of poor conditions for workers, crowded conditions for battery hens or health implications for the consumers of processed foods.

I am concerned about the fact that we are importing so much of our food and losing the capacity to be self sufficient, despite what we know about climate change and carbon footprint. According to Eurostats 2016 “Only 1% of Irish farms grow vegetables, the lowest in the EU” (Agriland headline). Why are we not growing vegetables in Ireland?

Rather than getting bogged down in doing nothing, I started the 30 Day Local Food Challenge, encouraging people to eat local food for the month September each year. With Transition Kerry and other groups around the country, we ate only ingredients grown on the island of Ireland so that meant doing without imported goods such as sugar, bananas, chocolate and other luxuries to which we have become accustomed!

Eating local food is great way to eat tasty, fresh food; support local food producers and become more sustainable and resilient. The Local Food Project is about sharing the learning and encouraging people to take action.

“Congratulations to Lisa on this really well researched and illustrated publication. The message is stark for policy makers be they local or national – we need to encourage and promote the growing of more vegetables and fruit in this country for both food security and healthy eating”

– Jimmy Deenihan (Chair, Listowel Food Fair www.listowelfoodfair.ie)