March 2009 - Crunch Times | Taste Magazine from Regional Food Group for Yorkshire and Humber

How the region is supporting seafood sustainability, Rosemary Shrager’s love affair with local produce and how many regional producers are seeking EU-protected Food Name Status.

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Foreword by Nigel Pulling, Chief executive Yorkshire Agricultural Society

The current economic climate poses challenging times for all of us, not least for farmers and the food and drink industry as a whole. Farmers and local food producers have to adapt their activities to meet the demands of consumers, keen to support the production of quality, locally-produced food, but who also want value for money.

Producers need to understand exactly what their customers want and consistently deliver, emphasising that their Yorkshire grown food is fresher, tastier and can have a greater nutritional value than food that has travelled miles or which has been processed and refined. The myth that regional food is more expensive is being exploded every day.

Added to the need to meet consumer demand, regional producers must also keep an eye on the bigger picture and their role in providing a sustainable food supply. Estimates suggest that by 2030, 50 per cent more food will need to be produced worldwide.

Encouragingly, the British farming industry, which has shown a lot of resilience, is in good shape to help meet this challenge. While we will always need to import some foods and products because of our climate, the UK’s reliance on other countries is diminishing as more and more people move to support their local food and drink communities. As well as harnessing this support and continuing to deliver the goods, we also need to further the innovation we are witnessing in farming and food production. Positive attitudes within the industry are helping to make farming and the food sector a career choice once again, and collectively we need to do all we can to encourage quality
people into roles to help us advance further.

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society has long been a champion of farmers and food producers and we inform consumers about the importance of regional food through a number of activities from key annual shows to the recent Farmhouse Breakfast for schoolchildren and the Great Yorkshire Cookery Competition.

Later this year we will open a new regional food shop and café – Fodder − which will give consumers access to a huge range of Yorkshire products and enable us to promote the importance of ‘local’.

Consumers’ greater attention to quality and provenance is great news for the UK’s food producers, but particularly for those in Yorkshire and Humber because as a region we produce some of the finest food in the country.

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