Time for Lunch

A campaign UK  wide asking us all to ‘take time for lunch’. We are encouraging all on one day a week to move away from our desks and eat lunch with a friend, co-worker, family member or even just a moment to take time out from your day. Step away from your desk, pause and eat something you have brought from home or support a local business. Let us know what you are doing by posting and tagging us in on social media. 

Milltir Sgwar

Milltir Sgwar 

The concept of Milltir Sgwar is one with deep roots in Wales. Its literal translation is square mile, but it means more than this. We wanted to explore what ‘milltir sgwar’ meant in terms of food for the people of Wales. We have been investigating this through a series of talks both on line and in person.

Initially our focus was to look at Welsh food culture. The food culture of Wales has changed dramatically over recent times and we wanted to explore how this has impacted the food we eat. Our speaker Dr Simon Roberts explained that in his mind;  ‘the concept promotes the ideology of belonging to and being immersed in a small community.’ Community is key to Slow Food each an everyone of us who is a member is involved in a local, national and international community. So we explored this during our debates.

An online forum during lockdown gave us access to speakers nationwide. We looked at how local food production and supply was seeing the biggest resurgence since WW2. Patrick Holden of Sustain UK pointed out that if imports were becoming harder to source this may focus our mind on local food production…there could be a renaissance of Welsh fruit and vegetables as a result which would be better for our health, environment [and community]. Carolyn Steele author of ‘Sitopia’ took this further explaining that we need to look beyond the 20th century concept of ‘the good life’. We need to look to what gives us pleasure. This includes spending time with your family and engaging in nature.

you missed it you can watch again herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFSs3YCV2Ds

Post Covid we looked at the cost of living was crisis. We wanted to see how this was impacting upon the concept of local eating. We asked what was really happening on the ground with local people and food. What transpired was a discussion around the need for food banks and community fridges. Does the former solve the problem or merely provide a sticking plaster?

This formed the basis of our next debate that took place at Hay on Wye’s world famous book festival. Here we looked at global challenges to food production and distribution and how these can be impacted upon though local resilience and sustainability. We had an illustrious panel including Sheila Dillon presenter of BBC Radio 4’s food programme,  environmental journalist Louise Gary with Professor Bryce Evans of Liverpool Hope University all expertly chaired by Ian Rasmussen. Key themes included rebuilding local food economies through community action, globalisation/de-globalisation, food pricing and food poverty.

This led onto our event at the Abergavenny food festival we hosted a communal meal, based around the concept of the British Restaurant of which there were 2,500 in the UK during the period around the two World Wars. with delicious produce that had been provided by local producers and supportive businesses we shared the meal and talked about what food and the concept of the square mile means in todays society. At the end a woman commented that for the first time in a long time she’d heard people talking about what she had been advocating all her life. That food is about those you share it with. Its about pleasure as well as sustenance and that in itself is is what the milltir sgwar is about.

So what is next? We are putting the themes that have arisen from these debates into action, hosting events across the country to encourage people to come together in their communities to eat locally seasonally and regionally. We are working at influencing government policy and working on a UK wide Education policy to ensure all our members and the communities they live in have access to the skills we all need to live a rich and pleasurable life in our ‘milltir sgwar’. For more information or collaborative opportunities please email info@slowfoodcymruwales.org.

Trine Hughes Chair @slowfoodcymruwales

September Local

Watch this space for our September campaign to eat local. Follow us on social media to find out more