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Comment by marian farrell on March 23, 2009 at 17:06

PRESS RELEASE & INVITATION
23rd March ’09
The Future of Food – Organic Local Food to the Rescue
On Tuesday 24th March Holywood will host a conference “Transitioning – Food into the Future” which has significance for the whole of Northern Ireland [1]

Our current dependency on excessive food miles and fossil fuelled fertilizers [2] leave our food supply vulnerable to oil price and threaten our climate. Meanwhile industrialised food scares, children’s poor diets, supermarket squeezing of farmers and now, the credit crunch, are driving a national change of heart towards “business as usual” food.

In a Spring where vegetable seed sales have quadrupled [3] and Michelle Obama is digging up the Whitehouse lawn to plant organic vegetables [4], the conference will examine serious positive and practical alternatives to make our food more secure, locally supplied and healthy. It will consider why change is urgent, the potential of organic farming, the experiences of vegetable gardening and local food diets.

The event with was instigated by Holywood Transition Town [5] and is supported by NI Environment Link [6] and the Soil Association [7]. Speakers include Rob Hopkins originator of the Transition Movement, Patrick Holden of the Soil Association, Mike Small of the Fife Diet Group [8] and Andy Halliwell of The Organic Centre, Leitrim.[9]

Rob Hopkins outlines his vision, “In 20 years time I see the mixed farm as a central hub of local activity. As one of the main providers of food (along with a resurgence of urban agriculture, school farms and allotments), the farm would grow a wide variety of produce, including trees for nut crops, high value timber and carbon storage.”

Patrick Holden explains, “Transition farming is the process by which UK agriculture moves away from its dependence on oil. Organic farming typically uses 26% less energy to produce the same amount of food as non-organic farming. With 30% of an individual's carbon foot-print made up of their food choices, food is the single most important, everyday means for tackling the challenges of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and future security of our food supplies.”
The conference will follow a SlowFood Banquet [10] at Nick’s Warehouse in Belfast where Patrick Holden will be giving the dinner speech on “Food: Its Sustainability, Security and Seasonality” For SlowFood Nick Price said, “We feel it is vitally important to educate the public about the joys of buying locally produced foods and the resulting beneficial effect for the local economy and farming community.” ENDS
Editor’s Notes
1. The event starts at 9.15 in Holywood Old School, Church Road, Holywood.
2. To make one tonne of artificial fertiliser takes 108 tonnes of water, emits 7 tonnes of carbon dioxide, and uses one tonne of oil. Soil Association
3. Horticulture Week (20 Mar, p.5)
4. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html?_r=1 "My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities."
Michelle Obama talking about her plans for her organic vegetable garden in the White House grounds and its role educating children about healthy, locally grown fruit and vegetables , The New York Times, 19 Mar 2009
5. http://www.holywoodtransitiontown.org/ Holywood Transition Town is Northern Ireland’s first Transition Town group. We are part of a worldwide movement of communities taking steps to prepare for a world of volatile fuel prices and an unstable climate.
6. http://www.nienvironmentlink.org/
7. http://www.soilassociation.org/
8. http://fifediet.co.uk
9. http://www.theorganiccentre.ie/
10. The North East Ireland Convivium of Slow Food Banquet at Nick’s Warehouse, 35 Hill Street, Belfast. Monday 23rd March 2009 @ 19:30 SlowFood International was set up in 1989 to help local producers compete with the mass advertising of processed foods by the major multinationals. It promotes good, clean, fair, food, locally produced, where pos