The theme for the next Bristol 2050 meeting on February 18th will be "Who should…
The theme for the next Bristol 2050 meeting on February 18th will be “Who should feed Bristol” The title is borrowed from the “Who feeds Bristol” report which would be a useful thing to read before coming along: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/environment/environmental_health/Who-feeds-Bristol-report.pdf
* Should we be producing more food locally
* How viable is urban farming in Bristol
* Can care farming help us address our cities drug problems
The meeting will again be run using the ‘open space’ model.
2PM – 5PM SAT 18TH FEBUARY @ ARTSPACE COLLEGE BS3 5JJ
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?&channel=cs&q=BS3+5JJ
* An estimated 2,000 hectares of land is potentially available in and on the outskirts of the city.
This could be used to grow high value perishable crops like salads and greens and soft fruit as well as more tree crops for fruit and nuts in public spaces. (See appendix 2)
* Using the Soil Association figures, Bristol city’s requirements (for 400,000 people) of 60,000 tonnes of vegetables per year would require 12,000 hectares of land. If Bristol has around 2,000 hectares land (this figure includes allotment land) potentially available for vegetable production, this might be enough land to produce around 10,000 tonnes of vegetables which could meet 16% of the city’s requirements.
* Based on data from a year’s food production assessment on a typical Bristol allotment, Bristol’s 3,800 allotment plots alone could potentially produce some 2,831,000kg of fruit and vegetables (or 2,831 tonnes) which would contribute 4 – 5% of the city’s requirements. This amount of fresh produce could collectively be worth over £2.5million which would represent a significant saving to household food bills as well as supplement diets nutritionally through the provision of a wide range of vitamin and mineral requirements Land required for producing Bristol city region’s staple food requirements
* The city region area has approximately 1,006,600 residents and, based on the Soil Association’s figures, would need 500,000 hectares of land to produce an adequate range of staple food items in a low-carbon production system. The Soil Association suggests that in the future this could be possible and would require a network of around 5,000 organic farms working together
in collaborative hubs.
* There are as yet no blueprints for the best way to re-allocate land use for increasing food self-
sufficiency in the UK the future. The Geofutures model and the Soil Association calculations suggest that Bristol city region would require up to a quarter of land currently available within the West of England, possibly less, to produce a good amount of staple food items
Bristol 2050
bristol2050.org.uk
The peoples plan