Wicked Leeks blog calls for building on new political opportunity and moving beyond pilots for sustainable food procurement in the public sector.

The groundswell of opinion in favour of transforming how public food procurement is done in the UK is further evidenced by a new article out this month (April) on the ‘Wicked Leeks’ blog which, for good measure, mentions our Procurement for Good project during the course of its argument.

Nick Eason’s blog, entitled ‘Can public sector procurement feed a food revolution?’, highlights some current small and medium-scale projects - including Sustain’s Bridging the Gap programme, Welsh Veg in Schools and the Soil Association’s Food for Life programme - to localise and to improve the sustainability and quality of food provision in the public sector. It also highlights the Labour Government’s pledge to 50 per cent local or sustainable food on the public plate, while also acknowledging the challenges of realising such a commitment. This includes creating new market opportunities in the public sector for small and medium-scale producers.

Here, the article highlights the Procurement for Good project which is designed to support this agenda. Project lead, Professor Moya Kneafsey, talks about some of the project aims and emphasises the holistic nature of how we are approaching the question, arguing that “we must think about food as a public health good” in which public consumption of better quality, sustainably produced food has benefits not only for the wider environment but also for the particular people who have the chance to eat it.

The article demonstrates that our project, along with many other initiatives, is surfing the leading edge of a sustainable food procurement wave and provides a wonderful boost for the collective work that's unfolding for transforming the public plate.

Read the Wicked Leeks article here.

‍