Fair, Local and Environmental

Don't forget the bread” It's become the mantra in our household. We often bake our own bread using as far as possible Oxfordshire flour.  Yesterday we made some bread from Honey and Seed bread flour milled at Wessex Mill in Wantage using wheat from farms in Tetsworth, Nuneham Courtenay, Wantage, and Benson. With local cheese and tomatoes our meal last night was environmentally friendly and good for the rural economy. Even though we had to drive to our local farm shop to collect it “food miles” were greatly reduced compared to the flour coming from eastern Europe, the tomatoes from southern Europe and the cheese from mid Europe.

Making choices about where our food comes from is about choosing for the environment. It's about choosing for the rural economy as well. Walking past a herd of cows being put out to the grass after milking, the farmer apologised for holding me up but I didn't mind. Milking cows are a rarity and I was delighted to see them; they keep that farmer farming and  they shape the way the valley below my house is farmed, how it looks, and feels. Choosing locally produced food is good for the rural economy, and good for the landscape. Who says one individual cannot change the world? A rural churchwarden in a workshop I was facilitating noted how Christians had helped to revolutionise the Fair Trade market, “We're a Fair Trade deanery” she said; “can't we become a Local Food deanery as well?”.  “Why not?” I said,  A theme for the Lammas service at the beginning of August perhaps?

The Revd Canon Glyn Evans is Rural Officer for the Diocese of Oxford