On 7th July ShefFood are hosting the ‘Farming Sheffield’s Fringe’ event, a collaboration with Sustain , Shared Assets and the Land Workers Alliance. These organisations have come together to deliver the national ‘Fringe Farming’ programme.
This initiative seeks to understand the barriers that currently limit agroecological farming at the edges of cities. Fringe Farming works locally – to identify land opportunities and support community action, and nationally – to influence the policies that will enable a new generation of peri-urban food producers.
Sheffield is among four cities – London, Bristol and Glasgow being the others – participating in the programme and ShefFood are embracing this opportunity to push for more peri-urban food production around the city. In preparation for the event, the partner organisations have produced a pre-event briefing document.
In this report, Sheffield’s fringe farming potential is thoroughly explored. It finds that local, low- carbon food production has an essential role to play in both meeting zero carbon targets and building a more equitable and secure food system.
The event will be launched by Martin McKervey, the High Sheriff for South Yorkshire, and we are pleased to announce the following speakers: Richard Sulley – Net Zero Project Director for the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority; Cllr. Alison Teal – Executive Member for Sustainable Neighbourhoods, Wellbeing, Parks and Leisure; and Cllr. Julie Grocutt – Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Governance. Plus we’ll be hearing from some of our local growers as well as representatives from partner organisations, including Green New Deal South Yorkshire.
‘Farming Sheffield’s Fringe’ is open to anyone with a passion for scaling up local and sustainable food production. You will be able to share your questions, thoughts and ideas during a series of discussion sessions held throughout the event. The aim of the day is to to devise a set of tangible actions that will guide the next steps in the transformation of Sheffield’s food system.
In line with current Covid guidelines, this will be a hybrid event with speakers meeting in one location and audience members invited to join by video link. Booking a free ticket grants you access to the virtual event – a link for joining online will be sent out via email prior to the day itself.
