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Local Food
There is a range of benefits to climate change and your community from buying your food from producers near to where you live. These include:
- Less distance for your food to travel between where it is grown and your dinner table. The distance your food travels is termed ‘food miles’. Fruit, vegetables or meat produced abroad and sold in Torbay will have travelled a long way and therefore has high food miles. Transporting food emits carbon dioxide due to the fuel used by the plane, ship or lorry.
- Less packaging. Local food needs less packaging than food that has required protection during a long journey from its point of production to your dinner table. The manufacture of packaging, such as plastic trays or cardboard boxes, needs energy which produces carbon dioxide.
- Less waste. As local food has less packaging than imported food the amount of waste you produce is minimised. This reduces the amount of waste that needs to be recycled or land filled.
- Strengthens Torbay’s economy. Purchasing your food locally helps protect small producers, local jobs, and local shops. This ensures money stays within Torbay’s economy rather disappearing to multinational corporations.
You can find details of producers of delicious food local to you at Foodie Devon 
and Food & Drink Devon: Love the Flavour .
and Food & Drink Devon: Love the Flavour .Organic Food
Modern industrial agriculture is the main source of the potent greenhouse gases nitrous oxide and methane. It is also heavily dependent on the use of fossil fuels for the production of fertilizers, and contributes to the loss of carbon stored in the soil to the atmosphere - especially through deforestation to make more land available for crops and plantations.
Organic agriculture reduces the emission of greenhouse gases, especially nitrous oxide, as no chemical nitrogen fertilizers are used. This results in organic farming using less energy than non organic farming to produce the same amount of food (29% less energy for wheat, 25% less for oilseed rape, 38% less for milk, and 35% less for beef). Organic agriculture also helps increase the amount of carbon stored in soil and plants by increasing the amount of organic matter in the ground and by encouraging the growing of trees and agricultural crops on the same land (agro-forestry).
Organic agriculture also helps communities adapt to climate change. The high organic matter content of the soil reduces water loss meaning that more water can be held in fields during flood events rather than ending up in towns and villages. Organic agriculture also preserves seed and crop diversity which increases crop resistance to pests and disease.
Growing Your Own Food
Growing your own food is a rewarding past time. It can help keep you fit and healthy and will save you money on your grocery bill.
To find out how to get started and for tips and advice on growing specific crops visit the Grow Your Own sections of the BBC or the Royal Horticultural Society websites.
or the Royal Horticultural Society websites.If you haven’t got space in your garden to grow your own fruit and vegetables you can consider an allotment.
Related Websites
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Contact Environmental Policy & Sustainability
- Tel: 01803 207751
- Email: sustainability@torbay.gov.uk
- Fax: 01803 208882
