Come home to eat this Christmas

This festive season, community environment group Friends of the Earth is encouraging community members to eat locally as a way of reducing their environmental impact and understanding more about the impacts of our food system.

MEDIA RELEASE – 27 November 2007

Come home to eat this Christmas, says Friends of the Earth

This festive season, community environment group Friends of the Earth is encouraging community members to eat locally as a way of reducing their environmental impact and understanding more about the impacts of our food system.

“A recent Victorian study calculated that the average food basket of 29 items purchased from a supermarket could have travelled up to 70,803km, or almost twice around the circumference of the earth. Eating locally is a crucial first step to reducing the environmental impact of the food we eat,” said Friends of the Earth campaigner Joel Catchlove.

“Local food reduces ‘food miles’, and the emissions that come from transporting food massive distances across the planet, but it also has tangible benefits for supporting the local economy, building community, and encouraging more environmentally-conscious food production,” said Mr. Catchlove.

“Friends of the Earth’s bioregional eating challenge, the ‘Local Food Feast’, provides a delicious opportunity for participants to learn through experience about where our food comes from and what kind of impacts it has on the environment,” said Mr. Catchlove.

“While many will be taking the challenge of eating completely locally from 24 December to 1 January, participation is open to everyone to eat local as much as they can. Participants' experiences, ideas and recipes will all be shared online at Friends of the Earth’s website,” said Mr. Catchlove.

The Local Food Feast will be launched at 6.30pm, Monday 3 December at ‘Reclaim the Food Chain’, a public forum on Australia’s food and agriculture system, Sarah’s Café, 12 Leigh Street, Adelaide.

Reclaim the Food Chain will feature speeches from Simon Bryant (Executive Chef, Hilton Adelaide & co-presenter of ABC TV’s ‘The Cook and the Chef’), Zannie Flanagan (food activist, and Project Manager of the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market), Stuart Gifford (restaurateur, Sarah’s Café), Joel Catchlove (Friends of the Earth), Steve Lancaster (chef, Sarah’s Café) and Kaurna Elder Auntie Josie Agius.

For more information or comment, contact

Joel Catchlove (Friends of the Earth) 0403 886 951, [email protected]