Veg Box Schemes set to put local food back on the menu
Added: (Tue Oct 10 2006)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
10 October 2006 – A new website, www.vegboxschemes.co.uk has been launched to encourage a greater awareness and transparency of local box schemes. These schemes involve locally produced fruit & veg being delivered to your door in a box and were pioneered by the Soil Association as an attempt to restrict and ultimately rationalise the distance supermarket food travels to get to our plate or their food miles. The schemes also highlight the seasonality of our crops and promote healthy eating in our children, whilst reducing the retail price in cutting out the supermarket intermediary.
Vegboxschemes has been launched to raise awareness of locally produced food and put the consumer directly in touch with the producers on their doorstep. Box schemes are now widely available throughout the UK but there remains limited public knowledge of their existence and how to locate them.
‘It is both astonishing and appalling that 95% of the fruit we buy in the UK is grown abroad.’ say’s Jos Dewing, Co-Founder of Vegboxschemes.co.uk. ‘We want our kids to learn about food, where it comes from and how to use it to enrich their lives, but there is nothing enriching about the journey of an average supermarket apple and how much carbon is emitted in order to get it into our fruit bowl. The big supermarkets are squeezing the local UK growers in their mission to source cheap produce globally and the environment is being ravaged at the same time. We should all sign up for a box today and this site will help us all do it.’
‘We didn’t just want to highlight the problem, which is already being championed fantastically by so many leading ethical authorities’. Added Simon Deverell, Co-Founder. ‘We also wanted to present the solution and a way that we can all help to stem the centralised and global supply chain. We all have a box scheme available to us and this site will allow us to recommend schemes, find schemes and discuss the progress of schemes in general. But the message is fun too; box schemes are great for children and very practical. They are full of surprises, they are educational and my kids love it when the box arrives. To see children excited about veggies and where they come from is so important and they are never too young to understand how food is produced and how it gets to their plate.’
Vegboxschemes.co.uk will only work with the input of both box scheme customers and providers and the website offers a user friendly platform to encourage recommendations for schemes all over the Country. Listings and usage is completely free of charge. For more information or to recommend a box scheme please visit www.vegboxschemes.co.uk
Notes to editor – About Veg Box Schemes
In a nutshell, or more appropriately, a box, these schemes were pioneered by the Soil Association as an attempt to restrict and ultimately rationalise food miles and encourage local commerce between the consumer and their immediate or local producers. The schemes also highlight the seasonality of our crops and promote healthy eating in our children, whilst reducing the retail price in cutting out the supermarket intermediary.
Quite simply, the food we purchase daily in our supermarkets has very often travelled half way around the world to get to the shelves. You only need to look at the label to see the Country of origin and it doesn’t take an accountant to calculate the distances travelled and the likely effects these distances or food miles will have on our world. Which include the CO2 emissions of the many forms of transportation required, an excessive use of pesticides to prevent spoilage and a concerning lack of biodiversity as varieties which travel better than others (often locally produced) will replace them.
So what’s in a box – The boxes contain seasonal produce so you may enjoy the surprise of finding out what’s in this weeks veg & fruit box. They range in size and can also provide responsible cleaning products, meats, fish, eggs, milk and other general groceries. The boxes will be delivered on designated days in the week and the produce is often fresh from the fields of a local farm.
Ultimately the very concept of a Box Scheme has come to represent quality, locally produced food and is ultimately a symbol of how we can all do something to promote our local economy and the sustainability of the environment.
This site is there to push the role of box schemes in our society and is representative of the larger issue sat stake too. These schemes have great potential and will become staple local food hubs if we support them now, whether we are a household, school, local business or shop.
They reflect our integral desire to lead a greener life and create a better environment for our kids to inherit.