Notes from the Transition Kerry Public Meeting – ‘Feeding the Kingdom by 2030’ held on the 16th November 2016.

 

Why are we having these meetings?

Our main aim from these meetings is to re-activate the food working group, and for the group to commit to coming together regularly for the next year to input/create into a Food Plan/Roadmap for Kerry. Below is a short summary of the meeting and the resources the speakers showed.

 

Speakers:

Thomas O’Connor (Transition Kerry Food & Biodiversity Group)

Michael Gleeson (TRADE IT Hub Co-ordinator)

Lisa Fingleton (Artist – 30 Day Local Food Challenge)

 

Thomas O’ Connor gave a short introduction about the food group and the need to create a sustainable food plan for Kerry to ensure food security and the potential to help create livelihoods based on food production.

 

Michael Gleeson gave a short talk on the Trade It Project (Traditional Food Production in Europe). He also spoke about the challenges that SME’s (Small to Medium Enterprises) face and the potential to develop this area.

 

Lisa Fingleton gave a short presentation on her ’30 day local food challenge’ that she did last year. In this time her aim was to eat only locally produced food and it highlighted how challenging this was.

 

Resources from speakers:

Links to the two videos that Thomas showed:

How to feed the world in 2050: actions in a changing climate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtIl5B1zXI

The Scarecrow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtnas5ScSE

 

Here are some links to the TRADE IT Project that Michael Gleeson spoke about: (TRADE IT stands for Traditional Food Producers of Food in Europe)

TRADEIT Marketplace www.marketplace.tradeitnetwork.eu

Taste of Science www.tasteofscience.com

 

Lisa Fingleton recommended this book at the Public Food Meeting last week:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – A year of food life

http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/recipes.htm

 

Lisa also spoke about the FIFE diet, where local people were encouraged to eat local food. To learn more about the positives and challenges involved in this project, check out http://fifediet.co.uk.

 

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Feedback from groups

 

Question 1

What in your view currently works well in terms of meeting our food needs in

Kerry?

  • Amount of artisan cheese producers
  • Not much being met
  • Have natural resources, good conditions, courses
  • Converting into local food production and purchasing
  • Provenance of food, eg. Ardfert Potatoes, Kerry lamb

 

Question 2

What are the challenges currently in meeting our food needs in Kerry?

  • Low cost food production – how can you compete?
  • Lack of awareness, lack of education, lack of interest
  • Demand for cheap food
  • Small reward for the effort involved to produce
  • Lack of regular local food markets (all around Kerry)

 

Question 3

What steps can we as take here to bring about change?

  • Less use of supermarkets
  • Knowing our local food producers
  • Plant edible landscapes (eg. Council and Tidy Towns Groups)
  • Indoor/all-weather Farmers Markets
  • Education/training
  • Grow your own
  • Start small
  • School Gardens
  • A co-ordinated approach

 

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Next food meeting will be on 30th November @ 7pm in The Chapel Room, Tobar Naofa, Moyderwell, Tralee (near the library)

 

For more information, contact Niamh @ 086 7247066