Food and sustainability: local and organic food in Finnish food policy and in institutional kitchens

This article probes a number of recent national policy documents in order to capture how sustainability is perceived and expressed in the context of food and what role is given to the alternative food supplies. The goals of food policy and their realization are discussed by reflecting the results from the policy document analysis against the actual use of alternative food in the statutory municipal catering services in Finland. In the policy documents the concept of sustainable development has remained rather abstract; various dimensions such as food security, affordability and access to food, cultural and health aspects are mentioned, but these are not necessarily identified as elements of sustainability. Local and organic foods appear as important items in food sustainability. However, in the documents they are usually not differentiated from each other, and positioning of local food in relation to domestic and regional food is not clear. The municipal caterers instead, identify organic as distinct from local and they are interested in locally produced staple food products, but the (labeled) local specialities -locality food - are not relevant within the public catering services. Use of organic food is also marginal. Defining sustainability in the context of food is a prerequisite for coherent food policy. The development needs and possibilities are different in different municipalities, and the same approach cannot be offered to all, but the problems need to be addressed in the concrete situations. With the small population basis and long distances, it is worthwhile to aim at solutions relying on local resources. Food strategy should be included as part of the comprehensive municipal development strategies. It is important to involve practical actors in developing the food sector and in formulating quantitative goals

SusCa circles to activate catering services in the public sector in local and organic food procurement

SusCa circles working for promoting sustainable foodstuff procurement are starting operations all around Finland. SusCa circles are part of EkoCentria's Sustainable Catering in Public Services project

Lokal mat i Finlands kommuner - utredning över användningen av lokal mat i kommunala måltider

Denna utredning är den första utredningen om användningen av lokal mat i nästan alla finska kommuner och beskriver rätt täckande användningen av närproducerade råvaror i kommunal kostverksamhet. Utredningen redogör för resultaten av förfrågan som Närkökskonsulenterna inom projektet Närkök av EkoCentria utfört som telefonintervju till kommunernas förmän inom mattjänstbranschen i Kontinentala Finland år 2007. 366 kommuner deltog i intervjun, vilket motsvarar 92 % av alla kommuner i Kontinentala Finland. Enligt slutsatserna skulle det vara möjligt att använda mera färska lokala matvaror i kommunala mattjänster. Detta kräver att produktions-, plock- och vidareförädlingsmängder skulle kunna höjas och att producenternas gemensamma leveranskedja skulle fungera

Local food in municipal catering - a survey of local food purchasing in Finnish municipalities

This report is the first published report on the use of local food in almost all of Finland's municipalities, and covers the use of local food products in public municipality catering fairly comprehensively. The report presents the results of the telephone survey for the catering managers of Continental Finland carried out by EkoCentria's Lähikeittiöhanke's Local Cuisine Advisors in 2007. The count of participating municipalities totals to 366 which equals 92 % of municipalities in Continental Finland. In conclusion, there would be room for local products in public municipality catering if production, harvest and processing quantities could be raised and the supply chain between producers was coalesced

Globalisation as a challenge or opportunity for organic farming

During one intensive week in October 2005, the authors were gathered to discuss the impact that globalisation has on the Organic Food Systems and the opportunities that globalisation opens up for developing these systems. The meeting took place as a Ph.D. course under the auspices of the Research School of Organic Farming and Food Systems (SOAR; www.soar.dk). All participants research within Organic Agriculture and Food Production in one way or another