First ever Chichester Food Security Conference is a sell-out

A successful partnership between climate action groups in West Sussex and Hampshire led to a sell-out Food Security Conference staged in Chichester last week.

Members of CANDo, an amalgamation of local Climate Action Network groups initiated the event, then proposed a collaboration with Transition Town Chichester, ChiCAN and CANs from many local villages and market towns.

And, after lots of hard work and planning, it all came together when almost 130 people arrived from across the south east for speeches and a day’s workshop with some very high-profile speakers. The keynote speaker, Prof Tim Lang, Emeritus Professor of food policy at City University, London, was joined by ffinlo Costain(acknowledged food security blogger), Martin Lines (Chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network), and Vic Borrill, and Amber Dansoh, leaders of Food Partnerships in Brighton & Hove, and Arun & Chichester.

The event was chaired with great good humour, by Dr Tony Whitbread, a highly respected local ecologist and conservationist President of Sussex Wildlife Trust.

Attendees included representatives of county and district councils, members of NGOs and charities, farmers, food producers and suppliers, interested members of the public, landowners - and all looking for solutions to the topical dilemma of how communities survive in the event of a food crisis.

At lunchtime UK Harvest, one of Chichester’s local food heroes, delivered delicious vegetarian and vegan catering all put together from local food surpluses.  

In the afternoon Sara Osman the Climate Change Officer from South Downs National Park played a key role in managing workshops and discussions. Networking was happening everywhere around tables and over tea. The first output from the conference is expected to be the first ever Chichester Food Security Declaration which will be used to promote and take forward changes to strengthen the existing failing systems.

Organisers hope that the conference will bring greater awareness of our fragile food security scenario - resulting from climate change, severe weather, geopolitical events and cyber attacks such as the one that emptied many shelves in French supermarkets last week. And they hope community-organised food security events will prompt politicians and government departments to think more seriously about our food security – a risk that doesn’t even appear on our National Risk Register.

The conference was judged to be a resounding success with attendees paying tribute to the speakers and the many organisers and volunteers who made it happen.