Liz Wade, Assistant Director, Economic Growth

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• Liz Wade, Assistant Director, Economic Growth
• Caron Kendall, Senior Economic Development
  Officer, Tastes of Bedfordshire
• Bedfordshire County Council

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A Taste of Bedfordshire

• Bedfordshire County Council emits 57 of the CO2
  emissions of the average LA
• 70 of the total carbon footprint is from
  indirect emission from procuring our electricity,
  passenger transport, social services,
  construction and equipment
• Sustainable procurement practices will be central
  - Flexible Framework for Sustainable Procurement
  to be at Level 5 by 2009
• Our EMS is certified ISO14001 Climate Change
  policy adopted (strategy to be launched end
  Nov.) Renewable Energy, dedicated staff
• Strong partnerships Green Business Network,
  (200 companies), Waste Exchange (780 business
  registered)
• Today I am sharing one of our projects aimed at
  promoting local food and drink procurement

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• Set up in 2003 by Bedfordshire County Council
  with funding from EEDA
• via the Bedfordshire Rural Affairs Forum

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Aims and objectives

• Promoting and marketing Bedfordshire its
  produce, environment, businesses and diversity
  particularly through the tourist industry
• Promoting local food and drink in Bedfordshire
  and encouraging distinctive and artisan products
• Enhancing tourism opportunities and outlets in
  Bedfordshire
• Broadening and strengthening networks of
  Bedfordshire producers and distributors

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Key Achievements - 1

• The Tastes of Bedfordshire brand is now widely
  recognised by local people - persuading people to
  purchase locally produced food
• Four editions of the new Tastes of Bedfordshire
  directory have been produced and 40,000 copies of
  each distributed
• Website www.tastesofbedfordshire.com
• Farmers Market road shows using local chefs
  preparing local produce held
• Tastes of Bedfordshire branded banners and paper
  bags produced for use of food producers
• A series of branded recipes in Discover
  Bedfordshire also used on the website and in
  Directory
• Meet the buyer events held bringing together
  local food producers and representatives from the
  hospitality, tourism, business, and education and
  health sectors

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Key Achievement 2

• Tastes of Bedfordshire attracts a large amount of
  media interest including one interview with Look
  East on Anglia. As well as regular spots for
  local food on the local radio
• The project has supported the start up of a
  Bedfordshire Meat Co-operative which has
  begun to supply to a number of schools
• Regular networking meetings of food producers
  throughout the duration of the project, as well
  as receiving regular newsletters and training
• Twenty-Five local business have joined the
  Bedfordshire Food Mark (giving the right to use
  the branding)
• A research project which helped to identify the
  needs of local producers and examined how they
  could benefit from the Tastes of Bedfordshire
  project has been produced

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What were the challenges and how did you deal
with them?

• Competing initiatives (Red Tractor, LEAF,
  Genuinely Bedfordshire) emphasising benefits of
  a local scheme
• Lack of support form the public sector getting
  high level endorsement and help from Foodlinks
• Businesses already doing well hard to convince
  them of the benefits of local procurement Lots
  of PR!

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What have you learned? What would you do
differently?

• Be very clear about the different markets for
  local food and have a different plan for each one
• Public sector
• Hospitality Businesses
• Farm Shops and Farmers markets
• Make sure that key players are involved e.g.
  Schools and Hospitals
• Start off with very strong branding for Farmers
  Markets as a key distribution network

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Regional/National Significance

• Having Bedfordshire Food Mark aimed at the
  hospitality businesses
• Region to provide a forum for all the different
  agencies to network and share good practice
• Regional campaign aimed at encourage local
  product