Food miles grants?

luckat

Is there any system of farmers' or horticulturalists' grants in Europe that supports growing food locally, specifically, so the food is eaten within, say, 300km of where it's grown?

For context:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/opinion/06mcwilliams.html?ex=1187064000&en=56b5d6c45f9d15af&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Del2005

Why when the article you posted ends with this

We must also be prepared to accept that buying local is not necessarily beneficial for the environment. As much as this claim violates one of our most sacred assumptions, life cycle assessments offer far more valuable measurements to gauge the environmental impact of eating.

silverharp

I believe from a study in the UK, locally grown out of season tomatoes have a higher carbon input then tomatoes brought in from Spain. This conclusion steers towards locally grown but low tech agriculture.
On a different tack I believe for some products up to half the produce is discarded before it leaves the farm due to wrong shape/size as dictated by the supermarkets. So I think the responsibility lies with the consumer to eat seasonally and no be so precious about how food look on the shelf

luckat

Depends. The study was not in Irish conditions.

All I know is that tomatoes I buy in the supermarket taste like cotton wool treated with Brasso, whereas those I grow or my friends grow taste - and smell - as tomatoes were designed to. Same with most foods.

I think it's a bit nuts to try to grow foods from another climate in ours - but there are things, like mangetout, artichokes, carrots, shallots, onions, etc, that grow beautifully here.

I would never be one to advocate out-of-season food. Seasonality is a wonderful guide to flavour, and there's no excitement to seasonal foods if you can get them - or flavour-free versions of them at least - at any time of year.

Del2005

What you are talking about is what the EU is trying to get away from when they brought in the single farm payment. They wanted to get away paying farmers for growing stuff for intervention and just give them cash so they can grow whatever they want. It's up to the farmers now to grow what they can sell, but since it's only a few years in it'll take farmers a while to switch over. Also there are a load of farmers markets turning up now so they can sell direct to the public and make better money then selling to the supermarkets.

luckat

In theory, Del. In practice, I rarely meet any farmers at farmers' markets around Dublin (I meet lots in Galway, though), and the best organic farmers I know live so far away that they can't afford to drive their vegetables to a market!