The 10 principles

Whether in their food charters or strategies, most cities with sustainable food programmes have adopted a set of principles to guide their efforts. The following 10 principles try to capture the full breadth of critical food issues and provide a framework for people and places wishing to develop their own programmes.

Access to affordable healthy and sustainable food and to information that helps people make better food choices should be a fundamental right for everyone in society.

All food providers - manufacturers, retailers and caterers - should provide safe, healthy and sustainable food to promote the wellbeing of the people they serve.

Food production should conserve and enhance terrestrial and marine ecosystems and natural resources including soil, water and air.

Food should be produced, processed, distributed and disposed of in ways that minimise both its local and global ecological footprint.

Planners and policy makers should support local food economies by promoting a high number and diversity of food enterprises throughout the food chain.

Public and private sector bodies should procure and provide healthy and sustainable food in a way that promotes local economic prosperity.

Everyone should have an opportunity to develop food growing, cooking and buying skills that foster community resilience and individual self-reliance.

Planners should ensure communities can access land, buildings and other resources that enable them to take more control of their food.

Workers throughout the food chain, both in the UK and abroad, should have good working conditions and be fairly paid for their work.  

Tackling food poverty, which is becoming one of the most prevalent forms of social injustice in the UK, should be a priority for institutions and policy-makers.