Cabinet considered the head of policy and programmes’ report on the Oxfordshire Food Strategy. Oxfordshire County Council had commissioned Good Food Oxfordshire to produce a food strategy. Cabinet was asked to endorse the strategy and agree to develop a local action plan to implement it. Funding would be available from the county council to deliver the action plan.
The strategy aimed to ensure:
· healthy and sustainable food was affordable and accessible to everyone
· a sustainable food economy where local food businesses flourished, with more production, more outlets, more employment and better standards for workers
· more people could enjoy and engage with healthy, sustainable food and that ‘good food for everyone’ was part of our culture
· that food production, consumption and waste had a less negative impact on the planet
· more locally produced, sustainable food was bought and consumed locally, and that supply chains were more resilient
· that the council continued to evaluate and strengthen existing initiatives, build foundations for new initiatives, and to manage and monitor progress
Cabinet supported the strategy and welcomed the opportunity to develop a local action plan to implement it. The action plan should also allow the council to work in partnership with the many local community groups and the farming community that were already working towards these aims. Cabinet looked forward to the action plan and its implementation.
RESOLVED to:
(a) endorse the Oxfordshire Food Strategy (Part One) principles and framework for delivery, attached at Appendix 1 to the head of policy and programmes’ report to Cabinet on 1 December 2022; and
(b) ask officers to work with relevant partners to develop a detailed local food strategy action plan (Part Two).