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Why BigBarn is working with Slow Food

BigBarn has teamed up with Slow Food to help more people switch from a fast food, supermarket, lifestyle, to a more sustainable, healthy, seasonal, local, food culture.

A culture where communities are built around food, people are reconnected with where their food comes from and take an active interest in local food production. Even joining their local food industry and helping build their food community.

BigBarn was set up 17 years ago by a 5th generation farmer Anthony Davison who was frustrated by the small return farmers got for their produce through the supermarket dominated, national food industry. At the time farmers on average received only 9p in every £1 spent on food in the supermarket.

Do farmers get a good deal here?

This statistic was backed up when he saw his onions leave the farm for £110/tonne and on the Tesco shelf 2 days later for the equivalent of £850/tonne. He realised that both consumers and producers would get a much better deal by trading direct. And by communicating with their local producers, consumers would be enthused to cook fresh, seasonal, produce and influence what was grown.

To help this process BigBarn has been building a UK wide Local Food Map accessed by simply typing in a post code. 3,500 visitors visit the map every day and 7,000 food and drink outlets now have icons on the map with a password to add customer winning information like; video, online shop, offers, text and images.

To make the Map more powerful BigBarn is now sharing its technology and data so that any website can have the map to look as though it is theirs and share any income. This fits perfectly with BigBarn’s Community Interest Company status and there could not be a closer, like minded partner, than Slow Food.

Carrotman at Slow Food Turin

BigBarn to supply the map, technology and data, and Slow Food, their knowledge and groups to help add to the map and get more people switching to local.

Slow Food recognised BigBarn’s contribution to food over 13 yers ago and invited Anthony to the Slow Food Conference in Turin where he thought a presentation introduced by his alter ego and superhero Carrotman dancing to ‘Fight the Power’ would wake up the thousands of delegates after their great lunch. As music was not allowed he had to settle for shadow boxing followed by de-robing and saying; ‘That was Carrotman, he thinks we need to fight the power of the supermarkets, but we all know we have the power and must use it to help more people change to a better slower food lifestyle.’

This is even truer today and why it is so exciting to work together to build better, social, more sustainable, local food, communities as an alternative to the anti-social national food industry.

So please join us and divert as much of the £120billion spent with supermarkets to local food producers with massive benefits for all.

If you are a consumer type your post code in to the Local Food Map here, or join your local Slow Food Group here, or if there isn’t one Slow Food would love to help you set one up.

If you are a producer you can join the map here or, soon, through your local Slow Food group.

If you have a website and would like to have the Local Food Map and earn commission on trade email BigBarn here.

Join the BigBarn Local Food Community

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