Host: Chris Bem – Food Ecologist

Professor Les Firbank – University of Leeds Chair of Sustainable Agriculture and Feed Leeds

Professor Geoff Tansey – Food Systems Academy

Dr Lindsay Smales – Incredible Edible Todmorden and Leeds Beckett University (Planning)

Malcolm Fewster – Diary Farmer, Cleckheaton:

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The Debate:

1  Should Yorkshire want to feed itself? 

Chris Bem summarises: ‘Not completely, since it is good to share food and tastes, but when we import food, we should not exploit others (those who till the soil, harvest the fruit) or the earth’

2  Could Yorkshire feed itself?

‘Yes, Yorkshire could feed itself and also feed other parts of England’ – do you agree?

3. If food were more locally grown, would this be good for farmers?

‘It might make us all more aware of our links to each other, to the countryside and to Nature’, but what about farm economics?

4. Could the people of Yorkshire be more involved in food growing?

‘Definitely and this would be good for our health, our communities, our cities and our awareness of ourselves as part of Life’.