Better Food Options
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Changing what we eat is essential. Our food choices are creating multiple, interlinked crises – a loss of biodiversity, loss of soil fertility, water shortages, flooding, antibiotic resistance, plastic waste – and climate change. Greenhouse gases are increased by soil carbon loss, deforestation, the production and use of agro-chemicals, long-distance transportation of food, energy-intensive refrigeration, and methane loss from our food waste. Most of all, the problem is the way that we have intensified our farming and turned vast areas of countryside into ‘green deserts’.
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Many of us have understood that we need to cut our meat and dairy, and packaging, but we need to take on a more complex set of standards if we are going to address these many issues.
These include:
The good news is that making these changes is good for our health and our economy – and it’s becoming increasingly easy. There are several websites to help you find seasonal recipes – here is one, and here’s another – and if you’ve got time to forage responsibly, there’s plenty of free food around Bristol. Eating better doesn’t have to be more expensive – bean stews, veg and lentil soups, stir-fries and veg shepherd’s pies are all a lot cheaper than your average fish and chips or meat dish at home, even when organic.
Bristol City Council has a 'Going for Gold' initiative to encourage us all to improve our eating habits.
The shops and companies listed below are suggestions, but we’d love to hear your experiences. Do you know another shop selling organic produce, or a café specialising in local, home-produced food? If so, please get in touch.
These include:
- valuing quality rather than cheapness – that may mean changing your diet to stay within your budget;
- eliminating food waste with better planning, sharing and composting;
- choosing local and seasonal fresh produce, cutting the ‘food-miles’ and not buying flown-in or fast-steamed (shipped at maximum speed) fresh produce;
- eating real food – avoiding processed food that almost always contains palm oil and is high in ‘embedded’ carbon emissions;
- cutting meat and dairy and choosing better quality when you do buy;
- not buying produce from drought-stricken areas, particularly where the home population is struggling to eat.
The good news is that making these changes is good for our health and our economy – and it’s becoming increasingly easy. There are several websites to help you find seasonal recipes – here is one, and here’s another – and if you’ve got time to forage responsibly, there’s plenty of free food around Bristol. Eating better doesn’t have to be more expensive – bean stews, veg and lentil soups, stir-fries and veg shepherd’s pies are all a lot cheaper than your average fish and chips or meat dish at home, even when organic.
Bristol City Council has a 'Going for Gold' initiative to encourage us all to improve our eating habits.
The shops and companies listed below are suggestions, but we’d love to hear your experiences. Do you know another shop selling organic produce, or a café specialising in local, home-produced food? If so, please get in touch.
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1. Organic Veg Box Deliveries
Leigh Court Farm does an organic vegetable delivery from their 25 acres of Soil Association certified land just five miles from Bristol city centre. Chew Community Farm will also deliver to your door and you can volunteer on the farm itself. Sims Hill Shared Harvest cooperative delivers food to pick-up points across the city and encourages members to come and help grow it. Chi Wholefoods based in Bedminster has started a daily wholesale and fresh produce delivery service in Bristol on top of their existing organic veg box deliveries.
Able and Cole is not Bristol-based but they also deliver veg boxes and recipe suggestions across the city. Matter Whole Foods is Bristol-based and does weekly deliveries, including vegan meat boxes!
Grow Wilder, formerly Feed Bristol, is the Avon Wildlife Trust's flagship food growing project. Through their online store you can buy vegetable plants, culinary herbs and vegetable seedlings as well as native wildflowers, and you can have them delivered right to your door.
Companion Bread are delivering freshly baked sourdough right to people's doors across Bristol.
Good Sixty provide organic food options, including fruit & veg boxes, and aim to showcase Bristol's best independent food & drink producers. Good Sixty is linking local food companies and making deliveries by cargo bike. They also partner with some zero waste shops.
Leigh Court Farm does an organic vegetable delivery from their 25 acres of Soil Association certified land just five miles from Bristol city centre. Chew Community Farm will also deliver to your door and you can volunteer on the farm itself. Sims Hill Shared Harvest cooperative delivers food to pick-up points across the city and encourages members to come and help grow it. Chi Wholefoods based in Bedminster has started a daily wholesale and fresh produce delivery service in Bristol on top of their existing organic veg box deliveries.
Able and Cole is not Bristol-based but they also deliver veg boxes and recipe suggestions across the city. Matter Whole Foods is Bristol-based and does weekly deliveries, including vegan meat boxes!
Grow Wilder, formerly Feed Bristol, is the Avon Wildlife Trust's flagship food growing project. Through their online store you can buy vegetable plants, culinary herbs and vegetable seedlings as well as native wildflowers, and you can have them delivered right to your door.
Companion Bread are delivering freshly baked sourdough right to people's doors across Bristol.
Good Sixty provide organic food options, including fruit & veg boxes, and aim to showcase Bristol's best independent food & drink producers. Good Sixty is linking local food companies and making deliveries by cargo bike. They also partner with some zero waste shops.
Although it's not based in Bristol we wanted to give a plug to Somerset Hampers who are delivering fresh food produced by local suppliers to homes in Wells, Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury, Street and nearby villages because we know how important home delivery schemes like this are to people during this Covid-19 crisis
2. Organic Pasture-for-Life Meat and Dairy
Although many of us have gone vegetarian or vegan, the aim for our countryside should be a return to mixed farming and market gardening, with low-intensity livestock as part of the rotation. What we need to avoid is grain-fed meat that is kept indoors for six months of the year, creating potent nitrous oxide in the feed production and from the slurry. By supporting Pasture for Life you can support a better way of farming. Farm Wilder and Coombe Farm Organic are two companies that will make deliveries to your door.
3. Markets
The Whiteladies Road Market was set up by Sustainable Redland, with a heavy emphasis on local and organic suppliers. It’s held on the corner of Apsley Road every Saturday morning, 8.30am to 2pm.
Bristol Farmers’ and Producers’ Market is held in Corn Street / Wine Street, every Wednesday 9.30am – 2.30pm.
Bristol Farmers’ and Producers’ Market is held in Corn Street / Wine Street, every Wednesday 9.30am – 2.30pm.
4. Organic Food Shops
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There are several shops across Bristol offering a mix of organic, local, plastic-free wholefoods:
Bristol Food Union has compiled a list of local, independent food retailers, farmers and restaurant meal services. Smaller Footprints on Regents Street, Clifton, has a good range of organic produce and is plastic-free for the consumer. The Better Food Company has three mini-supermarkets across Bristol, including one on Whiteladies Road. |
You can now get organic, vegan protein sources such as beans and other pulses that are grown in Britain!
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Wild Oats Natural Foods is just off the top of Whiteladies Road.
Scoop Wholefoods is also on Whiteladies Road.
Chi Wholefoods is based in Bedminster.
Harvest is a wholefood cooperative on Gloucester Road.
Scoop Wholefoods is also on Whiteladies Road.
Chi Wholefoods is based in Bedminster.
Harvest is a wholefood cooperative on Gloucester Road.
5. Local / Organic Wines, Ciders and Beers
DBM Wines on King's Road, Clifton, has some organic wines.
If you’re buying in bulk, Vintage Wines offers a wide selection of organic and English wines.
Limeburn Hill is an organic, biodynamic vineyard in North Somerset, offering great wine, and also vineyard tours and tastings.
Quoins Organic Vineyard supplies through Waitrose in Henleaze or you can order direct.
National Trust for Scotland workers have begun using threatened pine trees at Cairngorms National Park to produce eco-friendly gin. Every purchase supports their efforts to protect the Caledonian pinewoods.
Moor Beers brew vegan-friendly beers right here in Bristol. They are now offering a delivery service or takeaways from their microbrewery just beyond Temple Meads.
The Bristol Cider Shop supplies local ciders plus gift hampers, cider brandies and liqueurs.
The Bristol Cider Company supplies pubs and restaurants across the city.
The Bristol Beer Factory sells cider and beer online and through its shop in Southville.
The New Bristol Brewery has a shop and offers a brewery school.
If you’re buying in bulk, Vintage Wines offers a wide selection of organic and English wines.
Limeburn Hill is an organic, biodynamic vineyard in North Somerset, offering great wine, and also vineyard tours and tastings.
Quoins Organic Vineyard supplies through Waitrose in Henleaze or you can order direct.
National Trust for Scotland workers have begun using threatened pine trees at Cairngorms National Park to produce eco-friendly gin. Every purchase supports their efforts to protect the Caledonian pinewoods.
Moor Beers brew vegan-friendly beers right here in Bristol. They are now offering a delivery service or takeaways from their microbrewery just beyond Temple Meads.
The Bristol Cider Shop supplies local ciders plus gift hampers, cider brandies and liqueurs.
The Bristol Cider Company supplies pubs and restaurants across the city.
The Bristol Beer Factory sells cider and beer online and through its shop in Southville.
The New Bristol Brewery has a shop and offers a brewery school.
6. Organic Restaurants
The Riverside Garden Centre has an organic café onsite.
The Soil Association maintains a list of restaurants it has certified with 'Organic Served Here' awards. At present there are only a handful in Bristol. If you know of more local organic restaurants, we'd be delighted to hear about them – please contact us.
The Soil Association maintains a list of restaurants it has certified with 'Organic Served Here' awards. At present there are only a handful in Bristol. If you know of more local organic restaurants, we'd be delighted to hear about them – please contact us.
