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Use LOAF placemats at your church harvest festival or at a meal you arrange for friends..

PRESS RELEASE     15 Oct 2001

"Use your Loaf" says Christian Ecology Link, as Bishop backs new approach to food.

The Bishop of Hereford, the Church of England's Environment Spokesman, is backing Christian Ecology Link's 'LOAF' principles on food, intended to encourage food which is Locally produced, Organically grown, Animal friendly and Fairly traded.

Addressing CEL's conference on Christianity, Food and Land Use at Ryton Organic Gardens on 13th October, Bishop John Oliver said
    "The LOAF principles are valuable, and I very warmly support them. The future of farming and rural life in Briatin hangs in the balance. Without a flourishing farming industry, our landscape and our rural communities will change out of all recognition, with disastrous consequences for the environment, for bio-diversity, and for local communities, especially in the more remote parts of Britain."
Welcoming the Bishop's support, Christian Ecology Link (CEL) Chairman Dr Tim Cooper said that he hoped that more churches would display LOAF posters and Place-mats and apply the principles when serving food at church events. He explained the LOAF principles:
    "Locally produced food means shorter journeys for farm animals to markets and abattoirs, less environmental damage caused by lorry traffic, support for the local economy and local farmers and greater regional variety. Much more organic food should be produced in Britain because 70% currently has to be imported. Animals ought to be treated humanely, in life and when slaughtered. Farmers in the UK, as well as the Third World, need a fair price for their products.

    LOAF is a particularly appropriate acronym because bread, a staple food, is full of symbolic meaning for Christians, as when Jesus is described in St John's Gospel as The bread of life*.

    Trying wherever possible to buy local produce, grown organically, without synthetic chemicals, where farm animals are treated well and the farmer given a fair price makes good sense for people and planet alike. If we want a better world, we really must use our LOAF"
* John 6:35


Download CEL's LOAF poster - free - and display it in your church


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