Campaign to Protect Rural England awards local Community Farm

This is the first year of awards for CPRE Hampshire's Countryside and Design award for 2008, and they are proud to announce Futurefarms Ltd as one of the winners.

The awards were set up to reward people that are working to enhance Hampshire's environment and to highlight the importance of good environmental practice. Futurefarms Ltd in Martin, New Forest has been awarded within the 'Voluntary and Community' category, which promotes environmental conservation or restoration within the rural or urban environment, an awareness of sustainability issues and evidence of strong links to the local community amongst its criteria.

These projects are extremely important to CPRE, as they promote both the importance of local food and community involvement. Becky French from CPRE Hampshire said:

"CPRE feels it's really important to promote and highlight such unique projects. With the rising of both food prices and food miles in everyday food consumption, such projects are an important example of how we can produce high quality, competitive food with a lower environmental impact."

A group from Martin in Hampshire have formed a co-operative to try and produce much of their daily diet from the land within their own parish boundaries. Run primarily by volunteers the project uses local labour to employ the 'best practices' when growing vegetables with no pesticides and rearing pigs and chickens to a high free- range standard, fed only on natural grains and no GM products. Other food products are sourced locally. As well as being able to order your food online, the village holds a Saturday market at the local hall and provides an honesty barrow throughout the week. Their aim is to provide quality food of known origin for the village and surrounding area and also to promote the regeneration of the village.

The awards scheme is to be run annually and is open for the next round of entrants. It consists of three categories, in which projects that improve Hampshire's environment can be nominated to win an award. For more information please visit: www.cprehampshire.org.uk/news/awards.html or contact branch office on 01962 843655.

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Notes to editors

The Campaign to Protect Rural England, Hampshire Branch (CPRE Hampshire) is a registered charity and a branch of the national CPRE charity.

CPRE Hampshire strives to promote the beauty, tranquility and diversity of the countryside of Hampshire by the sustainable use of land and other resources in town and country, and encouraging the biodiversity and well-being of rural communities.

For information on CPRE, please contact:
Becky French or Pam Mason, CPRE Hampshire
Tel: 01962 843655
Email:admin@cprehampshire.org.uk

For all media enquiries, please contact:
Keren Burney, media & communications officer, CPRE Hampshire
Tel: 01730 894123   Mobile: 07876 780065
Email: kburney000@aol.com

© Copyright. CPRE Hampshire, 2007. All Rights Reserved.