The BBC Food Programme on Radio 4 is currently investigating this and had a fascinating programme last week about the Fife Diet where a group of individuals in Fife were asked to spend the past year buying food produced locally. This is followed up this week with a look at how scientists are tackling the problem nationally.

You can hear the programme again here.

Advice to the entrants is - Homemade & Seasonal, Conscientious food - No additives but rain and sunshine. No Re-labelled Supermarket contributions!!!

Patron of the festival is Stephanie Moon, Executive Chef at Rudding Park who will be joined by Julia Marley of Bendgate to judge the competition.

Nestling beneath the windswept moors, the dales are an essential part of the character of the National Park.

Most farming is traditional cattle and sheep rearing with a few dairy farms. Many of the farms have rights to graze sheep on the moor and have two separate flocks of sheep, one that spends most of the time out on the moor and the other that is kept in the richer, enclosed grass pastures all the time.

The fields are generally smaller and more irregularly shaped fields than the Tabular and Hambleton Hills. Drystone walls typically enclose the upper fields, often giving way to hedges on the lower ground.

The dales contain a wonderful mosaic of habitats from valley bottom to moor top. Streams, or becks as they are known locally, in the valley bottoms, meadows cut for winter feed, summer grazing pastures, steep sided ghylls, larger moor-edge fields or intakes with rough grassland and native oak woodland.

The cash was raised through a number of fund-raising activities surrounding this year’s Kilnsey Show, where the REAL village proved one of the highlights, featuring all the different areas to which hill farming communities contribute – from the view you see to the food on your plate, supported by regional arts and culture, rural crafts and skills.

Food and Farming for REAL chairman, farmer Steven Crabtree, who also runs Bolton Abbey Foods, said: “The project has proved a runaway success in raising perceptions locally, regionally and nationally of the importance of the Uplands by shining the spotlight on the vital role and positive contribution hill farming communities make to modern-day life.

“While Food and Farming for REAL now ceases to exist in its current format, it has made such a positive impact that we are looking at various options that will allow us to both continue and build on the success of this flagship initiative.”

The £2,060 cheque was jointly presented to Ian Bell, director of the ARC-Addington Fund, by Food and Farming for Real committee member Christine Clarkson, of Embsay, and Lynda Spence, manager of the Skipton group of branches at Barclays, which provides matched funding to the charity.

The ARC-Addington Fund was established in 2001 at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Church’s response to the foot and mouth outbreak. It was re-constituted in 2002 as a charity seeking to provide housing for persons leaving non-viable rural businesses and has to date distributed over £10.3 million.

Our apologies if you have problems listening to this file, we experienced some technical problems which have now been resolved.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button or if you’d like to subscribe you can do so at iTunes by clicking here

The podcast series is sponsored by Business Link Yorkshire. If you’re looking to start or grow your business within Yorkshire and Humber for more information about how they can help you please contact them on 08456 048 048, info@businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk or www.businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk

The Duke of Devonshire opened the show and was good enough to offer his comments and support once again to the REAL campaign.

Here’s a little of what he had to say… more will follow in the podcast and on the blog.

The podcast series is sponsored by Business Link Yorkshire. If you’re looking to start or grow your business within Yorkshire and Humber for more information about how they can help you please contact them on 08456 048 048, info@businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk or www.businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk

You can listen to the podcast by clicking the play button or if you’d like to subscribe you can do so at iTunes by clicking here

The podcast series is sponsored by Business Link Yorkshire. If you’re looking to start or grow your business within Yorkshire and Humber for more information about how they can help you please contact them on 08456 048 048, info@businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk or www.businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk

Here’s a video from our new podcast series.