ABERGAVENNY FOOD FESTIVAL 2007

Bumper bookings for The Big Food Debate

PRESS RELEASE - 6th September 2007

A capacity nationwide audience will attend the first conference in the history of the Abergavenny Food Festival to debate the role of the festival and other similar “foodie” events in shaping British food culture. 

The Big Food Debate has attracted food festival organisers from all over the UK, as well as representatives from organisations promoting British and organic food, academics and others involved in rural regeneration.

Entitled “Growing Food Festivals/Changing British Food Culture,” the debate will be chaired by The Food Programme’s Sheila Dillon and its headline speaker is writer Joanna Blythman. Both are renowned for their tireless investigations into important food related issues.

The all-day conference at The Hill Education & Conference Centre in Abergavenny will be held on Friday 14th September, the day before the start of the Abergavenny Food Festival. It is sponsored by Miller Research (UK) Ltd, specialist research and evaluation consultancy company, and supported by adventa, Monmouthshire’s Leader + rural development programme. Their spokeswoman, Louise McGuinness, said: “This has been an extremely popular event. With a packed audience, representing a wide geographical spread and a range of food and rural regeneration interests, both from an academic and hands-on perspective, we are expecting a lively exchange of views around the central theme of whether festivals are mere fads for affluent foodies or whether they can have a real impact on food culture.”

The Abergavenny Food Festival is not only a celebration of all aspects of good food and eating, but has always been interested in helping to change the way people see, appreciate and value food. The conference will consider whether food festivals genuinely can help create a distinctive local food culture, become more sustainable, contribute to the local economy and have a wider impact in British food culture.

Sheila Dillon, who will chair the debate, is presenter of  BBC Radio 4’s
“The Food Programme” and creator of “Veg Talk”, Radio 4's interactive grocery show. She has won awards for investigative reporting and features about topics such as BSE, the development of organic farming, bio-engineered foods and supermarket power. Last year she won the prestigious Glenfiddich Award for best broadcast for a programme on food and poverty, produced by Jessica Mitchell.

Key Note Speaker Joanna Blythman is an investigative journalist, broadcaster and food campaigner. She is an advocate of the benefits of good food and three-times winner of a Glenfiddich Award. She contributes to The Guardian, Waitrose Food Illustrated and Scotland's Sunday Herald and has also written a series of books: The Food We Eat, How To Avoid gm Foods and The Food Our Children Eat.

Panel members and workshop leaders include Tony Griffiths from the Welsh Assembly Government’s Food and Market Development Division, Jessica Mitchell, Director of the Food Commission, the UK’s leading independent food watchdog, Frances Rowe from One North East, the regional development agency for the North East and Martin Caraher, Reader for the Centre for Food Policy, City University. Also on the panel is East Anglian Farmer William Kendall who ran the New Covent Garden Soup Company for 9 years and until 2006 was Chief Executive of Green and Blacks.

For further information, please contact Cathy Green, Press and Marketing Officer on 01873 851643
or e:mail cathy@abergavennyfoodfestival.com