Wells Food Network promotes food that is good for people and good for the environment. ​Our aim is to increase the availability of healthy, sustainable, locally sourced and affordable food for everyone in Wells and its surrounding towns, villages and countryside.

​​As part of achieving that ambition, we have joined the fast-growing Sustainable Food Cities network. This is a network of 45 cities and places - including Bristol and Bath & Northeast Somerset - that are taking a joined up approach to tackling some of the social, environmental, economic and health challenges facing us today.

Our core belief

Food and farming have always been an important part of the life of Wells and its surrounding towns and countryside. Farming has shaped the landscape of the Somerset Levels and Mendip Hills for centuries, and today the wide range of producers,  markets and businesses involved in food play an important role in the local economy.

Food and farming under pressure
Yet our food and farming system is under pressure as never before. Too many people cannot afford, or cannot access, the good food they need. Globally we face the risk of irreversible climate change, a massive biodiversity crash, increasingly degraded soils and farmers under huge financial pressure. 

A growing health crisis
At the same time, we are witnessing a growing human health crisis, both from increased levels of antibiotic resistance (caused partly by their use in farming) and from the huge increase in serious health conditions such as diabetes and obesity that are related to lifestyle and diet. 

Food is the solution
A common denominator of these challenges is food. And yet, while food is a key ingredient in all these challenges, food – readily available, local, affordable, sustainably produced food – coupled with healthy diets, is also a vital part of the solution.

The challenges facing us

  • ​Our countryside: Pressure on farm incomes has seen smaller family farms replaced by large scale agri-businesses and so to ever larger fields, with the resulting depletion of wildlife and decline in rural employment.

  • Health: The typical Western diet, including high levels of sugar, meat and processed food, is one of the leading causes of health problems such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes, all of which are putting an increasing strain on our health services.

  • Food poverty: The growth in the number of food banks in recent years testifies to the levels of food poverty experienced by some people in our community. Meanwhile, huge amounts of food are wasted by others. The average family could save £700 a year by throwing away less food, according to Love Food Hate Waste.  

  • Community: There’s the need successfully to integrate 1,500 new households into the community life of Wells, in a way which avoids dislocation and safeguards the continuation of a safe, cohesive and active community.
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  • Local business: The rise of the big food retailers and brands, alongside the growth in internet shopping, is making it increasingly difficult for independent shops to survive.

Finding a solution

​We believe these challenges can only be addressed by putting sustainable food at the heart of all we do. This approach offers a positive way to: 
  • Enhance public health and well-being – by enabling more people to benefit from access to healthy, affordable and sustainable diets.
  • ​Build community cohesion – by forging closer connections between people. 
  • Create closer connections between people through an expanding local food supply chain.
  • Conserve our countryside – especially by sustaining more smaller / family farms and championing food which is grown locally in sustainable farming systems: with biologically active soils, which respect animal welfare, avoid the prophylactic use of antibiotics and are rich in wildlife.
  • Underpin local economic prosperity –by stimulating local enterprises and keeping a higher proportion of money in local hands.

Our history

Find out more about our history as well as our Trustees and Steering Committee members. Find out more about Sustainable Food Cities here.

Get involved

Fancy joining us? 
​Find out about how you can get involved in transforming our food and farming system here.
Picture credits, clockwise from top: View over the Levels, by Nelo Hotsuma; Harvest vegetables, by Steven DePolo; Lettuce heart by Mason Masteka;
​Bowl of tomatoes by Susy Morris; Wells Farmers' Market, by Susie Weldon