A CRITICISM of the local food movement has been that, because of its small-scale nature, it is inherantly expensive and, for many families, a luxury they cannot afford.

Last weekend’s Dales Festival of Food and Drink at Leyburn helped prove that it isn’t necessarily so. Despite the worst recession of the modern era, the festival had more visitors than the previous year and stallholders reported brisk trade comparable with previous events.

A demonstration in the theatre marquee, where a meal for four people was prepared from less than £5-worth of ingredients purchased in the food hall next door, proved the point that one can eat locally and frugally.

It does require a thoughtful approach to food purchasing and meal planning, something which many families don’t seem to practise in the weekly charge round the supermarket.

Which probably explains why a startling statistic oft trumpeted by the Government, that a third of the food the nation buys is thrown away, is true.

That eye-catching offer for battery-farmed chicken flown in from some far-flung corner of the globe might seem superficially attractive as it gets dropped in the trolley, but less so when it gets dropped in the bin (and your local landfill site) some days later.

The answer lies in education, primarily in schools. Domestic science or home economics teaching is changing, but is enough emphasis placed on the “science” and the “economics”?

Last weekend’s festival was an object lesson in looking after you and your community’s health – and your wallet.