Regional Mat — a collaborative project between the Federation of Rural Economy and Agricultural Societies, the Federation of Swedish Farmers and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
You have no doubt heard about enterprises that promote local and regional food, such as the Farmer's Own Market (Bondens Egen Marknad), Food from Roslagen (Roslagsmat), Öland's Harvest Festival (Ölands Skördefest), Wapnö farm dairy (Wapnö gårdsmejeri), Siljan's Cured Meats (Siljans Chark), Pyramid Bread (Pyramidbröd), A Taste of the Archipelago (Skärgårdssmak), etc. For the project and the businesses involved local raw materials and local processing are of central importance and the products are sold with clear information about their origin. Parma ham, many of the French cheeses and also our own Västerbotten cheese and pyramid cake (spettkaka) are examples of products which combine local tastes and traditions to meet an increasing demand from consumers.

Your contributions are valuable!
Regional food is often promoted as an alternative to large-scale food production whereby the focus is on traceability, consideration for the environment and local employment opportunities. Up to now our knowledge of regional food has been limited. But by exchanging information and experience these gaps in our knowledge can be filled all the more quickly.
Contact us with your views on the web site design, subjects you want to take up, information about projects, tips about ongoing activities, etc.
The Regional Food site is what you make of it!

The "Regional Food" project
The aim of the project is to support sustainable development in the community, to support rural development with the emphasis on food production, and to increase competitiveness within the sector by benefiting small-scale food processing and consumers. This is being achieved principally by supporting existing activities and assimilating and disseminating the knowledge and experience gained, and by stimulating new ideas. The project is among others financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Affairs.

The project management includes:
Ingela Hallberg, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (ingela.hallberg@elms.slu.se)
Camilla Thörnqvist, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (camilla.thornqvist@elms.slu.se)

Web site — newsletter
Work within the project is aimed at providing a clear picture of what is happening in terms of local food production and regional food in different parts of Sweden. To this end a web site "Regional Food" (www.livsmedelssverige.org/regmat) has been started. There is also an electronic newsletter connected to the site.

The web site is intended for:

• Project managers

• Raw materials producers, farmers

• Small-scale food producers

• Researchers

• Authorities (county administrative boards, county councils, municipalities)

• Politicians and other decision-makers

• Representatives from trade and commerce

• Consumers

Food ambassadors
Since 2000 up until August 2005, the project has had four food "ambassadors" with close local and regional ties. They were in many situations like spiders in the web and acted as intermediaries for information between the local/regional and the national level. They arranged, for example, markets and food fairs, and they lead and participated in various projects and built networks.

National network
There is a national network of project managers around the country. Through this network up-to-date information is distributed and common initiatives are initiated, e.g. a larger poll about local food has been done, focussing on consumers, producers and retailers. Also, in September 2005, a European conference on local and regional food was held in Lerum, Sweden. Would you like to be part of this network, please contact someone in the project management group.

Network of researchers
There is a network of researchers around Sweden. The network exists so that researchers will inspire each other and be of mutual benefit, and also to allow easy access to the researchers' work for everyone who wants information. The researchers are introduced at the home page under "Research".

Seminars etc.
Regional Food also arranges seminars and disseminates information to the mass media through a network of journalists.
The information in Regional Food is administered by LivsmedelsSverige/SLU.
Project Manager Ingela Hallberg is responsible for publication and the web site is runned by Camilla Thörnqvist.