A BID to forge closer links between food producers and consumers in the North-East has been launched.

Community Supported Agriculture is genuinely local, involving a farmer or grower striking a real partnership with the local community, even to the extent of local people helping on the farm.

Bill Kirkup, land management initiative project officer with the Great North Forest, said a number of successful schemes were operating in other parts of the country, ranging from whole farms supplying produce to their local community, to renting a row of vines or having shares in an orchard or woodland.

In West Cumbria food co-ops ensured fresh, locally-grown produce was delivered regularly to deprived areas. "It means low income families now have access to fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and even farmed trout and wild game, said Mr Kirkup.

CSA schemes played a real role in improving the diet and ultimately the health of families.

He chaired a seminar held in Newcastle to discuss how CSA schemes might be introduced in this region.

Greg Pilley, CSA project co-ordinator for the Soil Association, said the idea began in Japan in the Sixties when a group of women concerned about pesticides in food arranged for a dairy farmer to supply them with milk. Large co-ops now catered for 21m people and the largest, in Tokyo, involved 700,000 members.

In America they had been seen as a marketing opportunity and in Cuba they were introduced to secure food supplies when these could no longer be obtained from Russia.

Advantages for the consumer included receiving fresh food and knowing where it was from and how it was produced. It reconnected them with the land and offered the opportunity to have access to the farm for education, work and leisure.

There were other environmental benefits and schemes could boost the local economy by keeping more money circulating in the immediate locality.

Mr Pilley gave examples of CSA schemes, including an organic producer in Norfolk who faced going out of business because of supermarket competition. When local people heard of his plight, they formed a group, raised funds and helped the business keep going. Fifteen years on the producer has moved to a larger site in the locality.

The Soil Association has appointed a CSA officer for the North of England. Mick Marston is based at Blackhall Mill and can be contacted on 01207 562317