Food for thought: some of the issues that have emerged

Food security – Is a huge issue given the pressures on the food supply chain to address the need to reduce carbon, deal with peak oil and achieve social and environmental change.

• There is a need for a strategy and action plan to address this critical issue
• Other countries are taking action to ensure food security eg NZ cutting land used in production and Brazil rationing export of beef. The issue will grow in importance and will also come up against increasingly inappropriate production methods in use today, an aging workforce , lack of entrants and loss of skills. This happened in Russia and led to massive rural social change.

Dietary health – issues were identified as the continued poor diet in Scotland which remains stubbornly bad despite government campaigns to raise awareness and encourage change.

Price – Market driven price competition has to date been the norm. It is reinforced by the current supermarket dominated retail sector but there are some signs of price alone not continuing to be the only factor in consumer decision making.

Quality & Provenance – Is becoming an issue through increasing consumer interest in the wider implications of food and its sourcing through fair trade and ecological impacts.
• Scotland’s natural products should be more appreciated by the local population
• The catering and tourism industries should be capitalising and developing to a greater extent Scotland’s food assets.

Market Access – Highlights the issue of choice and social inclusion. Attention was drawn to the lack of access to good food supply or choice, particularly for the socially disadvantaged.
• The consumer model promotes price competition, convenience and loyalty which is short term and corporate driven rather than picking up elements of community and sustainability.
• Producers have suggested that we perhaps lack the political will to decentralise our food system and support greater variety of competition – it is easier to allow the big multiples and industrial processors to feed the nation than to support variety and choice

Investment & Returns – Given the current almost financially driven economic model it is difficult for any party to break the mould and balance issues such as environmental protection whilst making an adequate living. Sources of funding are often limited in a market driven situation.
• A key issue for production is incentive, programmes are not attractive enough and regulation surrounding them is often onerous
• Better advisory services are needed to support producers in identifying and justifying making the necessary changes

Infrastructure – Both physical and social infrastructure has become geared around our late 20th century food chain. This has created consolidation for economies of scale and a destruction of local infrastructure. It has been premised on cheap transport and widespread trade – this may not be sustainable in future.

Scale – Scale of the existing food chain is forcing out small players, reducing choice and creating investment barriers to entry. Whilst on the other hand lack of individual enterprise scale or access to consumers inhibits the ability of innovators to get a foothold.

Regulation – Needs to be targeted appropriately to avoid it becoming a barrier to innovation and change whilst curbing inappropriate activity. This needs to be joined up better to support policy delivery better.
• The Forum noted that the forthcoming Scottish Food and Drink Policy was a step in the right direction but faced a complex set of issues that would be dynamically changing – this would require constant effort to push the boundaries to keep it relevant
• The need for greater joined up thinking across government than has hitherto been the case
• A greater need for action and agencies to take collective responsibility rather than passing people and issues around between themselves as “someone else’s problem”.

Sustainability – Has been a difficult goal to define in a cohesive way that balances economic, social and environmental factors particularly given the predicted climate change and peak oil crises.
• Defining and supporting the achievement of economic sustainability
• Engaging the producers is vital to achieving change as they are faced with many challenges and need good guidance on how to change to address the future
• Agriculture is thought to account for 20% of our carbon emissions and will be impacted by peak oil
• The need to build and support agricultural extension services

Knowledge & Skills – This area provoked much debate with issues such as
• The gap in consumer understanding of the food chain and their choices and role within it.
• The lack of school education with the dropping of home economics from the core curriculum exacerbating the social problems associated with food.
• The loss of skills from farming with its aging workforce. The gap between academia, research findings and innovation in the food chain.
• Achieving closer engagement between academic research and its application in production, processing and consumer environment with more dynamic links to policy

Social engagement – the need to reconnect people with the growing and sourcing of food – developing better relationships between communities and local producers
• Achieving culture change all along the food chain and its regulation
• Breaking through the urban rural divide and making the challenges real in the environment that has become most removed from the food issues.
• Can we make food a vehicle for promoting social and environmental change.

Consumer behaviour– how do we influence behaviour to achieve a better healthier and sustainable society
• People are willing to change but don’t know how. There is a gap in knowledge and leadership. Fife Diet is an experiment in local food supply that has been successful and provides an example.
• Need to identify and publicise other examples
• The power of community will can it be harnessed?

Food: The Staff of Life

Food is, undeniably and essentially, “the staff of life”. Our current food system, however, is economically, environmentally and socially unsustainable and contributing to a detachment from our local communities and landscapes. Through our multifaceted attempts to reduce our carbon footprint, engage with and develop habits that are more sustainable there have been some first moves towards a more sustainable future. However, we still have a lack of sustainable alternatives when it comes to the sourcing and processing of our food.

In meetings held at Scottish Parliament on 5 December 2008 and 23rd February 2009, various stakeholders and interested individuals came and shared their insight and experience in trying to tackle the food conundrum through the various programmes, experiments, and new technologies. Through these meetings there was a sense that there is still a lack of readiness to engage in change by many stakeholders. This lack or readiness runs all through the food chain from primary production through to the end consumer for a variety of reasons ranging from complacency to sheer bemusement at how to address the issues.

To achieve the necessary change in the approach that must be taken along the food chain, stakeholders must truly understand the need for change, perceive the current state as untenable and have a vision for the future and a route to get there. This requires a clear framework for brokering a common vision and developing a route map that engages the many stakeholders.

The RSA can work as a conduit between the many stakeholders involved in the food arena. It can foster debate, communication and showcase successes within the food arena and contribute to policy development on Scotland’s food and drink. There is also a tremendous opportunity for the RSA to look at food from an aspirational, visionary perspective and through that explore how we can make Scotland more sustainable in its approach to feeding itself.