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?
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Interesting and fullsome comment.From this RSA programme of Food for the Future it may be useful to consider the smart approach which is to enable citizens to engage actively in a paradigm shift in attitudes to food. Food should not just be a fuel stop but contribute to lifestyle by engaging with others to share time and space as well as offering a real opportunity to be creative.I wonder why the Culinary Arts do not feature in our Scottish Arts scene as being worthy of inclusion and respect?.Food in presentation and dish creation impacts on many of the five senses. However to create good food in both form and presentation requires practical food skills which for some people are just not in their sphere of competence but we have excellent chefs who could carry the banner within the Arts scene. There are Culinary Olympics after all.However for those less focussed on food creation such simple tasks as making soup can be a means of de stressing as well as producing a good nutritous dish- using Scottish based produce- and in the use of a pressure cooker - takes 20 minutes from ground to plate. This is an example worthy of consideration both in terms of economic sustainability and connecting with carbon footprint re energy reduction as well as contributing to a healthy diet. I am sure the Fife, One Planet Food project would agree- as well as many at home and away. The science and technology underpinning food production and dish creation could become a meaningful way in which all citizens can develop an interst in how to progress a capability in both science and technology fields. The advantage of using food as a key learning driver is that most people would feel confident in intially thinking about food, as there is considerable basic knowledge level of how to eat and even what to eat in terms of a healthy diet,the latter of which may not always play into action!!Ask our great athletes about the food they eat and they will tell you that they need real scientific understanding to be able to ensure a fit body to train and compete at the highest level. Those of us who are not national nor international athletes still have a responsibility to understand how we can make food palatable in cooking and at best deligthful while always being helpful in a healthy eating diet. Another point in this area of lifelong learning is how to sustain an active lifestyle- essential to support good health. The multi facets of food in the world, gives us many opportunities to engage with each other and in so doing develop relationships in and around the planet which will hopefully provide a mechanism for progress in our challenged world. Hope springs eternal!!!!
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ReplyDeleteWe need to think of creative ways in which people can be made aware of local food then drive through to be informed and finally to act and purchase.
This kind of process means providing good information and consistent messages about what is local food.
With no clear definition of this term people are will undoubtedly become confused.
There is a risk that some lowest common denominatior proxy such as Scottish might be used. Not sustainable, not low carbon, not organic, not healthy, not fair price, not helpful..just stuff from Scotland. There is no reason to assume stuff from Scotland is fundamentally beneficial.
So there needs to be consensus over the purpose of promoting local. For me it should be advocating a local food, of the highest quality, the best achievable environmental standards, circulating the maximum amount of capital locally. There should be a drive to reach into communities where there is the least choice. Get the message right..get the people on board and promote the very best.
jfreeze has a blog???!!!! kiss kiss
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