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The Scottish Farm Land Trust and Gail Ross MSP are excited to invite you to ‘WANTED: Land for new farmers’ an event at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 27th September, 6-8pm. We’ll be exploring the potential of a land trust to support new entrants into farming and facilitate socially and environmentally productive agriculture.

Research undertaken this year by Nourish Scotland, as part of a feasibility study for the Scottish Farm Land Trust, found that hundreds of people are actively looking for farmland in Scotland, and are motivated by looking after the environment and developing rural livelihoods. However, access to land is a critical barrier. The Scottish Farm Land Trust aims to acquire farmland and lease it out with secure, affordable tenancies to new entrants to establish agroecological farms.

According to Scotland’s Land Reform Act, we are working for ‘a Scotland where the ownership, management and use of land and buildings contributes to the collective benefit of everybody’. A land trust could help facilitate a transformation of how we use our land, and support farming in Scotland that provides nutritious food for local people, sustains rural communities, contributes to healthy ecosystem and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

On 27th September, we’ll be joined by speakers who have successfully established land trusts in Europe, who will be sharing their wisdom and inspiration. We’ll hear from local producers, outlining how farming can address critical social and environmental challenges. You’ll be able to pick up a copy of our forthcoming report ‘Wanted: Land for New Farmers’ which is the outcome of a feasibility study for the Scottish Farm Land Trust, and find out ways to get involved with making this vision a reality.

Pursuit of economic growth is the core goal of governments around the world. This is leading to unsustainable resource use, and in richer countries is increasingly disconnected from the wellbeing of people. Importantly, it’s no longer clear what the purpose of this growth is.

The Scottish Government has set out to reconnect these aims and to place equal weight on wellbeing as a goal of public policy.

But when it comes to food, growth can appear like the only sensible policy. After all, the population is growing, and we still have hundreds of millions of people with not enough to eat – in Scotland, the number of people going to food banks because they cannot afford enough food for themselves or their families continues to rise.

What would happen if we put aside the economics of endless growth – and the associated risk and damage caused to the planet – and instead focused on how to better use and share the wealth of resources we already have? What does progress look like if growth is not the final goal? What are the ‘economics of arrival’ for food?

In this public event, Dr. Katherine Trebeck, Research Director at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and co-author of The Economics of Arrival, will discuss some key ideas from her new book – ‘arrival’ and ‘making ourselves at home’.

With more than enough food for everyone already being produced in the world, there is no more needed. Most societies collectively have enough, so how can governments address remaining inequalities to ensure that everyone ‘arrives’ in this world of prosperity? And once we have arrived, how do we ‘make ourselves at home’ when it comes to food?

Join us to find out.

Drinks and snacks will be provided from 6pm.