It’s been a fascinating few days in Colombo with the South Asia Nitrogen Hub. We’ve been learning about the perverse impact of farm subsidies on the environment, about the multiple influences on farmer decision-making, about farmers having to work off the farm to make ends meet and about
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Today is World Food Day, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has been promoting a video that states: “Over 820 million people suffer from hunger.”[1] This has been the reality for many in Scotland. This year’s Scottish Health Survey revealed that, within the
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‘Everything we do around food production is having the worst impact on the planet. If we designed the worst food system possible, we would come up with the way we do it at the moment.’ said Dieter Helm in a panel discussion Future Proofing Food, Feeding the
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25 of us came together for a gathering for small Scottish food producers in The Yurt, at Whitmuir Community Farm on Thursday 11 July 2019. Many travelled far, from all over Scotland including from Sutherland, and Dumfries. We came together to discuss ‘Food as a Relationship’ by
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This week, two milestone reports were released on poverty in the UK. The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, released his final report following a fact-finding mission to the UK last autumn. Alston details how increasing poverty and an undermined welfare system meant that for many of
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It was disappointing if predictable that much of the media coverage for the UKCCC’s net zero report last week focused on lifestyle changes – did this mean going back to the Stone Age, never flying and living in the dark to save the planet? – rather than
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The long-awaited consultation on a Good Food Nation Bill was published just before Christmas – you can read it here. It is complex and confusing in places, but the proposals are significant. This Bill will not suddenly change the way we produce or eat food: it is not
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What an outstanding achievement! From 80 people meeting up ten years ago to say ‘there is another way to do farming’ to a 1000 strong conference with 100 workshops and 250 speakers, including not just Michael Gove but this year the legendary Eliot Coleman. Colin Tudge and
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Last weekend, the yearly climate change talks came to an end in Poland. Amid Brexit headlines, you may have missed the news: the world’s leaders agreed a new ‘rulebook’ for how countries will deliver on the promises made in the Paris Agreement in 2015. While this is
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Guest blog by Alice Halls, freelance writer and beekeeper. Why bees are so important for our food system The Scottish government recently launched the Pollinator Strategy for Scotland (2017-2027), outlining measures to make the country a friendlier place for declining bee populations. Bees are essential for pollinating roughly one third of the
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