Plenty 2 - Food Systems Transformation for Scotland ¿ A Collective Call to action from the Scottish Food Coalition

OUR GLOBAL FOOD SYSTEM IS BROKEN.
The burden it is placing on our economies,
our health and our planet, is unbearable.
Yet the path to a healthier, fairer and more
sustainable food system appears elusive. In
Scotland, we have reached a critical point
on this journey.
The long-awaited Good Food Nation
(Scotland) Bill will finally be passed this
year. Along with other planned related
legislation, its impact could be profound:
shaping everything from the nation’s diet
and health to communities’ resilience, from
farming practices to animal and fish welfare,
from how food businesses operate to how
Scotland protects and restores its land
and nature in the face of looming
ecological and climate crises.
This report offers a roadmap to radically
reforming Scotland’s food landscape. First
it draws on the best available evidence on
food systems to lay out the scale of the
challenges. Then it shows what a better
food system can look like. Finally it outlines
the route towards achieving the food
system transformation we urgently need.
It’s a transformation that will require
systemic change across multiple areas
of policy and practice, and a strong
legislative framework that balances
different stakeholders’ competing interests,
power dynamics and resources. All of us -
governments, businesses, communities
and households - will have to reframe
how we value, produce, process, procure,
supply, consume and dispose of food
and drink.
The Good Food Nation Bill can provide a
strong legislative framework for achieving
this. To succeed, it must agree on a common
purpose and shared direction of travel. It
must provide the resources for generating
new national, local and public body food
plans, and their delivery.
To improve public health, protect and
restore the environment and deliver a raft
of economic and social benefits, we will
also require a concise set of measurable
outcomes. These should be crafted based
on public consultation, with local flexibility
in how they are delivered, and with explicit
mechanisms - and funding – for independent
monitoring, research and innovation. In this
way, our food system can be remodelled,
and peoples’ lives transformed.
This is no pipe dream: communities the
length and breadth of Scotland are already
showing how it can be done. From
Shetland’s vibrant local food economy
to the charity that supports older people to
access healthy food in Dundee; from the
Perth food waste company working with
local authorities to overcome barriers to
recovering green and food waste, to the
small businesses joining forces to operate
short supply chains in Dumfries & Galloway
and the Borders: this report offers inspiring
snapshots of what doing food better can
look like.
This is our collective vision for a fairer,
healthier and more sustainable food system
which Scotland – and the world – so
desperately needs, and the paths we need
to take to get there.