Sharing in or selling out: Food access in remote island communities

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the vulnerability of remote communities to market disruptions, emphasizing the importance of local food networks in enhancing resilience and food security. In this paper we look at how informal food-sharing practices, in remote island communities off the North West Coast of Scotland offer some resistance to and resilience against external market dependencies.

Our interpretative methodology involved a combination of field observations and qualitative interviews conducted with island residents, including crofters, local retailers, producers, community groups, and a local councillor. This convenience sample utilized personal contacts and a snowball approach, drawing participants from key organizations and institutions on the islands. Interviews were loosely structured to allow exploration of food access and informal provisioning practices. Field work was conducted across several islands in the summer of 2022, and follow up with virtual workshops. A total of 21 interviews, each lasting 30-90 minutes, generated over twenty hours of recorded data. Additionally, casual encounters with residents and reviews of official documents and historical accounts provided further insights.

Our findings show that food sharing in these communities extends across familial and social networks, often without any form of monetary transactions. We highlight several forms of sharing from ‘sharing-in’ between kinship groups to ‘sharing out’ surplus produce via community initiatives and ‘selling-out’ through informal "croft-gate" sales. Moreover, these practices operate alongside formal markets and for many reinforce cultural traditions and build social cohesion. However, given the informal and undocumented nature of this sharing activity it is difficult to trace or map these flows of food and sharing networks (Hendrickson et al 2020). However, there is little doubt that these practices continue to thrive among certain sections of the island communities and provide evidence of the adaptability and resilience of these communities.

While acknowledging the contributions of these food sharing practices, we find their broader impact on food security limited. Nonetheless, informal sharing networks play an important social role in these communities if offering only marginal buffering against disruption. In acknowledging the complementary role of informal food sharing, we provide insights into how culturally attuned local food systems strengthen community ties and reduce market dependency.