Food and Growing

Food news latest -

January 2022

France bans plastic packaging for fresh vegetables

A law banning plastic packaging for large numbers of fruits and vegetables came into force in France on New Year’s Day, to end what the government has called the “aberration” of overwrapped carrots, apples and bananas, as environmental campaigners and exasperated shoppers urge other countries to do the same.

Emmanuel Macron has called the ban on plastic packaging of fresh produce “a real revolution” and said France was taking the lead globally with its law to gradually phase out all single-use plastics by 2040.

The Guardian     Angelique Chrisafis      31 December 2021

Read the full article

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January 2022

The future of Food?

'The Economist'  magazine's latest Technology Quarterly contains a number of articles on aspects of the future of food, including technologies for producing meat without animals and milk without cows, and urban 'vertical farms'.

Technology can help deliver cleaner, greener delicious food

Cows are no longer essential for meat and milk

Meat no longer requires animal slaughter

Microbes are being used more and more to make delicious food

Vertical farms are growing more and more vegetables in urban areas

Feeding 9bn people will mean reimagining the edible world

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December  2021

The 'Growveg'  Garden Planner is available by subscription  here .

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December 2021

Consultation on Good Food Nation Bill

The Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment (RAINE) Committee is scrutinising the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill and is seeking your views (deadline 5th January 2022). The Bill requires the Scottish Government and certain public bodies to create good food nation plans to support social and economic wellbeing, the environment, health, and economic development. According to the Scottish Government, these plans will help ensure good quality, locally sourced and produced food is a practical everyday reality for everyone.

Overview and background

Give your views

The Scottish Food Coalition feels that the bill as it stands is inadequate, and has written an article saying how they think it could be improved.

They have also prepared a guide to responding to the consultation and a  PDF summary  of Good Food Nation principles and what they see as the deficiencies of the current bill.

Scottish Parliament research briefing

This would seem like a good time of year to take a look at the Highland Food Activity Map on the Highland Good Food Partnership website.

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November 2021

HGFP publishes response to SG Local Food consultation

Highland Good Food Partnership's Co-ordinator Catriona Ferguson has  published HGFP's response to the Scottish Government's consultation.

The consultation is open to individuals as well as organisations, and closes on 26 November.  For the consultation document and how to respond see the links below the following article.

October 2021

Scottish Government consultation - Local food for Everyone

In August 2021 the Scottish Government launched a consultation on local food

Everyone, from private individuals to businesses and organisations, is invited to help shape a local food strategy for Scotland. This consultation is the first stage in a strategy to make high quality food accessible to all and promote the benefits of local food.

The introduction to the consultation states

Scotland has some of the best food and drink in the world, enjoyed around the globe and creating jobs the length and breadth of the country. Since 2007 the Scottish Government has dramatically improved the landscape for food in Scotland, from school lunches to whisky exports, from allotment provision to agricultural innovation.

The people of Scotland deserve to have access to the best produce Scotland has to offer, whether they're growing it themselves, buying it directly from a local producer, choosing it at a convenience store or supermarket, being served it at school, or in any number of other settings. Low income should not be a barrier to a healthy, balanced diet.
.   .   .   .
Local production has enormous potential to enrich lives, improve diets, reduce food miles and keep value in communities. We want to make sure that we're learning from others, adopting good practice, and removing the barriers that are stopping people growing, using, choosing or buying Scottish food at every opportunity.

Read the consultation document

Responding to the consultation   (closing extended to 2 December)

Highland Council's response to the consultation

HGFP's response to the consultation

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February 2021

Get the TBI Growing Guide

Anyone looking for gardening advice appropriate to the Black Isle should buy a copy of TBI's 'Growing Guide'  by Sheila Wickens, which can be obtained for £10 by emailing  info@transitionblackisle.org .

You can preview individual chapters of the Guide via the links on our TBI Growing Guide  page.

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July 2021

Highland Council signs Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration

From the Highland Good Food Partnership July newsletter

On Thursday 24th June the Highland Council agreed to sign the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration. The Glasgow Declaration is a commitment by local governments around the world to take joined-up action on food to tackle climate change, and a call on national governments to do the same. Food and farming account for almost a third of greenhouse gas emissions and there's no way to meet the Paris targets without changing the food system. The road from Paris to Glasgow goes through the farm gate. COP26 in Glasgow in November is our best chance to get the world on track to tackle climate change. 

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Local food in action

From the HGFP Facebook page

Here's some good news - and if it works on Raasay, it must be possible throughout the Highlands - mustn't it?

The cook at Raasay Primary School has been campaigning for the Highland Council to allow her to use produce from Raasay's Walled Garden whereever possible for school meals.

Having previously had success in getting @Raasay Community Stores set up as a supplier, enabling the purchase of Raasay venison by the school, we are delighted that the Walled Garden has now also become a supplier!

We are providing a weekly Veg Box, drastically reducing the food miles involved and ensuring that the youngsters in the community are aware of and benefiting from local seasonal produce grown without herbicides and pesticides.

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August 2020

Growing your own in Shetland - Transition Turriefield

Welcome to Transition Turriefield, we grow all sorts of fruit and vegetables. You will find us in Sandness, a small community on the very edge of the far west mainland of Shetland.

Here at Turriefield we are passionate about local food. We want as many folk as possible in Shetland to be able to access healthy, fresh, chemical free produce. Having a small carbon footprint for our produce is also important, so we use growing methods that have as little negative environmental impact as possible.

Turriefield Sandness Shetland  ZE2 9PL

01595 870272   turriefield@btinternet.com

website               Facebook

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Food and growing on The Black Isle

The Black Isle is a fertile area, perfect for growing a broad range of crops and rearing poultry and livestock.  Supporting local producers boosts the local economy - and, crucially, the closer the food is from source to plate, the better it tastes! Growing and eating locally is satisfying, tasty and fun.  And being in tune with the turning of the seasons means there's always something different on the horizon to look forward to.

Our Black Isle Larder website set up in 2017 at www.blackislelarder.org  replaces our earlier Local Larder booklet,  and provides an extensive directory of producers and suppliers of local food and places to eat and drink on and around the Black Isle.

Transition Black Isle's food group kicked off with two flagship projects in 2010, thanks to funding from the Climate Challenge Fund run by Keep Scotland Beautiful.   Grow North and the Highland Food Challenge helped householders across the Black Isle savour a greater proportion of local food and cut their carbon footprints.  We set up two community gardens, one of which, at Culbokie, is still active though now less closely associated with TBI.

The Grow North project was restarted in 2016 and has run every year since, with practical  workshops on a variety of topics and open garden days in the summer.  [Suspended in 2020 owing to Covid-19 - will be resumed when possible]. Two other very popular regular events are our Gardeners' Question Time in January and Potato Day in March, at which over sixty varieties of seed potatoes are on sale.  [GQT suspended, Potato Day running in restricted format].

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