Highland Good Food Conversation

now renamed as

Highland Good Food Partnership

website      https://highlandgoodfood.scot/

email         hello@highlandgoodfood.scot
 

facebook    https://www.facebook.com/highlandgoodfoodpartnership/
twitter       https://twitter.com/highland_food
instagram  https://www.instagram.com/highlandgoodfoodconversation/

October 2021

New newsletter introduces new team

Welcome to our September/ October newsletter.  We hope you had a fantastic summer and are ready to start wrapping up for autumn and eating lots of soup!  This is an exciting newsletter which will introduce you to our new team members and give you lots of information about what's happening in the last few days of September and throughout October, including an important HGFP workshop at the beginning of next month! 

Enjoy reading, and if you would like more information about anything in the newsletter, don't hesitate to get in touch.

The Highland Good Food Partnership team.

Read the newsletter

HGFP development update

Since the conference, the HGFP team have been busy setting the structure to support project groups from the conference and those already existing across the Highlands. We have our thematic groups who are made up of ‘experts’ from different sectors.

The existing thematic groups are: Local Food Economy, Education and Training, Health and Wellbeing and Community Food. These thematic groups are in place to support project groups achieve their aims by providing advice, resources and support. The thematic groups also have representatives that attend support group meetings with the HGFP core team to keep everyone updated on projects and ensure a good flow of information.

With these structures now in place, we encourage project groups to come back together to revisit their ideas from the conference, and get in touch with any new project ideas that you have!

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July 2021

New newsletter and podcast

This month we are focussing on how our food system is connected to the climate crisis, and what we are doing at the Highland Good Food Partnership to feed into COP26 in November.

Yesterday was Earth Overshoot Day for 2021. This marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. In 2021, it fell on July 29. Quite a sobering thought.

This month's podcast is an International Climate and Food Special!  Check it out below and hear some amazing food stories from our cousins in the USA and Kenya, as well as special guest, Mike Berners-Lee (author of 'How Bad Are Bananas?' and 'There Is Not Planet B').

A new blog too! – "The Road From Paris to Glasgow Is Through The Farm Gate", all about how COP26 needs to address changing our food system, in order to reach our climate goals. We have also released the Highland Good Food Partnership Charter, which you can check out below too, and on our website.

Read the newsletter

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July 2021

Second podcast series concludes

In our final episode of season 2, we are looking at the international food system as a whole, and how we need to address this holistically for us to slow down, and adapt to climate change.  With special guest, Mike Berners-Lee (author of 'How Bad Are Bananas?'), and stories from Food Tank in the USA and the Mijikenda Community in Kenya, we look at taking a whole food system approach, and the importance of collaboration.  Pablo Thorne from Nourish Scotland and Keith Masson from the Highland Council then help us to contextualise all of this, with regard to Scotland's climate commitments at COP26 in Glasgow this November.

Click link 4 below to listen to the podcast

Podcast conversations, series 2

4. International Climate & Food special
3. Taking a holistic view of the food system
2. How do ‘small’ individuals make a BIG impact 
1. Good Food stories 1

Blog articles, series 2,  on HGFP website

2. Paris to Glasgow through the Farm Gate
1. Greenhouse growing in the Highlands
 

Highland Good Food Partnership website

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June 2021

'Food Alliances: Early Lessons from the Highlands' 

On 22 June SCCAN held an online workshop at which Martin Sherring gave a talk reviewing the Highland Good Food Conference held earlier in the year and the subsequent development of the Highland Good Food Partnership.  

Read a report of the workshop and summary of the discussion

Video of Martin's talk

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The thematic groups Emma refers to are

• Local Food Economy
• Community Resilience
• Education and Training
• Health and Well-being

and a meeting is being held for each group on Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 May.  See the Events calendar for details.

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March 2021

Highland Good Food Conference Report published

Following the success of the Highland Good Food Conversation / Conference, the team have now published  a detailed and professional report which combines a summary of the proceedings of the conference over five afternoons earlier in the year with a mapping-out of the way forward to a 'Highland Good Food Movement' to translate the work of the conference into action. 

The current steering group will apply to set up a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) to give the movement a formal structure and enable applications for funding.  A co-ordinating group, the Highland Good Food Partnership, will be formed to support working groups to take forward the projects set out in the report, together with others as they arise.

A series of themed meetings is planned from 11 - 15 March, grouping the eleven project groups from the conference under three main headings of Strategy, Policy and Communications; Community Education & Resilience; and Local Food Economy.  The objective is understood to be to identify the most promising and practicable projects or groups of projects to pursue, and the volunteers willing to commit to taking them forward.

In his final remarks at the end of the report Martin Sherring, chair of the HGF  Steering Group, wrote

"This conference was one of the most exciting things I have ever been involved in, and the feedback forms clearly show that the delegates shared my excitement. I am really proud of the work Emma, Rachel, Josie and the rest of the team put into organising it, but the excitement came from the delegates themselves, their shared vision and enthusiasm.
.   .   .   .  
"We encouraged conference delegates to be ambitious in developing their projects, and we now have to apply the same ambition to make it all happen."

The report is available to view and download as a clearly laid out and very legible PDF file.

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February 2021

Highland Good food Conference ends

The online conference, the second phase of the Highland Good Food Conversation, has now ended, and was judged by those who took part to have been a great success, with over eighty people from all parts of the Highlands signing in throughout the five Monday afternoon sessions of the conference.

Enormous thanks are due to Emma Whitham and her team for recruiting a varied and interesting group of 'provocateurs' to stimulate the discussions, and ensuring that each session ran like clockwork - not to mention the numerous blogs and podcasts they produced during the first phase of the Conversation (see below).

Some of the projects worked on by sub-groups during the conference will now go forward to the third, action, phase of the Conversation.  It is hoped that this will result in increased production and consumption of healthy local-grown food throughout the Highlands, assisted by innovative marketing schemes; more growing activity by community groups and schools; and the growth of community composting linked to a reduction in food waste.

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Blogs, podcasts and other information

Two new blogs have been added since the conference ended

Mid-conference review, by Josie Fraser

Conference Finale and looking forward
 

How can food policy change in 2021?

2020 was a very difficult year for everyone, but in this episode we chat to Pete Ritchie from Nourish Scotland, about why he is very hopeful for the future of food in Scotland and across the world; both next year and beyond.
 

We explore the Farming for 1.5 degrees Inquiry, the implications for COP26 (UN Climate Change Talks) in Glasgow 2021, and the Glasgow Food & Climate Declaration, which is truly groundbreaking.

As always feel free to join the conversation and comment on Facebook,  Instagram  or  Twitter,  or  email us.

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New Community Food Resources

After making our 'What's Your Food Story' podcast episode, we have pulled together lots of community food resources on our website. How to start a community fridge, what local community food groups are there? And lots more!

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Podcast conversations

11. Good Food Conference highlights
10. How can food policy change in 2021?
9.   Can we have successful vegetable-growing enterprises in the Highlands?
8.  Can a thriving aquaculture sector support healthy communities?
7.  What Does It Take To Be A New Entrant Farmer in 2020?
6.  Highland retailers in a changing food system
5.  Is local Dairy possible in the Highlands?
4.  What's your food story?  
3.  Taking control of our bread
2.  Is regenerative farming the future?
1.  The role of community food

Blog articles (all)   on HGFC website

15. Conference Finale and looking forward
14. Mid-conference review, by Josie Fraser
13. Should every farm operate on a circular economy?
12. Scottish seaweed - a sustainable superfood
11. Local Farms In Good Hands
10. Online Markets
9.  Climavore: On Tidal Zones
8.  The Ethical Dairy
7.  Our Changing Attitude to Food Growing
6.  What's your Food Story?
5.  Flour to the People    
4.  Ancient Futures for Highland Hills: Reinventing the Shielings
3.  How Did The Highland Good Food Conversation Start?
2.  A Community Food Perspective: The Rise Of The Community Fridge
1.  How Can we Make Local Food Mainstream?

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How do we get more local, sustainable food on local dinner plates?

This is the question the Highland Good Food Conversation plans to explore, and then inspire the necessary action.  You are invited to join the conversation and be part of the movement.  Over the last few months we have all witnessed how precarious our food system is, and how during this crisis, it was our local food producers and retailers who passionately rose to the challenge of getting food to us all.  Because of this, there is now a lot of momentum and energy in the local food sector, and many are keen to see a food system that is better for the planet, better for people and better for producers.

To build on this enthusiasm and awareness The Pebble Trust and Transition Black Isle have jointly funded the Highland Good Food Conversation.  This initiative aims to bring people together from across the Highlands who are interested in sustainable local food; to develop a vision for the Highlands and identify key actions to take forward.  The main purpose of the Conversation is to inspire people and facilitate real action to change our food system for the better.

Conversation launch        August 2020

website    https://highlandgoodfood.scot/

email       hello@highlandgoodfood.scot