Change what we eat

Change how we farm

Change the local food economy

Change public policy at all levels

Thinking the unthinkable

‘Welby’ report (December 2014):‘food banks are here to stay – for more than the immediate future –

whatever people assert.’(cite Jack Monroe) • Raise minimum wage, encourage local growing, tackle fuel premium• National organisation – feeding ‘Britain’ – (but lets not

institutionalise food banks)• Get poor people to eat more supermarket waste food• Stop smoking, learn budgeting and cooking skills• “introduce people to the concept of credit, teach supermarket

psychology”• Christian response – no mention of secular Islamic or Sikh traditions

Nourish’s view• Food poverty one facet of austerity and grotesque

inequality in Scotland and UK• Nutrition – like education, housing and health – is a

public good. We need a mixed economy of food to provide fair nutrition

• We already have a right to food – needs to be part of Scots law

• The UN SDG goals provide a good starting point: measuring household food insecurity important

• Cities/local government can play an important role

Subsidies, markets

• Existing CAP subsidy £500m/yr not linked to public goods, inflates land values

• Healthy start vouchers, free school meals• Externalities transferred to general public,

environment, animals• Rent controls, communitising utilities and

ecosystem services part of social wage• Citizens income: farmers as GPs

UN Sustainable development goals

• End poverty in all its forms everywhere• End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote

sustainable agriculture

GOAL 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages• GOAL 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning• opportunities for all• GOAL 5 Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls• GOAL 6 Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all• GOAL 7 Ensure access to aordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all• GOAL 8 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive• employment and decent work for all• GOAL 9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and• foster innovation• GOAL 10 Reduce inequality within and among countries• GOAL 11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable• GOAL 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns• GOAL 13 Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*• GOAL 14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable• development• GOAL 15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably• manage forests, combat desertication, and halt and reverse land degradation and• halt biodiversity loss• GOAL 16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide• access to justice for all and build eective, accountable and inclusive institutions at• all levels• GOAL 17 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for• sustainable development

Food insecurity experience scale

During the last 12 MONTHS, was there a time when:Q1. You were worried you would run out of food because of a lack ofmoney or other resources?Q2. You were unable to eat healthy and nutritious food because of alack of money or other resources?Q3. You ate only a few kinds of foods because of a lack of money orother resources?Q4. You had to skip a meal because there was not enough money orother resources to get food?Q5. You ate less than you thought you should because of a lack ofmoney or other resources?Q6. Your household ran out of food because of a lack of money orother resources?Q7. You were hungry but did not eat because there was not enoughmoney or other resources for food?Q8. You went without eating for a whole day because of a lack ofmoney or other resources?

Re-purposing the farm• This is not primarily about changing the behaviour of those with least power and

least voice – children and people on low incomes. • Yes, we need to improve food in schools and teach children better about food; and • yes, we do want to ensure that people managing on a low budget have the cooking

skills they need. • But these useful initiatives are not enough. This is about all of us changing –

government (EU, national and local), food businesses, farmers, communities, professionals.

• The challenge is to re-purpose the food and farming system so that, using our astonishing richness of natural resources, skilled farmers and scientific knowhow, we make it easy for everyone to eat well while enhancing natural capital in Scotland.

• www.nourishscotland.org.uk• http://allofusfirst.org/resources/library/food-in-a-common-weal-scotland-2014/