Feeding the Interest - Community Food and Health
Feeding the Interest - Community Food and Health
Feeding the Interest - Community Food and Health
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policycurrentWhile <strong>the</strong>re are policies which support local food systems, <strong>the</strong>setend to sit within individual Scottish Executive departments involvedin health, environment <strong>and</strong> rural affairs, enterprise <strong>and</strong> transport,or different agencies (such as NHS <strong>Health</strong> Scotl<strong>and</strong>). So, althoughimportant, local food is not at <strong>the</strong> top of any specific agenda.The Scottish Executive’s Partnership Agreement (2003) recognises<strong>the</strong> importance of developing local food with an emphasis on<strong>the</strong> rural development context. The Forward Strategy for ScottishAgriculture gives strong direction on market identification <strong>and</strong>mentions shortening <strong>the</strong> food chain, adjustment, quality assurance<strong>and</strong> traceability. However, although clearly relevant, local food is notincluded.Within <strong>the</strong> Scottish Executive, <strong>the</strong> Environment <strong>and</strong> Rural AffairsDepartment supports a range of agri-food marketing initiatives. Thisincludes administering <strong>the</strong> Processing <strong>and</strong> Marketing grants schemesthat support food producers, including those in <strong>the</strong> local food sector.The Executive also supports <strong>the</strong> Scottish Diet Action Plan, which notesthat important groups of fresh food consumed in Scotl<strong>and</strong> are alsoproduced in Scotl<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> recommends that action should be taken tostimulate consumer dem<strong>and</strong> for <strong>the</strong> local product.The Enterprise Networks generally focus on developing <strong>the</strong> food sectorthrough developing markets <strong>and</strong> products <strong>and</strong> improved businessperformance. They play a key role in <strong>the</strong> industry-led Scottish <strong>Food</strong> <strong>and</strong>Drink Strategy. They do not regard ‘localness’ as a separate issue; itsrelevance lies in being part of <strong>the</strong> overall market.Highl<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> Isl<strong>and</strong>s Enterprise identifies ‘local’ as one of <strong>the</strong> marketsto address for niche products <strong>and</strong> regional import substitution. Itencourages producers to meet <strong>the</strong> dem<strong>and</strong> for local sourcing from <strong>the</strong>tourism market as one way of addressing regional import substitutions.18