Nourish

Scotland’s sustainable food network

Background

• Formed October 2009 at Dunbar gathering:“Eat more of what we grow, grow more of what

we eat”• National conferences Stirling 2010, Glasgow

2011, Edinburgh 2012• 900 people across Scotland signed up on ning

site. Board of 9, constituted as Community Interest Company

What’s the problem?

• We are the fattest people in Europe, and we die four years younger than the average

• While we export food all over the world, we have food banks and hunger in Scotland

• The pattern of rural land ownership is medieval, in the cities thousands of people can’t get allotments

• Farm subsidies are disconnected from public goods such as biodiversity, carbon sequestration, animal welfare and water quality.

• Most farms are disconnected from the local food economy, food system is focused on profit, not people and planet

Nourish exists to:

• build a platform that influences thinking and enables shared action across all sectors of society;

• research into and develop new models of food production, distribution and supply;

• share information and best practice;• advocate for change where it is needed.

Our aims, working alongside others, are to:

Change what we eat:Change how we farmChange local food economiesChange local and national government policy

Land Reform position

• Food sovereignty principles• Right to public goods over all land• 10,000 new crofts in South of Scotland• 50,000 more allotments• Zone periurban land for food production,

more rural housing, Scottish land portfolio, better use of public land, Schumacher centres, land value tax

Food sovereignty

• Focuses on food for people• Values food providers• Localises food systems• Makes decisions locally• Builds knowledge and skills• Works with nature

Small is productive

Many studies have also confirmed the inverse relationship between farm size and productivity per hectare.

Small farmers are characterized by smaller applications of capital but higher use of labour and other family-owned inputs, and a generally higher index of cropping intensity and diversification.

The inverse relationship between farms size and productivity is a powerful rationale for land reform policies, including land redistribution for both efficiency and equity gains.

International Fund for Agricultural Development 2009

Public goods from land

• Those who manage land in Scotland should do so on behalf of the Scottish people as a whole, including future generations

• All owners of land should be accountable for delivering public goods – biodiversity, ecosystem services, access and recreation, land-based employment, sustainably produced food

• Land managers delivering less than baseline public goods would have to compensate society for misuse or loss of natural capital, and in extreme cases would forfeit the right to manage land