20 Ways to Change the Way We Eat
The Fife Diet has launched a new food manifesto outlining 20 ways to change the way we eat.
The project is being shared with the wider sustainable food network and Bright Green readers are encouraged to offer their support and contribute their critical thinking.
Over the next few months we’ll be holding these ideas up to scrutiny and inviting feedback as we try and hone them and see which ones we can make a reality. Some of this demands legislative action, some demands just better collaboration, and others will need longer term campaigning and innovation.
The aims of the new food manifesto are to:
1) Connect the way we grow, produce, distribute and consume our food with our climate change targets;
2) To connect the environmental policy framework to our health and well-being initiatives;
3) To look afresh at the values that underpin how we organise our food economy.
We are looking at these ideas in four themes: low carbon communities, culture & education, health & wellbeing and innovation & enterprise. Ask your local candidates what their policy is about supporting local food, check the top five ideas below:
1. Soup Test – no child to leave school without knowing how to make a pot of soup [CULTURE & EDUCATION].
2. Right to Grow – strengthen the current legislation giving people reall access to land and the right to grow some of their own food: opportunity from the Enabling Communities legislation and the Land Fund [LOW CARBON COMMUNITIES]
3. A Seasonal 5 A Day – a joint national environmental and health campaign through schools, social media and GPs / health centres / cafes exploring what a Scottish 5 a day would look like. [HEALTH & WELL-BEING]
4. Sugar Drink Tax – a small tax on the most unhealthy fizzy drinks as has been applied successfully in France[i] [HEALTH & WELL-BEING]
5. Elevate Food to the Climate Change Agenda: develop specific Food Emissions targets. see also Waste & Composting – see the Zero Waste Plan for Scotland] [LOW CARBON COMMUNITIES]
Food affects us all, this manifesto of ideas is for everyone to contribute to. To see the whole report, leave your own comments and download from SCRIBD here.
Or see low-bandwith version here.
Tell us which ideas you love and which bits you think we have got wrong.
The project had input from Teresa Martinez who created the One Planet Food report and fed off small group discussions in Stirling in January and February drawing on farmers and growers, health experts, food writers and researchers . The remit was to look at food policy that could be initiated at a Scottish level now, so for example some of CAP and fishing was omitted.
These ideas sound great, although I too am a bit confused about the soup one. Knowing basic cooking and kitchen skills makes sense, I guess soup just seems like an oddly specific thing to teach. Maybe a more diverse set of skills would be more useful.
This sounds like a great idea, although I’m a bit confused about the soup one. Are kids simply supposed to know how to heat up a can of Tomato Soup or how to make a soup from scratch? I’m over 30 and have never made soup from scratch in my life. I do however eat very healthily and buy good quality soups several times a week.
Er… aye, what about vegetarianism? Economical, ecological and compassionate. As to Scotland’s geography, if folk I know can grow tomatoes in poly tunnels in Port Nis of all places then anyone can give up sheep rearing and go green.
Fifediet is great. It’s direct action combined with policy recommendations for environmental,health and social issues all at once. If they teamed up with edible estates http://www.edibleestates.co.uk/ would be brilliant.
Hi Craig, actually, no we’ve been campaigning for a reduction in meat consumption for years and tracking the C02 reduction of such behaviour change. The reality is thought that in Scotland because of % of rough grazing, hills and lack of arable land, some livestock will continue to play an important role in an integrated agricultural system.
It’s precisely because we are interested in a systems or generalist approach that we are trying to combine grassroots consumer action with creating policies that will help this movement build.
No mention of reducing consumption of animal products?
Sounds like you don’t really care about the environment, and are just promoting local farmers.