Nourishing Communities

How Fife Council can help when there’s a squeeze

Communities and food

• Food buying atomised• Consumers not citizens• Values, affiliation, gender, lifestyle, culture• Opportunities for collective/community action

– growing, sourcing, storing, cooking, eating• Why would people bother to do this?

How Fife Council could help

• Policy and leadership: be dead clear that there is a problem, and have a visible champion

• Symbolic actions – eg– Meat-free Monday– Gardening leave challenge– support for events/festivals –

harvest@Pittencrieff, fish@Pittenweem

Community right to grow

• Presumption in favour of leasing vacant land to communities/social enterprises

• Use developer contributions and community land bonds to work with communities to acquire and safeguard new common land for growing

• Put on courses and classes on gardening and growing as part of lifelong learning provision – intergenerational work

Strategic mapping

• Proactive planning in partnership with farmers and communities to use AD and sewage sludge in a local network

• Organise vegetable oil economy, using local rapeseed oil plus recycling

• Link heat sources with protected growing spaces, incl rooftops

Support food mutuals

• Work with credit unions to develop community procurement of staple products (eggs, potatoes, veg, cereals, apples, soft fruit, milk, meat?) from local farms and fish from the harbour

• Explore with bank such as Triodos scope for issuing sustainable food bonds

As well as procurement…

• Extend Fifestyle scheme to include locally-produced vegetables and fruit

• Explain benefits of local economic multiplier to employees, encourage workplace food groups

• Permit carpark deliveries of Fife-grown food to reduce distribution costs

• Develop green apprenticeship scheme

Land use strategy

• Get food on SESPlan agenda• Argue for local authority (and community)

influence on farm subsidy regime to encourage farmers to respond to community need

• Enable farmers to rent land for community growing/polytunnels

• Support school:farm partnerships