THE HIGHLAND GOOD FOOD PARTNERSHIP - WHAT WE DO
The Highland Good Food Partnership is a cross-sectoral, not-for-profit organisation, working with lots of stakeholders across the food system. We focus on the Highlands of Scotland, while maintaining a national and global outlook.
By Catriona Ferguson, 9 June 2022
At Highland Good Food, we want to see a food system that benefits biodiversity and doesn’t exacerbate our global food system’s contributions to the climate crisis through harmful emissions. This means looking at all aspects of the food system, from production and processing to routes to market and considering which systems are wasteful, with high emissions and which methods of production are not benefiting local flora and fauna. When it comes to advocating for different solutions to the complex issues facing our food system, we are led by our stakeholders and members. Some of our recent and ongoing projects include:
Tackling food waste. Food waste is a huge driver of food system emissions, globally and locally. Currently in the Highlands, most food waste isn’t collected. When it is, it’s only from large towns (e.g. Fort William or Inverness) which goes to an incinerator. Food waste in landfill massively contributes to global methane emissions via the breakdown of organic waste. At Highland Good Food and in collaboration with the Highland Community Waste Partnership, we are considering innovative, local and cost effective solutions to dealing with food waste.
Local solutions to production. Highland Good Food stakeholders have been considering alternative and innovative solutions to food production, and what a Highland food system could look like with glasshouse technology, both at the small and large scale. We are also starting to investigate the potential for farmer/producer clusters in the Highlands and collaborative cluster activity, such as:
on-farm nature based solutions at a landscape scale
implementing agro-ecological practices for food production in the Highlands
Another important aspect of our food system to consider is people’s access to food. The price of food is rising and this is set to continue, hitting those on the breadline hardest. The cost of food has been kept artificially low for years, while other living costs have risen astronomically (think rent, energy, or the cost of buying home). Healthy, good food should be available for all, but for most of the population choice is driven by cost, and for some, it’s take what you can get. The Scottish Health Survey tells us that in the Highlands 8% of people worry about where their next meal comes from (this figure is from 2019 and will certainly rise this winter). An aspect of our work at Highland Good Food is tackling some of these inequalities. Short term solutions to this include improving access via community pantries, and working with food poverty organisations such as FareShare and CFINE. This work is complimented by more long term strategic efforts to reduce food poverty via engagement in national food policy, improving healthy school meals through local and organic procurement, and engaging with community food and school food projects.
If you’d like to follow our work, check out our website and sign up to our monthly newsletter. We’re always keen to hear from new people!