Meeting of the Parliament 20 November 2014
I, too, am happy to support the motion and the proposals in the discussion document “Becoming a Good Food Nation”. I also support Claire Baker’s amendment and hope that we can achieve unity in the chamber, as the amendment simply adds to the motion and recognises the importance of a £13 billion industry—Alex Fergusson talked about that—that employs almost 400,000 people. The amendment highlights that there should be opportunities for skills, training and apprenticeships in that industry.
I will highlight a few points about health, the importance of food, and obesity.
I heard it said and read recently that the impact of obesity on health is similar to the impact that smoking had. The Government in Scotland rightly agreed to take action on smoking. We need to look carefully at that impact, and the document starts to take us that way.
As a food grower—I enjoy my allotment up in Kelty—I think that it is important that we look right across Government. The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill, which is currently being scrutinised, has a part on allotments. A lot more can be done. I certainly eat healthy food for a big part of the year. I grow it myself and give it away to many other people. Joined-up government is needed, and I like some of the ideas that are coming through.
I read the briefing from the retailers. There is no doubt that the retailers are employing a lot of people and doing a lot of work, but we need to consider food poverty. I was amazed to read that the industry wastes 3.9 million tonnes of food each year—that is before that food even gets near the shopping basket. That is quite scandalous when we have food poverty in this country and poverty across the world.
Scottish homes throw away 630,000 tonnes of food and drink every year, most of which could have been eaten or drunk. Each year, that waste costs us up to £1 billion—£470 for the average household.
Local authorities must be a clear partner in the strategy. They are doing a lot of work. I know that there are now food waste bins in Fife and in my constituency. That brings home to individuals the levels of waste that there are. We certainly have to do a lot more about that.
We also need to recognise that, in this day and age, food poverty has to be tackled. The Scottish Government’s own figures show that, from April to June 2014, the Scottish welfare fund gave out £980,000 of grants for food. That is not relative poverty; it is absolutely poverty. Somebody asked me recently what poverty is. I said to them that absolute poverty exists where a person cannot meet their very basic needs. A very basic need of every human being is to feed themselves. With the levels of waste in Scotland, the levels of waste through the large supermarkets before food even gets near the food baskets, and the levels of waste in our own households, we should not have food poverty.
Food banks have not been mentioned yet. The information from the Scottish Government is that almost 71,500 people, including almost 23,000 children, have been provided with food from a food bank in the past year. We see the levels of waste and the levels of poverty in our country, and they simply do not add up. We need to address those issues.
FareShare, in its submission to the Welfare Reform Committee’s food bank inquiry, stated that
“There is enough surplus food in the Scottish food industry to feed those suffering food poverty in Scotland”
and called for
“‘joined up’ government”
to address the issue.
I want to highlight some of the positive actions that can be taken in partnership with local government. For example, the Fife community food project, which operates in my constituency, does a range of work with the 16+ learning choices programme, engaging with low-income families, homeless groups, mental health groups and people with additional support needs. It is an excellent local project that addresses some of the issues around food poverty.
In my own constituency, a youth worker called Lorraine Mullen is actively involved in delivering 10-week cooking skills programmes to ensure that people are able not only to get fresh produce but to use it.
There are major issues. The document is welcome, but we need to do more at a local level to encourage healthy eating and healthy growing. We need to tackle the obscene levels of food waste that exist in Scotland and elsewhere while there is poverty at home and abroad.
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