Transcript THE FIFE DIET - A LOCAL FOOD EXPERIMENT What Works in

SCOTLAND’S LOCAL
FOOD REVOLUTION
• 3 Things we’ve learned in the
last 9 months
• Some history of the present
crisis
• Equidae
• Some Obstacles to Change
• What we can do
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We have breached 400 ppm of
C02 in the atmosphere for the
first time in 3 million years.
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It’s been disclosed that we
waste (both in production and
consumption) 50% of our food in
the UK (and as Tony Jupiter
pointed out yesterday globally
that figure is more than enough
to feed the hungry 3 times
over.)
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Food Banks have boomed by
300% in Scotland in the last year
alonne. These are a useless sign
of a failing society. They
degrade people and feed the
narrative of the worthless
feckless poor that has been
assiduously cultivated by the
right wing media for decades.
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CLIMATE CHANGE The way we produce and consume our food creates 31% of the average UK households
emissions.
The (Scottish) government has announced its intention to legislate for an 80% reduction in greenhousegas emissions by 2050 - probably the most ambitious climate change abatement programme in the
world. It should be cheered to the echo for that commitment - but it's one it cannot possibly reach
without changing fundamentally the way we produce, process and distribute our food.
- Hugh Raven
HEALTH In some parts of Scotland food has replaced cigarettes as the no.1 cause of preventable cancer.
We may be the species which has developed a diet that is killing itself.
- Frances Lappe Moore
SOCIAL JUSTICE 1974 - 500 million hungry people. In 2009 1 billion hungry people.
Half the world is malnourished, the other half obese—both symptoms of the corporate food monopoly.
- Raj Patel
LACK OF RESILIENCE Just in time logistics are hugely fragile to external shocks, making a mockery of
the concept of food security.
Events are revealing that many of the things we take for granted, like bank accounts, fuel and food,
are vulnerable. If we value civilization, the litmus test for economic success should not be short-term
profitability, but resilience in the face of climatic extremes and resource shortages.
- Andrew Simms
Two decades of food crisis, collapse and system failure
Equidae is the technical name in
taxonomy for ‘Horses and ‘horse related
animals’ (by which they mean ‘horses,
mules, donkeys and zebra’. There was
(it’s thought) 60,000 tonnes of Equidae
in circulation in Europe in 2011/12.
Obstacles to Change that is Sustained,
Credible and Immediate:
Surround sound, hegemony of increment
The Daily Mail bag campaign- “a British family on their weekly shop - but
their bags could be killing our wildlife”
Surround Sound
Hegemony of Increment
• Adopt little steps
• Adopt marketing
strategies
• Focus on green
consumerism
• Create offers which
are easy, painless
• Use nonenvironmental
motivations
• Use celebrity
endorsements
(‘Nicole Ritchie loves
the planet’)
Source: Meeting Environmental
Challenges: The Role of Human
Identity, Tom Crompton WWF
Asking a different question
• Is ‘our’ behaviour the problem? Depends who we are.
• Farmers? Supermarket CEOs? Public procurement
officers? Pesticide salesmen? DEFRA? Monsanto?
• To what extent do we truly believe that consumer
behaviour will change society?
• When are we going to legislate? There is no point in
asking people to change their behaviour if their whole
social environment makes this extremely difficult.
Our 6 Pledges for Low Carbon Sustainable Food
• Eat local (defined
regionally)
• Eat less meat
• Eat more organic
• Reduce food waste
• Compost More
• Grow some food
What can we do?
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Moratorium on supermarkets
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Abolish fish farming
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The Soup Test
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Set organic targets (Czec h Republic and
France aim to double, Copenhagen have 75% in
public food)
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The Right to Grow
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Soda Tax
Our members have a carbon foodprint average 50%
below the UK average on food.
What has worked in our project
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Eating together
Being ambitious
Being honest about the
realities of change
required
Motivating through
pledges
Bringing people
together at live events
Not engaging in ‘general
awareness rising’
Looking after children
Not being patronising
Combining global picture
with local realities and
practicalities
Overview of the Fife Diet
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Started from a sense that there was
something fundamentally wrong with the
food system
Aims to combine populism with honesty and
clarity about climate change
Developed from an informal network to a
movement for change around food (20072013)
We held a series of talks around food hosted
by people in their own communities
Began to map the region for producers and
develop a network
Publishing carbon foodprint reports on 100
research volunteers and now all members
(5000)
Aims to deliver stronger communities through
enhanced local economy, healthier
unprocessed fresh food and food with lower
carbon impact
It’s about the ecology stupid
[email protected]
http://fifediet.co.uk/