RISE

Scottish Grain Security Action Plan

Scottish Grain Security Action Plan

This action plan was co-created by the Scottish Grain Network Stakeholder Group, listed below. With thanks to those who contributed additional feedback, including individuals from the James Hutton Institute, Nourish Scotland, UK Grain Lab, SASA, City University, and the University of Edinburgh.  

 

Report for Scottish Government: A National Grain Security Action Plan for Scotland

 

By 2030, Scotland must double the amount of cereals grown to support achieving the Scottish Dietary Goals from locally produced grains.

The conflict in Ukraine, EU-exit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change have exposed the fragility of Scottish food security. Simultaneously we are facing a public health crisis; Scotland’s healthy life expectancy is the lowest in the UK and has been falling in recent years. Grains are the foundation of Scottish diets, yet we have little data on the amount of grain grown for direct human consumption in Scotland. It is estimated that most grain grown is for livestock feed or distilling into alcohol, not for processing into flours and other edible grain-based ingredients. In 1996, The government established the Scottish Dietary Goals to describe a diet that will improve the health of people in Scotland. Since then, there has been little or no progress towards achieving the goals. In July 2022, Scotland passed into Scots Law the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act; a first step towards becoming a Good Food Nation, ‘where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day.’ Now more than ever, a strategy is needed to transition the Scottish arable sector to a sustainable grain system that supports the good health of the nation. The Scottish Grain Security Action Plan seeks to set out a target and roadmap for the Scottish Government to guide this transition. It has been co-produced by stakeholders in the Scottish Grain System who are actively working to produce food that is better for both people and the planet; the names of some of the contributors are listed in the table below.

The Scottish Grain Network Stakeholder Group

Name Affiliation
Alexa Bellows University of Edinburgh

Andrew Whitley

Scotland The Bread
Angus McDowell Mungoswells Malt and Milling

Ben Reade

Company Bakery

Charlotte Bickler

Organic Research Centre
Chelsea Marshall Nourish Scotland

Col Gordon

Inchindown Farm, Common Grains

Connie Hunter

Scotland The Bread, East Neuk Market Garden

Georgina Pickworth

South West Grain Network, University of Edinburgh

John Castley

Wild Hearth Bakery

Lindsay Jaacks

University of Edinburgh

Lisa Houston

Granton Community Gardens, Lauriston Farm

Lyndsay Cochrane

Scotland The Bread

Mahala Le May

Granton Community Bakery, Common Grains

Matt Fountain

Freedom Bakery
Olivia Oldham University of Edinburgh

Rob Davidson

Lauriston Farm

Sam Parsons

Balcaskie Estate

Sinéad Fortune

Gaia Foundation, UK Seed Sovereignty

Suzy Glass

103 Ventures

Tom Kirby

Granton Community Gardens