Issues such as food security, land grabs and speculation on the commodities markets might seem a world away from a small project in Fife which encourages local people to eat local food.
However the Fife Diet, which has grown rapidly from a handful of supporters to a point where about 2000 people locally are taking part, will host an international food conference this Saturday to point out the links between local and global campaigns.
While Oxfam and other campaigners point to multinationals buying up land in developing countries to produce food for export, Scotland is not immune, according to Mike Small, founder of the Fife Diet.
“The Isle of Eigg just voted to reject a bid to have a fish farm off the coast, but that will probably get the go-ahead. It is a classic example of a community not having any control over its territory,” Mr Small says.
The Fife Diet is part-funded by the Scottish Government in its work to encourage local people to cut food miles and reduce carbon emissions, but it also poses awkward questions for ministers, he adds.
“The Scottish Government wants to cut food miles, but also wants export growth. If you want a big export market selling salmon – which is highly perishable – to China, that is a contradiction.”
The Fife Diet project can be misinterpreted, Mr Small admits. “We were always local and global,” he says of the scheme founded in 2007. “It was never about self-sufficiency or retreating from the world. The global food debate is about a more sustainable food system.”
This weekend’s event, the Food Revolt, in Kinghorn will bring together speakers from Scotland and around the world to discuss the local food movement in the global context. It aims to answer questions such as: “How does eating locally relate to famine, trade, aid and land use?” and “Did the rising price of food stoke the Arab Spring?”
Speakers include Sunday Herald food writer Joanna Blythman, Daniel López García of the Spanish Indignados movement, Juliana Lutz of Austrian food project Speiselokal, and guests from Ecuador’s Zapallo Verde food co-operative.
Refreshments will come from a Zapatista coffee bar. The one-day event, which is free but ticketed, will also feature cookery workshops and activities for kids. The event is backed by Friends of the Earth Scotland. Chief executive Stan Blackley said: “With the global population growing and consumption on the up, we will need to be ever more thoughtful about our eating habits in coming years.
“Scotland is well placed to feed itself sustainably and ethically, and in doing so can improve public health, reconnect people with the land, support local businesses and the Scottish economy, and help reduce the carbon and human impacts of the global food industry.”
Visit www.fifediet.co.uk/food-revolt.
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