Food security might not seem like a big issue in Scotland. Compared with other places around the world, it’s not. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have challenges. Issues like climate change, Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine war, are showing us that global and local shocks can impact our food supplies. Health-related issues - due to lack of access to healthy and fresh food - also remain a high priority.

So could we soften the impact of food shocks and connect people to healthy food through more urban agriculture? The short answer is, in their current form, no, but there is potential.

It’s something we’ve been looking into for the Scottish Government, which asked the James Hutton Institute for a review of agriculture in and around urban areas in Scotland.

Outside Scotland, there are examples of urban agriculture helping to make fresh produce more available. In parts of the USA, urban agriculture has been used to help get basic daily fruit and vegetables to the urban poor, while it’s also being used by restaurants and supermarkets to supply fresh herbs and other produce.

In Scotland, most urban area farming is non-commercial allotments and community gardens. They provide valuable social, community and environmental benefits, but increasing food production and tackling food insecurity are not always main goals.

There are some great examples of Scottish urban agriculture making a greater impact, notably the Locavore market garden and veg box scheme in the middle of Glasgow.

Can we do more? Yes, but it would involve incorporating food growing into urban planning policies, creating and supporting markets and value chains and providing processing and storage facilities.

It would also likely mean repurposing land for growing food, requiring local and national policy support, which could be challenging.

But our review suggests it’s worth considering. A spin-off benefit is the potential to create new businesses and business models around producing and getting food to people.

This could include technology innovation, such as vertical farming, which could even be housed in re-purposed buildings. There is already interest, with companies like Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS), hosted at our Invergowrie campus, pursuing this concept. New ways of growing and storing crops are also part of what we’re working on with stakeholders in our Tay Cities Region Deal-funded Advanced Plant Growth Centre.

New, innovative and experimental forms of food production and distribution could spur new micro-businesses, such as The Wash House Garden in Glasgow, which produces fruit and vegetables, but also runs classes on how to use the produce and rents their space for additional income.

To overcome the barriers, such as land-use changes and support for new business models, it means looking beyond just food policy. Perhaps by looking at land in and on the edges of cities a bit differently, there could be an opportunity to boost what we grow locally, boost innovation and local food networks, and provide the social and health benefits that our more common allotments and community gardens offer by connecting people back to food?

To read the full study, go to: Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Scotland - Rapid Evidence Review Report.pdf (sefari.scot)

Ishaan Patil is a researcher at the  James Hutton Institute

Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk