Foods that are seasonal, produced on a smaller scale, with organic or agroecological methods and traded in shorter supply chains have a less negative (more likely positive) impact on the environment. The most recent report from the Soil Association tells us that the UK market for organic
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The UK Government is planning to reduce regulation around gene-edited livestock and crops in England, arguing that this technology is essentially no different from natural breeding and should not be regulated the same way as older methods of genetic modification. While this does not immediately affect the
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Last week’s report from the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership set out ambitious recommendations not just to incorporate new rights into domestic law but also to strengthen the machinery for making them real. The Taskforce recommends a Scottish human rights bill incorporates (brings into domestic law)
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The climate in Scotland is generally considered unsuitable for growing bread wheat. Yet, across the country there are dedicated people growing, milling and baking great bread with Scottish grains. This summer, as part of my internship placement with Nourish Scotland and Scotland The Bread, I interviewed these
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The seafood industry is facing challenging times. The Covid-19 pandemic has seen a decline in exports hitting the industry hard with exports falling by £712m (23.3% by value) in the first six months of 2020. Ongoing lockdowns across the four nations have driven down demand from UK
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On Monday 14th December representatives from governments around the world will meet to launch the Glasgow Declaration on Food and Climate. This initiative, hosted by Nourish Scotland and the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, aims to put food at the heart of the climate
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Revisiting the game plan for a Good Food Nation: Has the pandemic moved the goal posts? A year ago, roughly four months before the UK locked down with the pandemic, Nourish brought together 150+ experts to work on a ‘game plan’ for transforming Scotland into a Good
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In the Highlands of Scotland, not far from the mountain resort town of Aviemore, there is a bright yellow horsebox, decorated with colourful flags. That horsebox is the home of Reviving Food, a mobile micro-bakery, where founder and owner Rosie Gray bakes and sells sourdough bread and
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The return of the Westminster Agriculture Bill to the Commons in the next few days is a pivotal moment – for Brexit, for Scotland and in many ways for democracy. The latest Which? Poll out today shows 94% of people want to maintain high food standards and 77%
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Cereal production in Scotland is dominated by a small number of conventionally bred varieties of barley, wheat and oats. These have low genetic diversity and tend to require a large amount of chemical input to achieve high yields. Most of the grain produced from these varieties is
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