The Scottish Government is currently on consultation overdrive, but 4 key consultations fit so closely together that it’s almost impossible to respond to one without referring to the others. In the words of Scottish Government: ‘Agricultural Transition in Scotland’ asks us to consider a successor to the
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…and we need to work together to get it where it needs to be. Blink and you’ve missed it: the long-awaited Good Food Nation Bill was published by the Government just over a week ago. The Bill has come a long way, and over the past 5
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It’s hard not to be impressed by this year’s Programme for Government. There’s a definite green tinge and a renewed focus on getting stuff done as hopefully we emerge from the pandemic. When it comes to food, it’s a jigsaw puzzle with bits and pieces scattered across
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In many ways, the incorporation of human rights treaties in Scots law is the most ambitious and far-reaching part of the agenda for the new Scottish Parliament. The new law will not just incorporate economic, social and cultural rights: it will also strengthen protection against discrimination on
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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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It’s natural to put ‘food’ into the search box and see what this 135 page document says. But that would miss some of the most important messages. First, of course, the incorporation into Scots law of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This has
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This week’s House of Lords Select Committee report is in many ways familiar reading. The UK’s food system results in shocking inequalities in access to good food especially in the context of COVID, an epidemic of chronic disease, and widespread environmental damage. What’s to be done? The
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This blog post was originally a talk given by Keesje Avis at a webinar entitled “Scotland’s Response to the Climate Emergency” hosted by FoES and partners. See all the presentations here. When talking and thinking about climate change mitigation, we tend to talk about numbers and in
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Brexit was never going to be good for food. The EU, for all its faults, has been progressive on food safety and labelling, on safeguarding local food traditions, on environmental protection, on GM regulation and on animal welfare. The Common Agricultural Policy has been stubbornly misdirected towards
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As the number of people struggling to access food has increased with this crisis, the experience of food insecurity has become much more widespread. Being able to access food safely and with dignity is now on the minds of nearly everyone. This has brought many more people into
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