Setting the scene
A healthy and functioning natural world is key to our food system. The ways in which we produce food here in Scotland and globally can be good for nature, but unfortunately our food system is a leading driver of environmental damage. When nature is under threat, so is our food system and this can also result in poor health, poverty and job insecurity. This year, Scotland is facing many key opportunities to change this, beginning with the Good Food Nation Bill. As the bill makes its way through the Scottish Parliament, it’s vital that MSPs grab this opportunity to make our food system better not only for people, but our environment as well.
What’s the link between food and nature?
We know that farms and crofts across Scotland not only supply food, but they also play a vital role in providing spaces for nature to thrive, with farmland birds using agricultural land for nesting and food sources. There are also internationally important habitats such as machair that are found across the Western Isles of Scotland, which work as homes for threatened birds like corncrakes. Meanwhile, our marine life and habitats are vitally important food sources for many sea birds.
Evidence shows that birds such as corncrakes can benefit from wildlife friendly farming. Photo credit: Graham Goodall
Unfortunately, certain farming and fishing practices are accelerating both the nature and climate crises. Farming and fishing intensively can be disastrous for nature, making our food system a key cause of wildlife loss whilst increasing carbon emissions. For example, one quarter of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and related land use. Much of our marine life, all marine reef habitats and some of our wildlife associated with farmland, including a range of pollinating insects and birds such as lapwings, are declining. The breeding farmland bird index – a tool to assess the biodiversity status of agricultural landscapes – shows that bird numbers have declined by more than half between 1970 and 2018 in the UK. As nature declines, in the long term, so does our ability to produce food. Healthy ecosystems, with healthy seas & soils, pollinators and insects, help keep our food system functioning and thriving, ensuring the long-term resilience of our food system.
We know that it is possible to produce food in low impact ways that are good for nature. Organic farming, with zero pesticides or fertilisers used in production methods, is one such way agriculture can work with nature whilst reducing farm emissions. At the same time, embedding resilience into our farms, for example through crop diversity, helps them continue to produce the food we need.
Tackling agricultural practices is only one way to make sure the food system supports nature. From farm to fork, we need to ensure that the entire system keeps people fed in ways that are healthy for people and planet. That’s why we work in partnership with the Scottish Food Coalition (SFC). This is an alliance of over 40 organisations, from small-scale farmers and growers, academics, workers’ unions and charities focused on different areas of the food system; the environment, health, poverty and animal welfare. Partners like Obesity Action Scotland, the Nature Friendly Farming Network, the Trussell Trust and the Soil Association work together to ensure that policies in Scotland support a food system that ensures everyone has a right to food in ways that are healthy and sustainable.
RSPB Scotland, as part of the Scottish Food Coalition, have been longstanding campaigners for a Good Food Nation Bill, a law that seeks to enable greater coherence across different areas of food policy – from food insecurity to health, sustainability and supply chain reliance.
After pressure from RSPB Scotland and other Coalition members, the Scottish Government introduced the Good Food Nation Bill to the Scottish Parliament in October 2021. At the moment the Bill is only a draft – over the next few months it will go through three stages of parliamentary scrutiny, but it must be strengthened. It is important that MSPs ensure the Good Food Nation Bill can help restore nature and address climate change, while at the same time strengthening our food system.
Vicki Swales, Head of Land Use Policy at RSPB Scotland, giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament on the GFN Bill.
Nature friendly farming and fishing techniques need to be at the heart of our food system, and the Good Food Nation Bill needs to continue the work in making this a reality.
Sounds great! How can I help?
This is one of the most important moments in Scottish food policy and the history of the Scottish Food Coalition, but it is just the first in a long campaign to make sure that the agricultural system we build after leaving the EU is sustainable and supports nature.
If you want to work with us to help make that a reality, then please either email Andrew.Stark@rspb.org.uk for more information on how or sign up for the Scottish Food Coalition’s newsletter to keep up with the latest news as the Bill progresses and future agricultural campaigning.
Cover photo credit: Andy Hay