Food Growing Strategy Consultation

Overview

The Scottish Government has set out a vision that by 2025 Scotland will be “a Good Food Nation, where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, serve, and eat each day.”

The Council has a statutory duty, set out in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, to prepare a Food Growing Strategy that identifies potentially suitable land for allotments and other food growing areas. There is also a specific requirement to note how the Council intends to increase food growing provision in communities experiencing socio-economic disadvantage.

In developing a food growing strategy for the Perth & Kinross Council (PKC) area the Council is committed to delivering the wider benefits associated with food growing including:

• Improving health and wellbeing outcomes
• Promoting opportunities for social interaction
• Environmental improvement including climate change and food waste
• Skills development
• Economic development and sustainability.

In delivering these benefits the food growing strategy will also assist in meeting the key objectives in the PKC Local Outcome Improvement Plan.

Why We Are Consulting

The Food Growing Strategy offers the opportunity to link together the different organisations and stakeholders with an interest in food growing and provide a framework for a joined up approach to encourage an increase in food growing spaces across PKC.

The Consultation aims to identify opportunities to:

• Increase the amount and variety of food grown in Perth and Kinross
• Increase the amount of locally grown food consumed in Perth and Kinross
• Map existing provision
• Increase the number of food growing areas across PKC by identifying land potentially suitable for allotments, and other food growing spaces including, community orchards, community gardens, vegetable patches, raised beds, planters and edible hedges.
• Support our communities to develop the skills to grow their own food and make healthy lifestyle choices is also a key strand of the strategy that will be achieved by working together with our community planning partners and third sector organisations.
• Establish an allotments waiting list.