Edinburgh Food Growing Strategy

Overview

Under the Community Empowerment Act 2015, all Scottish Local Authorities are required to produce a Food Growing Strategy for their area.

The draft Edinburgh Food Growing Strategy, Growing Locally, was approved for consultation by Council Committee in February 2020.

The three key objectives of the Strategy are to:

• Grow more locally
• Consume more locally
• Increase awareness and engagement

An online consultation to gather views on the Strategy and how it would be implemented was due to be launched for a six week period in March and early April 2020. This has been delayed due to the  coronavirus outbreak.

As part of the Council’s response to COVID-19 it was agreed that the final strategy should also seek to respond to any future challenges the city may face in the wake of the pandemic, including incorporating the issues of food security and food poverty, and ensuring the development of a green economic recovery for the city.

We welcome your views on food growing in Edinburgh and on the role local good growing could play in supporting the city’s recovery from the impact of Covid in particular. Your views and any additional information you can provide, will help us to develop a finalised strategy that also responds to these broader issues.

Why your views matter

We want to hear your views on the Council’s first food growing strategy. The strategy  aims to encourage people to get more involved in local food production, promote local and sustainable consumption and help improve issues such as biodiversity, health, food security and address poverty in the capital.

Supported by Edible Edinburgh, the Growing Locally consultation is looking for your views on food growing, from growing in your garden, in an allotment or as part of a community growing project.

We want to know how we can increase purchasing of local and sustainable food which can help to reduce Edinburgh’s carbon emissions as well as supporting the city’s green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The consultation also asks for your feedback on ways in which you think local food growing can help to reduce food poverty and improve well-being.

We also want to hear from you about how the Council and others in the city can help support people to become more involved in local growing.

The consultation will run until 18 January 2021.

What happens next

The Edinburgh Food Growing Strategy is scheduled to be published in early 2021

The draft Strategy aims to achieve 5 strategic outcomes which will be used to monitor progress.  These are:

1. Reduce our carbon emissions as a city
2. Support local food growing businesses to grow and thrive
3. Increase land availability for food growing
4. Reduce spatial inequalities across the city
5. Increase resident’s awareness and choice around healthy and sustainable food