The Opportunities of a Good Food Nation

Consultation Response

Credits — Craig Dalzell

Overview

Common Weal submission to the consultation on the Good Food Nation Bill.

The draft Good Food Nation Bill lacks the ambition to transform Scotland’s food sector in ways it could. If Scotland was more like Finland we’d have another 20,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the food sector which would increase the value of that sector by £1.6 billion. This would add coming on for £2 billion to the Scottish Economy. The potential savings in carbon to moving to much more local production of what is consumed locally is underestimated and the much greater ability to decarbonise domestic food production means the potential environmental benefits are greatly understated. The Bill greatly underestimates the jobs that could be created, the economic growth that could result, the investment needed to get there and the environmental benefits of getting there. Much more ambition is needed if this is to be meaningful legislation.

This response is a supplementary to a full response being prepared and submitted by the Scottish Food Coalition, of which Common Weal is a member.