Food Solutions

FOOD SOLUTIONS COLLECTIVE ACTION FOR CHANGE FIFE DIET AGM AND CONFERENCE KINGHORN PARISH CHURCH, FIFE SATURDAY 10TH NOVEMBER 2012

PROGRAMME WELCOME! We are 5 years into our ‘local food experiment’ and building in strength and numbers. We’ve learnt a lot about how to create a more sustainable food culture and this year, and for the next 3 years, our focus will be on the practical: how to help people source, cook and grow together.

This year we’re delighted to have launched our new food manifesto which provides the framework for today’s event. The format of the day is simple: a morning of inspiring speakers eat lunch together - then an afternoon of workshops as we get down to the business of change.

SPEAKERS: p3 MANIFESTO: p6 PRODUCERS: p8 INFO: p10 TIMETABLE: p12

FIFE DIET LUNCH MARKET We’re trying out some Food Solutions already with our mini farmers’ market: satisfy the appetite you’ve worked up over the morning by supporting local producers. Here’s some of what’s on sale:

Venison Hotpot, Cullen Skink, Chickpea & Squash Stew, Pizza, Buns, Zapatista Coffee Also give your verdict on the first soup test by our young cooks.

Turn to Page 8 to find out more.

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Information about the speakers is overleaf. For times see back page.

MORNING TALKS Land and Food: How do we get the Right to Grow? Andy Wightman & Kat

VandenBerg

Food Education and Regional Mapping. Eve Keepax & Dougie Watson Innovation and Enterprise Kate Bull & Laura Stewart

AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS How to Set Up a Food Co-op practical advice and ideas on how to do it. Save money and club together with collective buying power Meet the Producer face to face discussion with the people who grow your food. What do you love and what do you need more of from your veg box/farm shop/local producer?

Being the Change: food and carbon reduction.

The way we produce, distribute and consume our food creates 31% of our annual CO2 emissions. A move to a more sustainable and localised food system is part of the solution. Look at food from another perspective in this family-friendly workshop. We will explore the issue of carbon and food in a fun and innovative way. How is Fife Diet making a difference in carbon reduction and how we could have a bigger impact? How does a local pizza look and taste; how easy or hard would it be to gather ingredients?

Wild Food Walk with Mark Williams of Galloway Wild Foods. Come explore the free food on your doorstep with Scotland’s foremost wild food expert.

KEYNOTE SPEECH What are we feeding or kids at school? Robin Gourlay has pioneered sustainable school meals in East Ayrshire and is now looking across Scotland to do the same.

YOUR FIFE DIET Your Fife Diet is a session with the whole group to begin to visualise the changes and innovations we want to bring to the food we eat. With small group sessions and working with Dundee designer/artist Jamie Thoms, we’ll be plotting the changes food group by food group and sharing ideas. jamiethoms.co.uk

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THE SPEAKERS

LAND AND FOOD: HOW DO WE GET THE FOOD EDUCATION AND REGIONAL RIGHT TO GROW? MAPPING. Andy Wightman is a freelance writer, re- Eve Keepax is searcher and analyst specialising in land reform, land tenure and landownership. He is a leading advocate of land reform in Scotland and the author of Who Owns Scotland (Canongate, 1996) and Scotland: Land and Power (Luath, 1999).

He is Director of the Caledonia Centre for Social Development’s Land Programme and a member of the Big Lottery’s Scottish Land Fund Committee. His current interests include research on burgh commons and other forms of common land. Catch up with his activities on the web at www.andywightman.com, www.whoownsscotland.org.uk and www.landreformact.com.

Kat Vandenberg - director of Sow And Grow Everywhere (Glasgow). Distracted from evolutionary anthropology and ethnobotony by the lure of working with innovative environmental organisations, Kat has led a diverse range of projects. She has been transforming urban landscapes into edible gardens for the past seven years.

She is also a hoarder of second-hand records, decrepit bikes, unidentified seeds and cellos.

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the Food and Environment Officer for Eco-Schools Scotland. “I developed and wrote the ‘Food and the Environment’ topic for the Eco-Schools Scotland programme.

Launched in March 2011 and available online, I am now working to promote the topic and its objectives through events and training.”

“The Eco-Schools programme engages children and young people in key issues including the environment, sustainability, global citizenship and the value of a low carbon future. We now have over 3,700 schools registered with the EcoSchools programme in Scotland. Over 40% of our local authority schools - as well as many more independent and early years providers have attained the highest award level: the Green Flag.”

Dougie Watson

is the National Development Officer for Farmers’ Markets.

Douglas was seconded to the post of National Development Officer for Farmers’ Markets in Scotland in 2010. Prior to this, as an SAOS Project Manager, he was closely involved in the development of farmers’ markets in Scotland – organising the first farmers’ markets conference in Perth in 2000, helping to set up the Scottish Association of Farmers’ Markets and in support-

ing numerous farmers’ markets developments across Scotland – many of these as producer owned co-operatives. He has also carried out wide ranging reviews of both the local food and farm retail sectors in Scotland for the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise.

Innovation and Enterprise Kate Bull is a co-founder of The Peoples Su-

permarket in Holborn, London. A community supermarket that highlights the possibilities of consumer power and challenges the status quo.

This successful social enterprise is only one year old , but has already gain recognition both here at home and internationally. The store was recently the subject of a four part Channel 4 series and is nominated for several prestigious retailing awards including: the Observer Ethical Award, the Cooperative Innovative Ethical Award and the Smart Urban Minds Award.

Kate is also a retail expert and Director of the consultancy firm CTWB Ltd, working with both established brands , new businesses and the Third sector. When not in shops, she enjoys Modern Art and spending time with her family.

What are we feeding our kids at school?

Robin Gourlay developed East Ayrshire Council’s school food service which has attracted wide interest at home, in Europe and the US. It has been described as ‘one of the most creative school food systems in the world’, featuring in two UN reports and attracting various awards including Food for Life School of the Year, the Guardian Public Services Award for Innovation and Progress. East Ayrshire has achieved the Soil Association’s Catering Mark Gold Standard for over 5 years.

He produced the report ‘Walking the Talk’, for the Scottish Government which recommended on public sector food procurement for Scotland’s first National Food and Drink Policy. To follow this work through, he is presently seconded from East Ayrshire Council to the Government, where he is tasked to drive forward the Government’s public sector food procurement objectives.

WILD FOOD WALK

Laura Stewart is Director of Soil Associa- Mark Williams of Galloway Wild Foods has tion Scotland, part of the Soil Association, the UK’s leading membership charity campaigning for healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use. In Scotland, the team are currently delivering three core programmes: Food for Life Scotland, Crofting Connections and Future Proofing Scotland’s Farming.

a passion for foraging and the delicious food that you can gather for free - and a passion to share his knowledge through guided walks and tuition on woodland, hedgerow and coastal foraging.

Read more on his excellent webiste: www.gallowaywildfoods.com

In the last 18 months, Laura has been busy with a Nuffield Farming Scholarship, travelling to North America, Europe and China to investigate her topic of ‘Mainstreaming Sustainable Food’. Laura had previously been Scotland and Foodservice Manager for the Marine Stewardship Council. This summer, her garden has produced plenty of wild strawberries, chard and garlic. Slugs and weather were victorious over the courgettes, beetroot and most of the lettuce.

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FOOD MANIFESTO We have a food market monopolised by a handful of companies coupled with health and nutrition targets that we’re struggling to meet. SO LET’S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! These ideas are all about creating more joined up thinking in how we grow, consume & distribute our food, & a more diverse economic model.

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Soup Test

no child to leave school without knowing how to make a pot of soup

Right to Grow

opportunity from the Enabling Communities legislation & the Land Fund

A Seasonal 5 A Day

a joint national environmental & health campaign through schools, blogs & GPs / health centres / cafes exploring what a Scottish 5 a day would look like.

soda Tax

a small tax on the most unhealthy fizzy drinks as has been applied successfully in France

Elevate Food to the Climate Change Agenda

develop specific Food Emissions targets, see also Waste & Composting and the Zero Waste Plan for Scotland

Moratorium on Supermarket Expansion

focusing instead on CSA, urban agriculture and food co-ops

Decentralise our Food Infrastructure

encourage and enable development of differing scales of mills and abattoirs

Blasda

a Terre Madre for Scotland – exploring the vision of food sovereignty

A Food Leadership Team

to draw together the strands of food policy, make sure it works and drive it forward.

Also to develop strategies for international issues.

Sustainable Public Procurement

build on East Ayrshire model, making sustainable public procurement to key corporate objective for LS’s, schools and hospitals.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? LET US KNOW AT fifediet.co.uk/manifesto

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Plastic Bag Tax

hypothecated tax going back in to community food initiatives

Regional Food Mapping

building on the work already being led by SOAS

New Food Indicators what indicators other than export-growth should we be using to chart ‘success’ in food policy? Vitamin intake, soil quality, expansion of organics, food mile reduction, new empoyment in agriculture, resilience in local economies?

Farm Apprenticeships

building on work being led by Nourish at Elmwood College

School Farms

part of the curriculum for excellence

Farm Corps, Garden Corps

a chance for gap-year, NEET and young people to get work experience

GM Free Scotland

we should maintain and champion Scotland’s GM-free status

Queen of the Sea

celebrate and foster our fishing heritage – research project and publication to celebrate our seafood culture.

Scottish Orchard / Fruit

large-scale co-ordinated re-planting and boost of plant diversity

A New Food Economy

connecting people with the potential of a food economy (social enterprise in food, sustainable catering and cafes)

FIFE DIET PRODUCERS MARKET This year at the Fife Diet AGM we are keen to begin putting some Food Solutions into practice.

Lunch will therefore take the form of a mini farmers’ market.

We will also be running the first ever Soup Test ( See the Manifesto point No. 1 on page 6), with soup expertly made by children attending the childcare. What marks will you give them?

Some of the producers have generously agreed to come meet their fans (the consumers) for the Meet the Producer workshop (see timetable on the back page)

LUNCH Wild Rover is a Scotland-based sustainable, ethical food business specialising in street food. “Travelling around Scotland in our 1961 Land Rover and popup field kitchen, we use the best natural and local produce to deliver delicious wild food catering. We care passionately about food provenance, so we work directly with the people who hunt, fish, grow and forage – as the food seasons change, our dishes do too!” www.wildroverfood.com

The Doorstep Bakery is a fledging

community project based in the heart of the Howe of Fife, the project is an offshoot of the North Howe Transition Toun. The group have set up a small bakery in the kitchen of Collessie Village Hall from which they deliver bread weekly to local families. They will be providing lunch for Food Solutions

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from their mobile wood- fired pizza oven which is housed in a converted horsebox! www.nhtt.org.uk

The Steamie Bakehouse is a bakery based in Dunfermline. They use natural leavens and long, cool fermentation processes to produce their delicious bread.

“It takes much longer to make bread this way, but we think it is worth it for the flavour, texture and keeping quality, as well as the health and nutritional benefits.”

They distribute their bread throughout Fife and the Edinburgh area via ‘Bread Clubs’.

“Breadclubs are groups of people in an area who have given us a regular bread order.

We bake their order every week and deliver it to a pick-up point in their area, which might be a household, or a shop or cafe”.

Matthew will be providing the sweet treats for the coffee breaks and something yummy at lunch as well. www.steamiebakehouse.com

Zapatista coffee. This high-quality

‘Arabica’ coffee comes from beans cultivated, harvested and prepared by the ‘Mut Vitz’ growers cooperative, Chiapas, Mexico. ‘Mut Vitz’ (from the Tzotzil meaning ‘Mountain of Birds’) was set-up in 1997 to enable small farmers to bypass the traditional middlemen (‘coyotes’) and get a fair price for their produce. The cooperative

now comprises over 700 indigenous campesinos of the Tzotzil community all of whom support the Zapatista insurrection in Chiapas. The cooperative guarantees the proper use of the soil by promoting organic farming and obtains the best quality coffee beans in a natural way.

This coffee is imported by volunteers of Hamburg’s Café Libertad co-operative.

The money benefits the self-run Zapatista communities. www.cafe-libertad.de

MEET THE PRODUCERS Bruce Bennet - Pillars of Hercules.

Pillars of Hercules is an organic farm, farm shop and cafe in Falkland. Established in 1983, the farm has grown from one hectare to ten hectares.

“We grow a lot of salad, which is really nice stuff to eat. We also grow apples, beans, celery, cucumbers, dill, endive, fennel, garlic, herbs, jerusalem artichokes, kale, leeks...and so on. We’ve about 300 laying hens, which provide our very popular eggs.

A lot of our produce we sell through the farm shop and veg boxes, the rest is distributed on a merit basis to other box schemes, shops, and restaurants...” www.pillars.co.uk

Gillian Cameron - Pittormie Fruit Farm.

Pittormie Fruit Farm is a small intensive family run farm situated in the heart of North East Fife. “Our aim is to produce quality fresh food which has real flavour - so we try to keep the use of chemicals to an absolute

minimum. We try to grow a wide range of fruits and vegetables and are always willing to try different fruits and vegetables.” www.pittormiefruitfarm.co.uk

Stacey Galfskiy - Chillilicious

“Chillilicious is Scotland’s first and only chilli farm, making us the most Northerly chilli farm in the UK. Run by Patricia and Stacey Galfskiy, a Mother/Daughter team, we produce delicious chilli food products and handmade chilli inspired glass art that blends our combined love of food and art”. www.chillilicious.co.uk

John Pickens - Fife Oat Producer

John is the farmer who grows the oats used in Your Piece Baking Company’s delicious Fife Oats. These oats became available through a collaborative process which involved Fife Diet, Fisher and Donaldson and Your Piece and is a great example of new initiatives arising out of the new interest in local food. For reference: www.yourpiecebakingcompany.com

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Hi gh Str ee TO t KIR KC AL D

Y

USEFUL INFORMATION

War memorial

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2

Steps down to Harbour Road

Ha rb ou rR oa d

Ro ad rn tis lan d

BU RN TIS LA Bu ND

TO

d Place

E NU E V

KINGHORN TRAIN STATION

Rosslan

VE NU E1

Bus stops

VENUE 1 = Kinghorn Parish Church Hall VENUE 2 = Kinghorn Community Centre

Where to go

The AGM is taking place at Kinghorn Parish Church Hall (Venue 1) and Kinghorn Community Centre (Venue 2) which are just a stone’s throw from each other. The map’s scale opposite is tiny - it takes 3 minutes to walk from the train station.

Kinghorn Parish Church Hall 3 Rossland Place Kinghorn Fife KY3 9TU

Registration and Childcare - on the day

Registration happens at Venue 1 - the door of which is directly next to the war memorial.

If you have booked childcare you will need to drop off your children at Venue 2. Registration is from 9- 10.15 am, and childcare drop-off from 9 - 9.30. Childcare is from 9.30 - 5.30

Getting there

We would be very pleased if people come by public transport, by bicycle, sail or on foot! Kinghorn is less than an hour on the train from Perth, Dundee or Edinburgh, and

there are good bus links to Kirkcaldy. We recommend the following websites to help plan your journey: Traveline Scotland for complete journey planning: www.travelinescotland.com For train services to Fife: www.scotrail.co.uk For those who wish to travel by bus try: www.stagecoachbus.com

Have you remembered to book your place at the AGM? To do this, go to fifediet.eventbrite.co.uk

FIFE DIET Our office is open 9-5 Monday – Friday. If you want to get in touch can phone us on 01592 871 371 or write to us at: Fife Diet Office 6-7, Old Station House, Forth Place, Burntisland, Fife KY3 9DR www.fifediet.co.uk

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Your Fife Diet

Venue 1 - Main hall

KEYNOTE SPEAKER SESSION

4.30 - 5.30

Venue 1

COFFEE BREAK

What are we feeding our kids at school? - Robin Gourlay

The Great Outdoors

Wild food walk (Meet in the Cafe Area, Venue 2)

3.45 - 4.30

Venue 2 - Room C

AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS

2.30 - 3.30

Venue 2 - Main hall

How to set up a food co-op

LOCAL PRODUCERS’ MARKET LUNCH

1.00 - 2.30

Venue 2 - Room B

Innovation and Enterprise - Kate Bull & Laura Stewart

12.15 - 1.00

Being the change

Culture and Education - Douglas Watson & Eve Keepax

11.30 - 12.15

Venue 2 - Room A

Coffee Break

11.15 - 11.30

Meet the producers

Right to Grow - Andy Wightman & Kat Vandenberg

MORNING TALKS

10.35 - 11.15

Venue 1 - Main hall

Fife Diet Annual General Meeting

9.00 - 9.30

Introduction and housekeeping - Mike Small

Venue 1 - Main hall

Childcare (Supervised Play area)

9.30 - 5.30

10.30 - 10.35

Venue 2 - Main hall

Childcare drop-off

9.00 - 9.30 Venue 2 - Main hall

Venue 1 - Small hall

VENUE

Registration

REGISTRATION

PROGRAMME

9.00 - 10.15

TIME

TIMETABLE

Refer to the map on the previous page to see where the venues are.