The Future for Food in Scotland: Analysis of Responses to the National Discussion

4. Analysis of responses to the discussion document

The analysis of the responses to the discussion document comprises three sections. The first section presents a brief descriptive analysis of the main characteristics of the respondents to the discussion. The second section analyses stakeholders' preferences in relation to the 'broad topics', identifying the most popular topics and related strategic objectives of the Scottish Government. The last section reports the results of a text analysis of the content of the stakeholders' responses providing further insight into the responses. It should be noted that this analysis included the records of the stakeholders' events to avoid unnecessary repetition of opinions expressed by the same respondents on different occasions.

4.1 Characteristics of the respondents

As shown in Table 4-1, the number of written responses to the discussion document was 441.

In total 259 responses were received from individuals ( i.e., 59% of responses) and 182 from organisations (41% of responses). As regards the responses from individuals, there was a low representation from individual businesses (2%) but markedly more from individual consumers (57%).

Businesses and their organisations made up 14% of responses, whilst non-business related organisations represented 27% of the responses.

Table 4-1: Distribution of the respondents to the discussion document

Respondent category	Count	%
Individuals	259	58.7
Consumers	252	57.1
Business related	7	1.6
Organisations	182	41.3
Non-business related ( e.g., environment, health, education)	121	27.4
Producers	25	5.7
Processors	19	4.3
Retailers	7	1.6
Industry bodies	10	2.3
Total	441	100.0

Table 4-2 provides information about the geographic distribution of the responses of individual stakeholders (organisations were not considered in the table due to the fact that their scope in many cases goes beyond their region of location, furthermore, several of them have a national scope).

Table 4-2: Distribution of individual stakeholders submitting responses by council area

Regions and council areas	Cases	Percentage 1/	Intensity 2/
North West	44	17.0	310.8
Shetland	16	6.2	1,422.2
Orkney	2	0.8	203.1
Eileanan an Iar	0	0.0	0.0
Highland	26	10.0	243.2
North East	26	10.0	96.6
City of Aberdeen	4	1.5	36.9
Aberdeenshire	8	3.1	68.9
Moray	14	5.4	314.7
South East	87	33.6	104.7
Angus	6	2.3	108.2
City of Dundee	4	1.5	53.7
Perth and Kinross	6	2.3	86.9
Fife	11	4.2	61.5
East Lothian	5	1.9	108.5
City of Edinburgh	41	15.8	178.6
Midlothian	2	0.8	48.3
West Lothian	6	2.3	73.9
Scottish Borders	6	2.3	109.8
South West	83	32.0	61.5
Clackmannanshire	1	0.4	40.7
Falkirk	7	2.7	94.2
Stirling	5	1.9	113.4
Argyll and Bute	7	2.7	149.8
East Dunbartonshire	1	0.4	18.1
East Renfrewshire	0	0.0	0.0
City of Glasgow	26	10.0	87.9
Inverclyde	1	0.4	23.2
North Lanarkshire	1	0.4	6.1
Renfrewshire	8	3.1	90.4
South Lanarkshire	6	2.3	38.8
West Dunbartonshire	1	0.4	20.9
East Ayrshire	2	0.8	32.5
North Ayrshire	7	2.7	100.7
South Ayrshire	4	1.5	69.7
Dumfries and Galloway	6	2.3	79.4
Others	19	7.3
Out of Scotland	5	1.9
No information provided	14	5.4
Total	259	100.0	100.0

Notes:
1/ Share with respect to the total number of responses.
2/ Index number based on the proportion of the responses to the population of the local authority, with the proportion for Scotland equal 100.

In Table 4-2 a coefficient of intensity was computed to take into account the number of responses from a specific region with respect to its population. ² As shown, there was a proportionately high level of responses from the South East (33.6%) and North West (17%), and a proportionately low response from the South West (32%). The North East represented 10% of responses. However, the level and intensity of response varied within the regions.

Table 4-3 presents the distribution of stakeholders (individuals and organisations) according to their type of activity. It should be noted in the table that of the 259 individuals, 7 of them, corresponding to individual businesses, were re-classified into the business categories ( i.e., primary producers, processors and retailers). As shown in the table, the responses to the discussion document arose from a variety of organisations.

Table 4-3: Distribution of stakeholders

Type of stakeholder activity	Number of cases	%
Culture and recreation	6	1.4
Education and research	20	4.5
Health	23	5.2
Environment	9	2.0
Development and housing	27	6.1
Law , advocacy and politics	27	6.1
Philanthropic intermediaries and voluntarism promotion	1	0.2
Religion	1	0.2
Business and professional associations, unions	37	8.4
Primary producers (agriculture and fisheries)	10	2.3
Processors	8	1.8
Retailers	11	2.5
Consumers	252	57.4
Input/services (agri-food sector)	8	1.8
Total	441	100.0

4.2 Most popular topics

Methods

The methodology utilised in this section consisted of identifying the presence of the 37 broad topics (as presented in section 2) in the stakeholders' responses. Thus, one stakeholder may (as happened frequently) be associated with quite a range of broad topics (more than 20 in some cases). Then, the different broad topics were ranked according to the number of stakeholders that included them in their responses. It should be noted that this analysis did not take into account the intensity of expression associated with a broad topic in a stakeholder's response ( e.g., the number of times that a broad topic appears in the response). Such an analysis is performed in the next section.

It is important to note in relation to the methodology of this section, that in order to reduce the level of subjectivity in the identification of broad topics in the responses, the exercise was performed independently by two researchers and their results were compared to obtain a final representation of stakeholders' references to the topics.

Figure 4-1 presents the ranking of the top 10 topics raised by the responses of individuals (259) giving the percentage of responses that cited each of the topics. 58% of individual respondents raised the issue of addressing diet and nutrition (the number 1 topic in the ranking), whilst 40% of the respondents raised the issue of local food and local economies. Other broad topics which were also of foremost importance were health promotion, education in schools and food access.

Figure 4-1: Ranking of top 10 broad topics for individuals

Figure 4-1: Ranking of top 10 broad topics for individuals

Further analysis was performed to identify whether the ranking presented in Figure 4-1 corresponded with the views of different regions of Scotland. The results are presented in Table 4-4, which considers the rankings of not only the Scottish regions, but also the views of those respondents outside Scotland or who did not identify their location.

It should be noted that almost all of the five top broad topics in Table 4-4 feature as important for all the regions (although in different order). Diet and nutrition ranked top in the regional preferences in all but one case. The exception was in the North West, where it ranked second after local food and local economies. The choice of the top 5 broad topics in the North West ( i.e., local food and local economy, diet and nutrition, farming industry, education in schools and food access) seems to point out preferences for topics that solve issues related to food access, health and income. Also, it should be noted that food access ranked 7 ^th for the North East, similar to education in schools in the South East.

Figure 4-2 presents the ranking of broad topics as expressed by organisations. The pattern of ranking is close to that observed in the responses of individuals, as diet and nutrition and local food and local economies ranked in the first two positions. However, in comparison with the individual responses, health promotion and adult education had a higher ranking.

Table 4-4: Ranking of Top 10 broad topics according to individuals and by region

	North West	North East	South East	South West	Out of Scotland	No information	Total Cases
	Regions				Others		Total Cases
Diet and nutrition	2	1	1	1	2	1	150
Local food & local economies	1	3	2	5	1	2	104
Education in schools	4	2	7	2	6	19	89
Access to food	5	7	5	3	12	10	81
Farming industry	3	5	3	11	24	3	74
Health promotion	7	4	4	4	32	4	82
Environmentally friendly food production	15	16	6	8	15	5	67
Organic production	14	11	9	12	3	22	51
Product market - direct sales	18	9	21	24	4	27	27
Tourism	34	35	24	26	5	28	15
Total number of respondents	44	26	87	83	5	14

Figure 4-2: Ranking of top 10 broad topics for organisations

Figure 4-2: Ranking of top 10 broad topics for organisations

Table 4-5 presents the counts for the 37 broad topics by strategic objective categorised by individuals and organisations. Within the objective 'Wealthier and Fairer', the two topics with the highest number of counts for both individuals and organisations were 'Local food and local economies' and 'Farming industry'. As regards the objective 'Smarter', education in schools and for adults were the topics with the highest number of counts (although their ranks were different for individuals and organisations). It should be noted that 'Food labelling' ranked third for organisation, quite close to the top two. 'Diet and nutrition' and 'Health promotion' were unanimously the top two topics within the objective 'Healthier'. Similarly, in the objective 'Safer and Stronger', 'Access to food' and 'Local food & local communities' were the two topics with most counts. Regarding the objective 'Greener', the topic of 'Environmentally friendly food production' was popular for both individuals and organisations. However, in the case of individuals, it was followed by 'Grow your own', whilst for organisations it was 'Food waste'.

As organisations represent a wide spectrum of interests including health, education, business, the environment, communities, research and development, local government, food safety, etc., the ranking presented in Figure 4-2 was broken down according to the stakeholder classification presented in section 2. The results are presented in Table 4-6, together with information about the number of respondents corresponding to each category.

It is important to note that all of the topics considered in Table 4-6 (21 in total) are those which were found in the top 5 of each stakeholder category ( i.e., as each stakeholder category ranked the topics in a different order, the total number is necessarily above 5, adding up to 21 topics in total). As regards the order in which the broad topics are presented in the table, this resulted from arranging in ascending order the sum of all the categories' rankings. However, the interpretation of the Table should take into account more the individual rankings than the aggregated one as the different stakeholder groups differ in the number of respondents.

Unsurprisingly, different stakeholder groups offered differing views. However, as shown in Table 4-6 many of them (8 of them, including consumers) ranked 'Diet and nutrition', first. It is interesting to note that among those where 'Diet and nutrition' was ranked first were the group of business categories (producers, processors and retailers).

'Local food and local economies' ranked second in the number of stakeholders that considered it as an issue in their responses. It was followed by 'Health promotion', 'Farming industry' and 'Food labelling', 'Environmentally friendly food production' and education (adult and in schools).

As regards food access, this ranked first for the group of culture and recreation and also for the group of stakeholders working in health.

In summary, clearly for consumers and most of the organisations, issues related to 'Diet and nutrition' appear as the most important. Whilst there are differences regarding the specific order of the other topics by stakeholder, it is clear that 'Local food and local economies', 'Health promotion', 'Food access', 'Farming industry', 'Food labelling', education (school and adult) also lie high in the order of priority for inclusion in a food policy.

Table 4-5: Distribution of responses by individuals and organisations (counts of responses)

Strategic Objective	Broad Topic Area	All 1/	Individuals	Organisations	Business related 2/			Consumers
Strategic Objective	Broad Topic Area	All 1/	Individuals	Organisations	All	Individuals	Organisations	All	Individuals	Organisations
Wealthier and Fairer	Labour market - skills, jobs	71	11	60	28	1	27	43	10	33
	Product market - exports	27	4	23	13	0	13	14	4	10
	Product market - public sector	85	29	56	22	2	20	63	27	36
	Product market - direct sales	55	27	28	11	3	8	44	24	20
	Product market - supermarkets	82	48	34	16	2	14	66	46	20
	Prices - consumer	78	31	47	14	1	13	64	30	34
	Prices - producer	25	11	14	9	1	8	16	10	6
	Fishing Industry	52	25	27	7	1	6	45	24	21
	Farming industry	145	74	71	31	2	29	114	72	42
	Processing capacity in Scotland	69	19	50	27	2	25	42	17	25
	Drinks industry	32	9	23	13	0	13	19	9	10
	Tourism	48	15	33	15	1	14	33	14	19
	R&D	46	9	37	20	0	20	26	9	17
	Local food & local economies	218	104	114	48	2	46	170	102	68
	Fairtrade	27	13	14	3	0	3	24	13	11
Smarter	Education in schools	174	89	85	25	0	25	149	89	60
	Adult education	155	63	92	24	0	24	131	63	68
	Food labelling	122	40	82	33	1	32	89	39	50
	Traceability	34	10	24	18	0	18	16	10	6
	Food Chain Collaboration	68	16	52	30	0	30	38	16	22
	Animal welfare	63	37	26	16	1	15	47	36	11
Healthier	Food and drink advertising	99	42	57	17	0	17	82	42	40
	Health promotion	192	82	110	36	2	34	156	80	76
	Food safety	61	18	43	16	1	15	45	17	28
	Diet and nutrition	298	150	148	53	5	48	245	145	100
	School & hospital meals	115	52	63	11	4	7	104	48	56
Safer and Stronger	External factors affecting food supply	65	24	41	20	0	20	45	24	21
	Capacity for food production	44	17	27	16	0	16	28	17	11
	Access to food	168	81	87	25	0	25	143	81	62
	Local food & local communities	133	54	79	25	2	23	108	52	56
Greener	Organic production	86	51	35	11	2	9	75	49	26
	Food waste	72	22	50	18	0	18	54	22	32
	Food packaging	63	26	37	12	0	12	51	26	25
	Local food & food miles	80	38	42	17	1	16	63	37	26
	Food miles (other)	62	30	32	16	0	16	46	30	16
	Environmentally friendly food production	144	67	77	32	2	30	112	65	47
	Grow your own	93	56	37	5	0	5	88	56	32

Notes:
1/ Discrepancies are due to the fact that some responses are not classified as individual or organisation.
2/ Primary producers, manufacturers, retailers and industry bodies.

Table 4-6: Ranking of most popular topics according to stakeholder classification

Broad topics	Culture and recreation	Education and research	Health	Environment	Development and housing	Law, advocacy, and politics	Philanthropic intermediaries and voluntarism promotion	Religion	Business and professional associations unions	Primary producers (agriculture and fisheries)	Processors	Retailers	Consumers	Input/services (agri-food sector)
Diet and nutrition	10	1	3	1	1	1	10	15	2	1	1	1	1	10
Local food & local economies	6	7	8	10	2	4	5	8	1	2	3	3	2	1
Health promotion	8	3	5	4	3	2	9	30	4	7	5	4	4	5
Farming industry	27	12	7	5	11	13	3	5	12	4	6	12	6	8
Food labelling	7	25	10	2	9	7	6	11	10	15	8	7	15	3
Environmentally friendly food production	4	4	12	26	17	12	17	20	5	12	17	5	7	13
Adult education	19	2	2	3	5	9	29	27	3	25	4	24	8	18
Education in schools	32	6	6	6	4	6	28	10	9	14	7	23	3	25
Product market - public sector	15	15	15	8	13	8	20	1	16	5	10	21	20	15
Access to food	1	20	1	17	6	3	33	18	13	19	27	2	5	19
Local food & local communities	3	10	9	11	7	10	34	19	8	11	16	10	10	27
School & hospital meals	21	18	4	16	16	5	11	16	19	3	15	37	13	7
Prices - consumer	17	30	16	9	14	16	22	3	15	23	19	22	18	23
Food and drink advertising	35	8	11	21	15	14	8	29	28	34	14	16	14	4
Processing capacity in Scotland	28	32	27	31	24	11	4	6	7	13	22	13	26	16
Product market - supermarkets	25	24	31	30	23	30	1	2	17	22	2	26	12	22
Tourism	5	33	17	33	34	17	25	7	22	9	34	32	30	17
Fishing Industry	18	31	26	15	28	24	2	24	35	24	21	18	22	32
R&D	30	5	22	20	30	36	26	26	18	32	12	33	35	2
Prices - producer	26	35	32	19	37	34	23	4	33	8	20	30	36	31
Grow your own	2	23	25	27	12	33	37	37	25	37	37	36	9	37
Number of respondents	6	20	23	9	27	27	1	1	37	10	8	11	252	8

4.3 Further insight into stakeholders' responses

Methods

The text analysis is based on an 'inductive' approach and aims to provide further insight to uncover the main streams of themes mentioned in the responses and the importance placed upon them. Unlike the 'deductive approach' applied in the previous section, the inductive method does not involve the application of predetermined categories ( i.e., broad topics).

As regards the methodology, before the quantitative content and theme analysis was conducted, each written response was read and the key themes arising from the responses identified and introduced into a data base. The steps followed in the analysis of the responses included data coding, interpretation of themes, and generating meaning and further insight from the analysis. STATISTICA text-mining software was used to analyse the text entries from the database. This text mining software is specifically designed for mining unstructured information, and was used in this study to extract the most common words and phrases in the responses. Frequencies of individual words and phrases were calculated and their importance was used to create tables for individual groups of stakeholders. ³ In this way the distribution of themes within each group and the overall focus were established.

4.3.1 Individuals versus Organisations

Differences between individuals (consumers and members of the public) and organisations (non-business related and businesses) are represented in Table 4-7 below. The ranking of the main themes was calculated on the basis of frequencies and underlying semantic patterns. The results summarised below aim to compare and contrast the interests and opinions of these inherently different groups, and therefore, a detailed breakdown of themes is discussed with regards to specific groups of stakeholders as specified in Annex 1.

To facilitate the comparison, the themes were generalised and each represents a broad range of comments. The length of response was taken into account when considering the impact of a theme/phrase in the whole group of responses. However, short responses were represented fairly with the full weight given to every valid contribution to the policy discussion.

It should be noted that documents containing records of stakeholders' events were included in the content and thematic analysis of written responses to ensure a complete evaluation of the importance of themes and to avoid unnecessary repetition of opinions expressed by the same respondents on different occasions.

Table 4-7 summarises results of analysis of the 5 top themes based on generic terms embracing more specific areas discussed by the respondents.

Themes in Table 4-7 are presented in their order of importance, and within the most specific issues are also listed in terms of their importance.

Table 4-7: Focus list of 5 top themes for individual and organisational responses.

Importance rank - individual responses	Importance rank - organisational responses
Local Food: quality, availability, support Industry and agriculture	Local Industry and agriculture Food: support
Health Diet HSSF (high in sugar, salt or fat) food, food additives Culture and Lifestyle	Industry Supply: food security Economics, markets, demand
Education School Home economics Children	Education School Children Consumer
Environment GM free food Carbon emission/footprint Climate change Food miles	Health Diet Culture and Lifestyle HSSF food, food additives
Food access Local outlets Supermarkets Poverty, price, inequalities Hospitals, schools,	Environment Energy, oil prices Carbon emission/footprint Climate change Food miles

The local (Scottish or more locally defined) aspect of food production featured prominently in the responses of organisations and individuals. Whilst organisations were concerned with the economic sustainability of farm and food sector activities and the issues of food supply and security, individuals placed greater emphasis on food quality, availability and diet. With respect to education, both individuals and organisations promoted the importance of child education and their experiences in school, especially with regards to home economics subject resources and curriculum. Organisations in particular urged greater consumer education, which is strongly linked to the health aspects of diet and Scottish food culture and lifestyle; an issue for organisations and individuals alike. On the environment, organisations stressed energy issues, carbon footprints, climate change and food miles, whilst individuals raised similar issues but also focussed on remaining GM free products within the food system. A series of food access issues - local outlets, supermarket access, poverty and disadvantage, and food provision through public sector establishments - were also very prominent in individual responses.

As expected the main differences relate to the economic aspects of food production and distribution which are underlined in the organisational responses. However, due to the high share of non-profit organisations representing societal interests and initiatives, as well as the focus of the policy discussion document itself, health and education themes are present across the whole set of responses, regardless of the profit and production orientation of most of the business respondents.

4.3.2 Themes and their importance in responses according to stakeholder groups

Stakeholders' overall views, interpretations of policy propositions, as well as themes containing specific expectations and demands are expressed in the responses, and they are many in number and varied in nature. Summaries of the themes expressed by different stakeholder groups are presented in Tables 4-8 to 4-12 below. The analysis allowed identification of specific interests within each group of stakeholders. The main themes in the analysis were broken down into sub-themes to consider a more specific context.

Table 4-8: Individual respondents - main themes

Main theme	Sub-themes	Additional comments
Health	Healthy diet Home cooking Provision of healthy food: to children Access Affordability Nutritional habits Affordability Vegetarian/vegan diet Food Safety	Balanced diet, dietary requirements to be pursued; consumption habits to be changed. Fruit and vegetables, carbohydrates promotion, GM, HSSF alcohol and fast food require intervention. Obesity and especially in children urgent policy objective. Free school meals. Inequality and problem with access to food should be resolved especially in context of prices. Animal products diet detrimental to human health. Availability of adequate food to venerable people, food labelling. Food advertising to children regulated
Education	Children School resources and curricula Experience Adult and out of school education Parental responsibilities	Children taught form early age, involved, having hands on experience. Also taught at home. Able to cook and prepare healthy meals, knowing where food comes from. Schools provided with human and technical resources to provide quality food education. Local producers involved. Education inequalities and access to experience based teaching for all children. Growing own food at schools and community centres
Local Food	Local food support Local food access, Food Tourism Prices; cost of local food Local food: organic Food miles Local communities	Local food supported by national and local authorities. Local food initiatives to enhance availability and work on infrastructure required. Local food available at supermarkets. Local processing especially slaughter facilities to increase availability. Local food available in municipal, health and education organisations. Local food supporting rural communities and part of tourism experience. Imports controlled to enhance competitiveness of local food.
Environment	Climate change, carbon footprint, food miles; Grown your own Food waste Recycling Energy crisis	Regulations to answer environmental challenges. Allotments; resources and role of local authorities in management and support of local initiatives. Use of tenement gardens and development of green areas in cities. Control of food waste, education. Reduction of packaging, packaging tax, recycling fees for producers and retailers. Consumers aware of energy input in food production. Reliable and consistent labelling across all producers and retailers. Sustainable food production, energy and resources conservation. Animal welfare and ethical treatment of farm animals to be publically verified.
Supply chain, industry and agriculture	Support for local producers. Supermarket power Food Quality Food Safety Land and countryside	Local supply chains to be an inherent part of local and rural development. Supermarkets to be regulated, obliged to take responsibility for what they promote and sale. Traceability to inform public about provenance, quality and safety of food. Availability of alcohol, control and responsibility of sellers. Land use, allocation of agricultural resources. Dual role of farmers: business people and countryside stewards. Control of subsidies; fisheries and animal production. Food advertising to children, responsibility of retailers to promote and make available healthy options.

The Table 4-8 provides a summary of responses by individual respondents and demonstrates health and education concerns, as well as a widespread concern for the environment in relation to food matters. At the same time, it also indicates a considerable interest in development and support for the Scottish agri-food sector, especially in a local/rural context.

Table 4-9 below shows the broad range of issues mentioned by numerous non-profit organisations ( i.e., concerned with education, health, environment, community issues, etc.). Although priorities and importance of individual policy areas vary amongst them, an overall consensus with regards to the major issues is apparent.

Table 4-9: Non-Profit Organisations main themes ⁴

Main theme	Sub-themes	Additional comments
Local food	Supply chain Infrastructure Access: supermarkets, Local outlets, Food Tourism Local Procurement: Food miles Seasonal Training and skills Government role; support and funding. Affordability; prices Definition	Shortened, yet integrated supply chains, improvement/investment in local supply chain infrastructure. Support for local producers - funding and support for training; supermarkets to participate in development of local assortments. Food as a part of visitor experience - availability of local food in hotels and restaurants as a part of quality certification. Increase of outlets and assortment stocked. Regulations and preferences for procurement of local food for public sector. Promotion. Involvement of local authorities. Ensuring equal access to local food, making it affordable. There is a need for description of local food and control of provenance claims.
Supply chain, industry and agriculture	Profitability and economics, Food security, self sufficiency Training and skills Regulations Supermarkets: power Distribution: direct sales Energy prices Competitiveness, exports Rural development Research and development: innovativeness.	Role and development of agri-food sector in Scotland, in the context of UK and EU markets (including regulations). Integrated efforts to support competitive advantages, image and distribution of Scottish food. Targeted provision of training to fill the skills gaps. Funding and expertise support from government and knowledge centres. Improvement of intra-chain relations, control of and co-operation with supermarkets. Short supply chains: support for direct sales. Regulations: decrease the burden to small enterprises. Measurable outcomes of policy - benchmarking of industry standards.
Health	Healthy diet: balance. Home cooking Lack of choice Food knowledge Food culture Nutritional habits Access Affordability Food additives Quality of food in catering	Integrated education and communication efforts across all levels and types of public institutions. Co-operation with food producers and retailers in an effort to educate and re-formulate food products. Combating inequalities in access to food related to distribution and prices of food. Change of behaviour: norms and controls of behaviour leading to desirable lifestyle patterns. Change of social norms in relation to alcohol and unhealthy food consumption. Provision of healthy food: to disadvantaged and vulnerable social groups.
Education	Target: children, parents, consumers. School resources. Curriculum: home economics. Cooking at home skills. Out of school education: food initiatives.	Progression of education throughout school years. Programmes to involve children and adults alike. Learning by experience: involving children in growing and food preparation. Provision of adequate resources to support education, funding and development of initiatives tailored according to needs of specific groups and local communities.
Environment	Climate change, carbon footprint, food miles; Grown your own Food waste Recycling Biodiversity Sustainable agricultural production Renewable resources Energy shortage	Introduction of benchmarks defining acceptable and socially responsible practices in food production and distribution. Support and provisions of resources for growing own food: allotments and gardens. Co-ordination of efforts across food supply chains. Regulations rewarding sustainable production, e.g. via tax allowances. Policy framework addressing all these issues in the broader context of natural resources: land (soil), energy, water, ensuring biodiversity and preserving nature.

Tables 4-10 to 4-12 below focus the discussion on the priorities of businesses constituting the Scottish agri-food food supply chain. The summary was narrowed down to particular interests within business stakeholder groups according to their importance. Whilst there is strong concern for the profitability and competitiveness of the sector and the input markets which serve it, as well as regulatory issues, there is also concern for the environment and education.

Table 4-10: Primary production stakeholders: main themes

Main theme	Sub-themes	Additional comments
Local food	Supply chain Infrastructure Government role; support and funding. Local procurement. Definition and labelling.	Infrastructure is required to support local food supply ( e.g. local slaughtering facilities, regular direct sale facilities). Food security and development of local food markets should take into account influence of food imports. Any local food related legislations should consider an impact on overall food production in Scotland. Local food definition could be extended to include all food produced in Scotland.
Supply chain, industry and agriculture	Profitability and economics, Food security, self sufficiency Labour: availability and skills Regulations Supermarkets: power Energy prices	Action is required to counteract dominance of supermarkets. Regulations: decrease the burden to small enterprises. Rising energy prices should have consequences in policy changes. Collaborative supply chains enhancing partnering position of primary producers.
Environment	Climate change, carbon footprint, food miles; Biodiversity Sustainable agricultural production Renewable resources Energy shortage	Rural stewardship and farmers taking part in preservation of nature. Sustainable production fulfilling environmental requirements should be rewarded with preferable purchase/premium prices arrangements.
Education	Target: children, parents, consumers. School resources. Reconnecting consumers and producers	Children given an opportunity to learn about food origin and production and understand farming role in economy and society.

Table 4-11: Secondary production stakeholders: main themes

Main theme	Sub-themes	Additional comments
Supply chain, industry and agriculture	Profitability and economics, Labour: availability and skills Regulations Energy prices Research and Innovation Food service/catering.	Food industry profile should be raised; availability of food technology training is one of the obstacles in training. Regulations - support for SMEs in managing EU and UK regulatory demands. External input and support for food manufacturers to ensure competitiveness based on unique and innovative offering. Negative impact of food service/catering sector preferences - price prevailing over provenance and food quality. Incentives require changing preferences of food caterers.
Local food	Definition Sourcing raw materials Promotion	Extension of local food to the whole of Scotland. Self-sufficiency as a policy goal. Promotion of local food and Scottish provenance. Place branding to support exports.
Health	Food quality, Nutritional habits change of culture Education	Product reformulation only successful when consumer changes their preferences and behaviour. Industry can produce quality food but its price is a barrier to social groups with high health risk factors if there is no support. Food culture change to be supported by education and understanding of food and diet importance.
Environment	Climate change, carbon footprint, food miles; Energy crisis	Company should apply benchmarks to measure their environmental performance.

Table 4-12: Retail and distribution stakeholders - main themes

Main theme	Sub-themes	Additional comments
Health	Consumer behaviour change Education	Retailers acknowledge the need for change of food culture and are prepared to support attitudinal and behavioural change leading to healthier diets and lifestyle. However, demand and consumption trends remains major determinants of retail management.
Local food	Support for local producers Continuity of supply Food choice	Support and commitment to selling local food and cooperation with Scottish food producers should be recognised. Local food policy should not restrict food choice and hamper competition in the market place. Recognition of UK and EU wide regulatory framework and business environment.
Environment	Climate change, carbon footprint, food miles; Recycling Food waste	Intra-company policies and long term strategies are in place but should be communicated also by public institutions. Effort made to inform consumers about environmental impact of individual products but consumers should be able to understand such information so consistent messages should be delivered by industry and public sector alike.
Supply chain, retailing	Collaborative supply chains UK and EU markets and regulations Food safety Competition	Co-operation and collaboration with local companies. Global perspective of the food markets. Regulatory frameworks and quality assurance schemes. Need too co-operate to enhance performance and delivery of quality products by Scottish food chains. Highly competitive environment requires compliance with ever increasing demands and fast paced market place.

4.4 Conclusions

The analysis of responses has indicated a good level of representation from businesses, business and non-business organisations, and from consumers. There have been good levels of representation from across the country, albeit with some differences in representation and with a proportionately high level of representation being made from the North West.

Whilst the responses have been very varied in their content and the importance they place upon issues, there is a high level of consensus across the regions but with some slight regional differences.

For consumers and most of the organisations, issues related to diet and nutrition appear as the most important. Whilst there are differences regarding the specific order of the other topics by stakeholder, it is clear that local food and local economies, health promotion, food access, the farming industry, food labelling, and education (school and adult) also lie high in the order of priority for inclusion in a food policy.

The content of responses originating from different stakeholders varies in terms of the importance of individual topics and degree of detail in arguments used to communicate opinions and interests of the respondents.

Non-profit and government organisations and individual respondents focus on health, education and environment issues, whereas business replies have more of a profit and market orientation.

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The Future for Food in Scotland: Analysis of Responses to the National Discussion

4. Analysis of responses to the discussion document