The Scottish Government

Living off the Land

Monday, September 24, 2007

Tom Gray says: More allotments for those urban dwellers who appreciate the health giving benefits in both the production and eating of fresh produce. More farms for those who wish to enjoy rural living, engage in food production and subsidise, from off farm income, the priceless lifestyle to be enjoyed there. More opportunity for those youngsters condemned to urban living to not only see and be told how food is produced by those who enjoy producing it, but actually gain the faintest hope that they could one day have the chance to enjoy producing it themselves.

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Comments

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• 15. Moderator -

  Friday, May 2, 2008 10:07

  This blog is now closed to further comments.

• 14. Tom Gray - Perthshire

  Tuesday, April 29, 2008 07:37

  By pinpointing the con trick you've hit the nail on the head Donnie.
  This con trick keeps people off the land and turns them away from rural Scotland. As a nation, we reap what we sow!
  Sadly, life's struggles make it unlikely that consumers will rise up in revolt any more than they will reject en masse the convenience of supermarkets in favour of farm shops.
  People respond to what is put before them, as do governments on whom consumers rely.
  A major influence has been the preference of the farming community to study and seek to emmulate the ways of farming in sparsely populated American and antipodean countries where scale of production is key. Rejecting the socially healthy policies of our nearer European neighbours where large portions of the population have close contact with the land and food production is what dumps us at the foot of umpteen EU social league tables on health and welfare.
  Governments have given free rein to supermarkets and have ignored the consequencies of distancing consumers from land and food production.
  A broad discussion and national food policy must surely help.

• 13. Liza Hawthorne - Skye

  Saturday, April 26, 2008 16:45

  I lived in England for a while and the local council had an initiate offering really cheap compost bins to anyone who was inspired to use one! Allotments are great if the weather in the region makes it easy for beginners to have success. Perhaps the local councils could offer cost effective mini polytunnels for enthusiastic home growers in the North!

• 12. Donnie Macleod - Inverness

  Friday, April 25, 2008 12:22

  Well said Tom Gray!
  The taxing of the poor in the guise of supporting cheaper food and then actually giving it to the rich is a super con trick.
  Lets get people back to the land and tell the 'not-dirty-hand farmers' to go and do someone else.
  It is easy for the government to subsidise land for allotments instead of subsidising bio-fuel.
  

• 11. Kate Richardson - South Queensferry

  Thursday, April 24, 2008 20:24

  I am so impressed by all the blog entries, it should be required reading for all MSP's.
  In regard to Tom's comment on consumers as stakeholders, I only wish they would vote with their feet and give greater support to Farmers Markets and Farm Shops, our local West Craigie Farm sells excellent produce. I am also saddened by the perceived 'need' for ever cheaper food, especially meat, which has impacted greatly upon quality. Our family income is low at the moment as I am a student, yet we prefer to buy smaller amounts of good quality, hopefully local, produce. I also encourage my children to pick their own fruit and veg at the local farm which helps them to both understand and appreciate where their food comes from.

• 10. Tom Gray - Perthshire

  Wednesday, April 16, 2008 04:55

  In attempting to answer Sue's question, might I suggest that two generations ago children were two generations closer to their rural roots and I have no doubt that considerably more parents and grandparents at that time had first hand knowledge of food production.
  Our key problem is our ancient landowning structure which has driven many needlessly to urbanisation and rejection of the countryside. This has created a huge urban/rural divide.
  The next problem, which has simply exacerbated the first, is the guard them like the crown jewels attitude toward uncapped farming subsidies.
  National food production policy has been driven largely by the self interest bodies, "stakeholders" as they are commonly called today. Farming and landowning lobbyists, with the ear of successive governments friendly to their cause, have guarded uncapped subsidies as the key to further prosperity. Inevitably and sadly this prosperity has only benefited the ever-decreasing number of farmers and estate owners free to gain the subsidies on land once farmed by family farmers.
  The result is Scotland-wide rural clearance, serious lack of opportunity for new entrants to agriculture and a population further distanced from food production.
  The real stakeholders in all this should be consumers. They provide the subsidies and need to ensure their distribution in the best interests of consumers.

• 9. Sue Matthews - Edinburgh

  Monday, April 14, 2008 22:26

  I think the idea of bridging the age-gap with shared garden/allotment space sounds great. I was dissappointed to see a number of allotments replaced with flats over the last year on my street. (I appreciate that there is a housing shortage, but its not as if Edinburgh Council was meeting its 'affordable housing policy' when these apartments will sell for in excess of £500,000.)
  
  I also feel strongly about encouraging vegetable/plant/herb growing within schools. I loved learning how to grow food at school and wish we could have been taught more!
  
  Its worrying how much knowledge is being lost from generation to generation in self-sufficient food production. How is it possible that today's children can barely identify vegetables in the supermarket, when only two generations ago our nation's health/nutrtion depended on small-time/local food production.
  

• 8. Daye Tucker - Balfron

  Friday, February 22, 2008 11:52

  There are some great ideas here. What about designing raised,suspended, rotating beds, a pulley system, for tight tenement space areas? A design competition/challenge for our design students. Recycled compost from neighbours excess waste. Neighbourhood competitions.

• 7. Rhona MacKenzie - Longniddry

  Tuesday, February 19, 2008 15:09

  How about some intergenerational work and "joined up" thinking in local communities. Many elderly residents have gardens that they worry about maintaining - could'nt those individuals/ families who desire to grow their own veg offer to maintain the garden in return for use of ground for growing vegetables. My husband did this for years within our village to the benefit of all involved. Might need some mediation but worth a thought!

• 6. Jennifer Dunn - Glasgow

  Tuesday, February 19, 2008 14:46

  More allotments would be good, but there's not always land available in urban areas to make into allotment space. Brownfield sites may not be suitable because of land contamination, and people who use existing greenspace might object to it being turned into allotments.
  
  Another solution would be to have vegetable patches in tenement gardens. Not all, but a lot of tenement gardens aren't well used at the moment.
  
  In tenements factored by social landlords, it should be reasonably easy to encourage them to pilot some vegetable patches. Private factors would be more awkward, but there's nothing to stop occupiers taking a lead.
  
  Another part of the problem is that people in tenements often don't know their neighbours so may be reluctant to use a communal space, but then, putting a shared resource other than the bins in a back court would encourage some community feeling.

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