The COVID-19 global health crisis has been a time to reflect on the things we truly cherish and our most basic needs.

These uncertain times have made many of us rekindle our appreciation for a thing that some take for granted and many go without: food. World Food Day is calling for global solidarity to help all populations, and especially the most vulnerable, to recover from the crisis, and to make food systems more resilient and robust so they can withstand increasing volatility and climate shocks, deliver affordable and sustainable healthy diets for all, and decent livelihoods for food system workers.

This will require better social protection, innovation and digitalization, and sustainable agricultural practices that preserve the Earth’s natural resources, our health, and the climate. But we all have a role to play, from supporting businesses that are making their food and drink products healthier, to not letting sustainable habits fall by the wayside, and joining the global solidarity effort, despite these uncertain times. All of us need to make sure that our food systems grow a variety of food to nourish a growing population and sustain the planet, together. FAO 2020

In Scotland, we produce a wide range of food stuffs and have some of the best animal welfare legislation in place.  Food is a truly global commodity and the phrase food security is now familiar to many of us.  The basic premise of food security is having access to food.  What food security doesn’t encompass is where food comes from, or the conditions under which it is produced and distributed. 

As we move out of Europe we will need to think carefully about what we consider an acceptable way to produce food and our young people need to be part of this debate and have the skills and knowledge available to them so they can make sustainable choices.  Food sovereignty considers food access but also considers appropriate production, distribution and consumption, social-economic justice and local food systems as ways to tackle hunger and poverty and guarantee sustainable food security for all.

RHET are working with Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), the Rowett (Aberdeen University) and Food and Drink Federation Scotland to provide teachers with learning opportunities linked to Food, STEM and sustainability.  We will provide an online learning portal for teachers to access at a time to suit as well as providing a series of bite size webinars.

Today as part of World Food Day we are releasing our GOOD FOOD podcast which gives an insight into the partners involved together with an early bird register your interest link for any teachers who might be interested in the training.

The biodiversity and climate crisis we are currently experiencing are closely linked to the way we produce and consume food.  By becoming more sustainable in producing food we can limit the impacts on both biodiversity loss and climate warming.  Never before has what we consume been so important to the future of our planet.

The podcast

The podcast will be hosted on both the FDF Scotland website (https://bit.ly/FDFScotlandPodcasts) and on Spotify (https://bit.ly/FDFScotlandSpotify)