Under the Community Empowerment Act 2015, all Scottish local authorities are required to produce a Food Growing Strategy for their area. In November 2019, Edible Edinburgh hosted an event for those involved in food growing projects across the city. The event brought together anyone interested in food growing that wanted to find out more about the Edinburgh Food Growing Strategy and what could be done to shape it. The event provided an opportunity for promoting and supporting a network of community growing projects and facilitated discussions surrounding the vision of Edinburgh becoming a food growing city.
The draft Edinburgh Food Growing Strategy, Growing Locally, was approved for consultation by Council Committee in February 2020. The three key objectives of the strategy are to:
- Grow more locally
- Consume more locally
- Increase awareness and engagement
An online consultation to gather views on the strategy and how it would be implemented was due to be launched for a six-week period in March and early April 2020. This has been delayed due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
As part of the Council’s response to COVID-19 it was agreed that the final strategy should also seek to respond to any future challenges the city may face in the wake of the pandemic, including incorporating the issues of food security and food poverty, and ensuring the development of a green economic recovery for the city.
City of Edinburgh Council are now launching the consultation on the draft strategy and would welcome your views on food growing, and on the role local good growing could play in supporting the city’s recovery from the impact of COVID-19 in particular. Your views and any additional information you can provide, will help to develop a finalised strategy that also responds to these broader issues. The Edinburgh Food Growing Strategy is scheduled to be published in early 2021.
The draft Strategy aims to achieve 5 strategic outcomes which will be used to monitor progress. These are:
- Reduce our carbon emissions as a city
- Support local food growing businesses to grow and thrive
- Increase land availability for food growing
- Reduce spatial inequalities across the city
- Increase resident’s awareness and choice around healthy and sustainable food
City of Edinburgh Council are currently consulting on the draft Food Growing Strategy, which will run until 18th January 2021. We encourage everyone involved in food growing in the city to respond to the public consultation and have your voice heard.
The Food Growing Strategy consultation is now CLOSED
Thank you to those that responded
Please keep an eye on this page for further developments. The next steps will be to analyse the responses and revise the draft strategy.
