The grassroots are where the real-life effects of structural inequalities in the food system are most sharply felt. At the same time, the grassroots are also a site of considerable innovation, energy and strategy in efforts to transform existing food systems and to imagine and create alternatives. The success of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act relies on its ability to deliver ‘good food’ to everyday communities throughout Scotland – and beyond too, if we are to take seriously the implications of importing and exporting food, and the need to consider sustainability, both here in Scotland, as well as wherever our food comes from and travels through.
As a place with a lively, active and well organised food movement which has already contributed to the passing, and gathering momentum, of the GFN Act, Scotland offers an exemplary site for exploring the knowledge and experience grassroots initiatives bring to understanding food systems transformation.
Led by Dr Niamh Moore from University of Edinburgh, the key aim of our Grassroots Unit is:
- To explore the role in, barriers to, and enablers of, food systems transformation through drawing on the knowledge and experiences of Scottish grassroots food systems transformation
The Grassroots Unit will do this by exploring the following questions:
- What is the current picture of grassroots food transformation initiatives across Scotland?
- What grassroots initiatives may be engaged in food systems transformation but may not be recognised as such, perhaps because they do not fit common understandings of grassroots food organisations?
- What have grassroots food systems transformation initiatives learned from their work so far?
- What can we learn from existing initiatives knowledge and experience of negotiating the current food system?
- How are grassroots food system transformation initiatives already working with policy-makers and government? What has been learned? What is working? What challenges have been identified? What learning can be shared?
- What further support do grassroots organisations need in their work to drive forward the implementation of the GFN?
The key activities of the Grassroots Unit will include:
- Mapping grassroots and community-based food transformation initiatives across Scotland.
- Working with organisation to analyse how these initiatives negotiate the current food system and engage in efforts aimed at food systems transformation, through conducting research and in-depth studies of a selection of cases.
- Making recommendations, as to how grassroots initiatives create, foster and deliver health-centred, net zero-aligned solutions and the role they can play in advising, and delivering, local and national food systems policy and legislation, including the GFN Act.
Members of the Grassroots Unit are:
- Dr Niamh Moore, Grassroots and Community Unit Lead and Senior Lecturer at the School of Social and Political Science, The University of Edinburgh
- Dr Beth Cloughton, Research Fellow in Food Systems Transformation (Grassroots and Community)
- Dr Isabelle Darmon, Lecturer in Sociology and Sustainable Development, The University of Edinburgh
- Simon Kenton-Lake, Nourish Scotland and Scottish Food Coalition
- Evie Murray, Earth in Common
- Dr Sophia Woodman, Senior Lecturer at the School of Social and Political Science, The University of Edinburgh
- Dr Marisa Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, The University of Edinburgh