In Scotland, the church, the union and the minister back a fair deal for food producers

For some years the Church of Scotland has been examining issues relating to international trade justice, justice for Scottish producers and fairness to consumers. 

Its Church and Society programme launched a report “Fair Trade in Food”, calling for a fair trade label for Scottish agricultural produce to ensure a more equitable share of margins in the food chain. Professor David Atkinson, a former vice-principal of the Scottish Agricultural College issued a challenge to the Scottish Executive to come up with a fair trade label scheme for farmers in this country.  

The report found: 

• The current distribution of resources within the food supply chain is out of balance with effort and risk.
• The food supply chain represents a very real market failure.
• There is need to increase the bargaining power of primary producers if they are to survive.
• The power of the multiples and the detached attitude of Government seem likely to result in an increasing proportion of UK consumption being sourced from outwith the UK.
• A FairTrade label for Scottish produce 

“A FairTrade label for Scottish produce, which permitted consumers to see where a fair price had been paid, would be of significant value and should be explored as a real initiative by government.” 

The National Farmers’ Union Scotland and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum promote a fair deal for food producers 

Stackyard news reported that the National Farmers’ Union Scotland (NFUS) and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum (SFTF) came together to promote their desire fora fair deal for food producers, whether in Scotland or in the developing world. They share a goal of ensuring producers are paid a fair price for their goods, allowing them to operate sustainably, regardless of where in the world they farm.” 

Scotland hopes to become one of the world’s first Fair Trade Nations

John McAllion, Chair of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, added: “Scotland currently has a campaign to become one of the world’s first Fair Trade Nations, led by the Scottish Fair Trade Forum. While working to achieve a set of criteria to make that happen, our greater aim is to embed a commitment to fairness at all levels of Scottish society. 

“There need be no conflict between buying Fairtrade and buying local produce. Buy local meat, potatoes and dairy products to support your local economy and buy quality Fairtrade coffee, tea and other products that can’t be grown locally to help Fairtrade producers in the developing world get a fair deal. 

Richard Lochhead: Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs recognises that:

”There is mounting pressure for the principle and practice of fair trade to be extended to food producers in this country. The Scottish Government will do all we can to support fair trade for Scotland’s farmers.

Retailers need consumers to survive but they need suppliers as well. If farmers disappear from the land, the food chain will break. It is as simple as that.

Devolved government in Scotland improves rail and water transport

Many aspects of the devolved government’s practice in Scotland offer an antidote to gloom.

Caring measures taken for its young, elderly and unfit citizens have been widely recorded but in the following posts its good thinking on food, co-operatives, energy and security will be touched on. 

Today we look at public transport – the Scottish Government’s measures to reduce traffic congestion, fuel use and emissions. 

In June there was an Antidote post about a grant award of more than £800,000 from the Scottish Government‘s freight facilities grant scheme, which aims to take lorries off the road and have goods transported by sea or rail instead. The dredging work in Kirkcaldy Harbour [below] is progressing well.

 

Tim Hall, operations director of the beneficiary Hutchisons Flour Mill, explained that the project would allow the firm to bring in larger quantities of the different wheats it needs by sea rather than by road, adding: “We will also remove almost 250,000 lorry miles from Scotland’s roads.” 

RAILWAYS 

Despite calls in England for another Beeching, Scottish rail services are expanding. In 2006 the Waverley Railway (Scotland) Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament and passenger services will be reopened this year. The Borders Railway Project aims to re-establish passenger railway services cut in 1969 from Edinburgh through Midlothian to Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders. 

Another grant to improve facilities at four sites is dependent on a four year long commitment to rail rather than road by Lafarge Cement, enabling the distribution of bagged cement by rail, generating an estimated £0.73 million in environmental benefits during this period. 

WATERWAYS 

Local government is also acting: in 2005 – as part of the Lowland Canals project – East Dunbartonshire Council used commercial barges on the Forth and Clyde Canal to ship tonnes of electronic and electrical waste from Glasgow and Bishopbriggs to Twechar. By 2010 it was reported at the Lowland Canals Customer Forum that freight on Scottish canals has removed 2 million lorry miles from Scotland’s roads over the last 3 years. 

The Falkirk Wheel, a rotating boat lift, became operational in 2002, connecting the  Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. In operation below: half way round.

 

 A transport initiative involving the return of freight, after a lapse of 90 years, on the Caledonian Canal is being tested in a bid to reduce the toll of Scottish road accidents on the A82, one of the most dangerous routes in the country. A six-month trial, using a large barge operated by the Great Glen Shipping Co, is carrying timber from Loch Etive, near Oban, to Inverness in regular trips, taking 15,000 lorry trips off the road between Inverness and Fort William, where there have been many serious Scottish road accidents and a great number of fatalities, in the last few years.

Transport Scotland reports that this was assisted by Scottish Government grants of £255,000. 

Another Scottish Government Freight Facilities Grant award of £133,000 to Boyd Brothers (Haulage) Ltd supported the provision of a mobile floating pier on Loch Etive. This is now in use and is expected to transfer 108,000 tonnes of timber by water over the next five years.

It is expected the two grants will not only help improve connections between Scotland’s east and west coasts and beyond, but over the six month period of the pilot project will together remove up to 188,000 lorry miles, reducing emissions as well as congestion and wear and tear to roads.

The Scottish Government is taking measures to reduce traffic congestion, fuel use and emissions

The Scottish Government aims to take lorries off the road and have goods transported by sea or rail instead. Its agency, Transport Scotland, gave a Freight Facilities Grant to enable Forth Ports to develop a greener supply chain for Hutchison’s, the Fife miller. 

The Fife Courier reports that dredging work has begun in Kirkcaldy harbour, which was closed to main traffic in 1992.  It will become a working waterfront once more  — with the first cargo of wheat expected in the summer.

Hutchisons Flour’s operations director Tim Hall said that the project would allow the firm to bring in significant quantities of the different wheats it needs by sea rather than by road, giving the company more potential to supply customers with consistent quality flours through difficult conditions of climate and volatile commodity markets. 

Hutchisons [Carr’s Flour] uses high quality imported wheat and locally grown soft milling wheat from which the famous Scottish Shortbread Biscuits are made. 

Nik Scott-Gray, the business development manager of Forth Ports is  delighted that Kirkcaldy harbour will become a working quay again: “The location of Hutchisons at the harbour ensures that this coastal shipping initiative will deliver a continuous product supply to the mill while reducing the lorry journeys by around 4000 per year.” 

News of this and other initiatives, which will remove thousands of lorry miles from Scotland’s roads each year, are indeed an antidote to gloom.