Fife Diet founders shift focus to tackle failings of food system
Scotland’s most successful local food project looks set to be replaced by a new organisation that will champion community-scale food production.
The Fife Diet grew to a membership of over 6,000 but was closed recently after members decided to end the eight-year project on a high, having made savings of 6976.37 tonnes CO2e simply by choosing to eat food from near where they lived, and changing how they shopped, cooked and composted.
In its place three of the team have created Common Good Food which they say will move Scotland’s local food movement on to the next level by getting more people growing more of what they eat.
Common Good Food is a not for profit organisation that will be working with communities to help them grow more food, running a series of practical programmes on building up skills, developing better equipment and exploring food culture using the creative arts.
It has its roots in the Seed Truck, the colourful Scotland-wide outreach project of the Fife Diet, which worked with a team of gardeners, storytellers, artists, and cooks, running workshops to inspire people about producing their own food.
It is now down to each of us to step up the game and come up with new ways to tackle the failings of our current food system
The organisation has an ambitious programme of work, including residencies with six new gardens a year and has just launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £6000 to fund its initial work, which includes holding the first ever Scottish seed saving conference.
“Seeds are about power, and currently Scotland has no dedicated vegetable seed supplier” says Fergus Walker, one of the project's founders.
“By holding a conference this autumn we can bring seed savers and activists from across Scotland and beyond to address this.”
The organisation will be based at the Cyrenians Farm Community in West Lothian run by charity Edinburgh Cyrenians.
Fife Diet's founder Mike Small said: “What Fife Diet has achieved is only the beginning.
“It is now down to each of us to step up the game and come up with new ways to tackle the failings of our current food system, including climate change, obesity and foodbanks.”
The project's crowdfunder is running on Indiegogo till 26 April.
