Food Commission minutes: March 2017

Attendees and apologies

Participants

• Julie Fitzpatrick - Co-Chair
• Uel Morton - Co-Chair
• Eleanor Cunningham
• Ally Dingwall
• Gillian Kynoch
• Ken Mackenzie
• Donnie Maclean
• Peter Morgan
• Pete Ritchie
• Jackie McCreery
• David Thomson
• Ewan Macdonald- Russell
• Archie Gibson
• Graham Young
• George Burgess
• Amanda Fox
• Pamela Berry
• Vicky Reynolds
• Rose Munenura
• Neil Davidson
• Susan Pryde

Apologies

• Jackie Brock
• David Croft
• Jamie Dunlop
• Robin Gourlay
• Caroline Mockford
• Andrew Sutherland

Items and actions

1. Welcome and introductions

1.1. Julie Fitzpatrick welcomed Commission members and all guests to the meeting.

1.2. Julie then introduced Uel Morton, who replaces Shirley Spear, to the Food Commission. Uel and Julie, will Co-Chair the Commission.

1.3. Julie informed the Commission that Pamela Berry was moving to a different post within the SG and thanked her for all her hard work.

2. Best practice example

2.1. Miriam Smith gave a presentation on the origins of food and drink at Queen Margaret University and explained about the work of the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation and the work they do.

2.2. Charlotte Maberly and Stan Blackly talked about the university’s Gastronomy Course which is the only one of its kind in the UK.

2.3. The group were very interested in this initiative and had a discussion regarding the issues that arose with trying to run this course.

Action:

• To give best practice suggestions to Julie which can be included on the new Good Food Nation website - ALL

3. Minutes and actions

3.1. The minutes of the Commission meeting held on 15 December 2016 were agreed as a correct record and have been published.

4. Interim report and advice to Ministers

4.1. The group discussed how best to present their next report and what should be included. Julie thought it would be more appropriate if this report was more visual and attractive, some of the material available on the website will be included in the report.

Action:

• Each sub group to start working to provide information that can be used for the second report and provide a draft by the end of April 2017.

5. Feedback from subgroups

5.1. Each subgroup gave an update on their progress to date.

Action:

• All sub groups to meet and consider the recommendations they wish to put forward to Julie and Uel. These meetings should take place before the next Food Commission meeting on 15 June 2017

6. Summit / GFN Bill

6.1. The group discussed how they would like to present their views on the Bill and a Summit was suggested as a good vehicle at the last meeting. The Food Commission agreed this method and have set up a sub group to take the plans forward. The subgroup will present initial proposals to the co-chairs and once considered a firm proposal will be put to the rest of the Food Commission for final agreement.

Action:

• SG to send the Commission a form to be completed with the names of invitees to the summit and returned to The GFN mailbox by 31 March 2017- ALL.
• SG to identify budget available for this work.
• Summit sub group to report to the Co-Chairs with initial proposals for the summit.

7. Agricultural Champions

7.1. Archie Gibson gave a brief overview of the roles of the Agricultural Champions and how the Food Commission can feed in. [There are 4 Champions John Kinnaird – Sustainability, Marion McCormick – Public Value, Education – Henry Graham and Food and Drink – Archie Gibson]. There are 9 vision outcomes but these are currently under review.

Action:

Archie to attend future Food Commission Meetings if topic discussed is relevant to his area - SG

8. Scotland Food and Drink

8.1. Graham Young gave a presentation on the new Scotland Food and Drink Industry Strategy 2030. The group then had a Q & A session.

9. Prosperity presentations by Scottish Food and Drink Federation and Scottish Retail Consortium

9.1. David Thomson of the Scottish Food and Drink Federation and Ewan McDonald Russell of the Scottish Retail Consortium gave presentations . The group then had a Q & A session

Presentations available on request.

10. Breakout sessions

10.1. Based on the earlier presentations the Commission members were asked to form 3 groups to discuss one of the selected three topics below and then to provide feedback to all:

• How do we incorporate support for healthy and sustainable eating habits into a successful food and drink sector in Scotland?
• How do we ensure sufficient numbers of appropriately trained individuals to work in the food sector? What training programmes are required? How do we make these attractive?
• Scotland produces much of our food from primary production, but relatively few companies process food locally. How might this be improved?

10.2. Discussion followed including how to take forward the feedback from the discussion and breakout sessions via work streams and sub groups.

11. Discussion on what's next

11.1. The next meeting will be on 15 June 2017 in Glasgow, the exact location to be confirmed.

11.2. The theme of the meeting will be Social Justice. A draft agenda will be worked up in conjunction with the relevant subgroup.

12. AOB

12.1. Gordon Gilchrist will be replacing Pamela Berry w.e.f 18 April 2017.

Summary of actions

• Presentation Slides can be circulated from meeting if required – SG
• Each sub group to start working to provide information that can be used for the second report and provide a draft by the end of April 2017 – ALL
• All sub groups to meet and consider the recommendations they wish to put forward to Julie and Uel. These meetings should take place before the next Food Commission meeting on 15 June 2017 - ALL
• SG to send the Commission a form to be completed with the names of invitees to the summit and returned to The GFN mailbox by 31 March 2017- ALL.
• Summit sub group to report to the Co-Chairs with initial proposals for the summit.
• SG to consider asking Archie to attend future Food Commission Meetings if topic discussed is relevant to his area
• Once formal request for Summit funding received from the Commission SG to identify Budget Available SG

Food Commission - Thursday 16 March 2017 - Minutes.pdf

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