Get Growing Scotland

Reflections from SF&G Land Advisor, Karen Davidson

We estimate well over 90 per cent of community led food growing projects in Scotland take place on land owned by someone else. The land is mostly publicly owned, with local authorities, schools, and NHS topping the provider list. The not for profit sector, including churches, and community land owners also share land. Increasingly private land owners, estates, developers and farms, see the benefits and seek groups to share their land or are open to approaches to do so. The point is, the number of groups growing food in our communities is growing rapidly, so the number of landowners sharing that land is growing at a similar rate. However, there are groups looking for land, and a latent demand waiting for people to look out their windows and imagine the possibilities. Could there be a ‘rush to land’ in the growing awareness of rising food insecurity, of food system and global issues taking hold? There are many pressures on land for many uses in Scotland, and pressure for the agriculture sector, where not much fresh fruit and vegetables are grown for our plates, yet there is land that can be used to grow and distribute food locally and contribute to healthy choices and a ‘re’ connection to the food system. We see all shapes and sizes of land in a wide range of settings being transformed across the country, and it could be happening in pretty much any community, with a quarter acre or even less making a great space for food growing and nature restoration. So, our call is for landowners to ‘look out their window’, ‘walk the land’ and imagine how by sharing a part of it you could facilitate food growing, with the community doing the ‘heavy lifting’ and improving the site. We have many examples of how this is working well, and though there is a lot to organise at the start including building a relationship with a group, either established or itself just forming, and terms of an agreement, our land advisory service provides support, technical advice and reassurance to both landowners and growing projects. Long leases with peppercorn rents work wonders, and you can still sell land and let the group run out the lease or renegotiate with the new owner. I would say to private landowners that you have a key role to play and can greatly increase the social, economic and environmental benefits that your land can deliver for you and your local community. The publicly owned land portfolio could also be providing every community with a supported site for food growing, where every child walking to school can see how food grows…. that’s for another story.

https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/sites/default/files/what_you_can_do_now_guides_.pdf

https://getgrowingscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Land_guide.pdf