SNP to launch controversial 'buy Scottish' food policy

A CONTROVERSIAL bid to boost Scottish food will be launched this week as part of a Government plan to change the way the nation eats.

Supermarkets, restaurants and hospitals will be urged to stock more home-grown produce to boost the nation's farming industry and reduce the environmental damage caused by transporting food long distances.

And big food chains such as Tesco and Sainsbury's will be asked to change labelling so shoppers can clearly see where their food comes from.

Ministers may even seek to make new supermarket developments conditional on the chains agreeing to stock an agreed amount of Scottish produce.

The plans are being enthusiastically backed by Scottish farmers, who claim it is time they received a fair deal in the marketplace.

But health experts said the move will not necessarily help cut the country's appalling rates of obesity against the might of the big food producers, and retailers said they were already stocking increasing amounts of Scottish produce.

The plans will be unveiled this week by Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead, who wants to create a "national food policy" this year.

Intended to look at food "from the farm gate to the plate", members of the public will be asked to set out their own views on everything from how to improve the Scottish diet to how to deal with animal welfare.

SNP ministers say they want the plan to make food healthier, boost the home-grown food industry and, in so doing, cut back on Scotland's "food miles" footprint.

In the public sector, ministers say they support plans to ensure more local food is sold to schools and hospitals. They also want the hospitality sector to boost its own purchases of local produce. But farmers are putting them under intense pressure to take on the big supermarket chains.

The National Farmers' Union Scotland said: "The relationship between supermarkets and their suppliers is now the single biggest determinant of farm business sustainability. A fair-trade ethos requires political support and intervention by the Scottish Government."

But Fiona Moriarty of the Scottish Retail Consortium said that supermarkets were already stocking high levels of Scottish food, because customers demanded it.