It’s Friday, not quite ten o’clock on a wet and windy spring morning. The University car park is busy with traffic for a drive-through Covid jag. A younger queue is gathering outside Maggie’s, the Students' Union café, for a different boost to healthy survival. They wait, in a well-spaced line, with shopping bags. Hair and scarves blowing in a strong south-westerly. You can’t … [Read more...] about Covid inspires a can-do response to old problem
food security
Bringing the future into the present: the Covid food crisis
Bare supermarket shelves back in March were restocked by April and alarm quickly subsided. Panic buyers calmed themselves. Stock pilers either felt replete or were shamed back into normalcy. But what of food security? A procession of experts, officials and heads of industry assured us that the supply chain was resilient. Most of the indications, apart from the curious … [Read more...] about Bringing the future into the present: the Covid food crisis
Rapid response: social enterprise shows the way
Nurses and doctors working flat out in intensive care units do not have time to plan or cook healthy meals. They barely have time to eat.It’s one of the startling facts galvanising an extraordinary social enterprise. National governments could learn from grassroots innovation which is impressive not least for its efficiency. At local community levels there is a rapid … [Read more...] about Rapid response: social enterprise shows the way
We must ensure a fair, safe and sustainable food supply
The UK’s main “oral” export these days is whisky. Tim LangFood security is a growing concern as Covid-19 continues to spread across the world, transforming our daily lives. In the coming weeks, Sceptical Scot will focus as much as possible on practical, constructive responses to the crisis. We also feel the need to keep spirits up and there is much to celebrate in the way … [Read more...] about We must ensure a fair, safe and sustainable food supply
Scotland’s first vertical farm grows hope for the future
‘We don’t have the land’. With the aid of a rosy-red apple, Professor Colin Campbell demonstrates the challenge of feeding the 8.3 billion people likely to inhabit planet Earth within the next 12 years.It’s a moment of theatre in a morning of cutting edge science. One apple. Two men: Campbell, the CEO of James Hutton Institute, and David Farquhar, CEO of Intelligent Growth … [Read more...] about Scotland’s first vertical farm grows hope for the future