Seaweed in a Good Food Nation: what might it look like?

By Rhianna Rees

Last week I attended the first of what Nourish Scotland hopes will be an annual conference on the development of Scotland's Good Food Nation plan. It was an interesting event with a wide array of what looked like roughly 200 people from food, agriculture, aquaculture, government, and academia.

What is the Good Food Nation plan, and why does it matter?

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 set a legal framework for Scotland to become a country where everyone, regardless of age, income, or location, has access to healthy, sustainable, locally sourced food.

At present, the plan has been signed off by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs — Mairi Gougeon — but not by the First Minister or the Health Secretary. For those of us working in food and environment policy, that's significant. It means the plan risks being read as a rural and agricultural concern, rather than the holistic, whole-of-government strategy it needs to be.

Food is not a niche portfolio issue, it connects health, economy, environment, culture, and community. That said, the First Minister has publicly prioritised health, and food is identified as the number one priority within Scotland's health strategy. And with a Scottish Parliament election on the horizon later this year, we have to hope that this commitment to a fundamental right to food survives whatever comes next.

Two loops, broken systems, and where we are now

One of the most useful frameworks discussed at the conference was the two loops model, a systems change concept that maps the relationship between a dominant, declining system and the emerging alternatives beginning to take its place.

Scotland, the consensus suggested, is somewhere in the tail end of the current system, where innovators are plentiful, networks are building, but well-established communities of practice are currently lacking. This means that many networks are currently working in silos, which limits the system change.

The current food system, as many of us know, is not well-designed around health or equity, but more so around shelf-life, logistics, and marketing. Heavily processed, long-life foods dominate because they are easier to distribute, easier to store, and easier to sell at scale. Fresh food — including fresh fish and seafood — is harder to move, harder to predict, and in a supermarket model, more likely to be stocked in reduced quantities to minimise waste. The slow disappearance of fishmongers from our high streets is perhaps a visible symptom of this same trend.

The premium problem: who can afford good food?

At the event, which was about eating well, had an incredible menu featuring many locally sourced ingredients and a wide array of choices. The food itself was outstanding, but does it hint at a wider problem?

Scottish seafood is, in global terms, exceptional. It is also, in domestic terms, expensive — or at least perceived to be. This sits within a broader and uncomfortable truth that in this day and age, eating healthily is often a privilege. Organic produce, seasonal veg boxes, locally caught fish have all become signifiers of a certain kind of lifestyle, rather than a basic expectation for everyone. The Good Food Nation ambition runs directly counter to this.

The UK food strategy context

It's worth situating Scotland's plan within the wider UK picture. There is growing momentum at a UK level around food strategy, including pressure on retailers to report on the nutritional quality of what they sell (particularly High Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) products) and a push for greater transparency across supply chains.

Retailers, interestingly, have indicated they would welcome clearer targets. But as we discussed at this event, targets can also function as a delay mechanism. We saw this with climate commitments: the time taken to establish agreed-upon targets can become an excuse to defer action rather than a spur to it. The same risk applies to "costing change".

So where does seaweed come in?

Seaweed is increasingly discussed in food policy circles, but usually in a fairly narrow way, as either a salt replacer, or as part of a product reformulation agenda to reduce sodium in processed foods. These are legitimate applications, and we're proud of the work being done in this space. But I think it undersells what seaweed could genuinely contribute to a Good Food Nation.

We are currently exploring the feasibility of incorporating Scottish seaweed into school meals, and in general the nutritional profile of many Scottish seaweed species is compelling: high in iodine and a range of micronutrients that are often lacking in standard diets.

There are culinary traditions around seaweed in Scotland that go back centuries, but socially seaweed still struggles to be accepted.

What's next?

Nourish Scotland will be hosting a food hustings debate on 8th April, ahead of the Scottish Parliament election. It will be an important moment to hear from parties about their genuine commitment to the Good Food Nation ambition.

Seaweed Scotland (formerly the Scottish Seaweed Industry Association) is the trade body and membership organisation representing the Scottish seaweed sector.