Food Miles

A local Glaswegian heads down to their local Farmers Market, just a few streets away. The area has embraced a farm-to-plate economy. The local attitude is that the more Farmers Markets, the merrier. Residents’ demands for more local choices alongside their standard supermarket choices has grown exponentially. Glasgow’s farm-to-plate economy has paved the way for more local competitors within the market, creating countering effects that prevent monopolistic power-grabs by any one provider, particularly larger, international organisations with little presence in the country. Farms, local suppliers, and service providers create coalitions as safety nets to protect their own interests. The development of different farming coalitions is one of the leading architects to the plethora of different Farmers Markets across the city – neighbourhoods, community pockets, and outlying areas.

The highly competitive, yet diverse range of goods and foods across Glasgow’s Farmers Markets allows farmers, wholesalers, and providers to charge fair prices. Customers, like local families, are working, busy people. The farm-to-plate economy has made local food more accessible, both in frequency and pricing, in part through accepting food vouchers and similar programmes. The very design of the traditional open Farmers Market has taken on new profiles. Accessibility takes centre stage in this new era. Not only financially, through fair pricing and desirable goods, but physically as well. Traditional Farmers Markets open air, stall and booth style set ups worked for many, but always managed to exclude others. In the past, city spaces dedicated to Farmers Markets were open, parks or car parks with little attention to maintenance and served dual purposes during the weekdays, with Farmers Markets largely consigned to the weekend. Now that the Markets are integrated into residents’ regular shopping, spaces are specifically dedicated to them. Such external Market plots receive the same infrastructure considerations as traditional brick & mortar shops, with ramps for mobility support, level ground surfaces, proper drainage to prevent both standing water and flooding, many markets are full or partially covered, there are also a handful of smaller Farmers Markets that account for atmospheric/environmental conditions in order to be more accessible to neurodivergent residents.

Part of increasing focus on local farms and their supplies is making them accessible and more inclusive to community members not historically considered in daily activities, e.g. refugees, tourists, marginalised groups… The greater affordability of products makes them a staple for most Glaswegians’ shopping. Greater demand has also increased diversity in local foods. Farmers, as well as private gardens, are growing heritage varieties (like efforts seen in North America), bringing back native crops and cuisines long forgotten. Along with these efforts, farmers and locals are propagating new crops and livestock, previously only imported – e.g. niche animals found in polar South American regions, maple syrup, berry varieties previously only found in North-Eastern Asian territories, and more. 

Scotland’s Farmers Markets aren’t like most others. They provide far more resources than consumable goods. With new food varieties, stalls also teach nutrition and food science education. Like school’s ‘Home Economics’ lessons at markets – how to cook (the new foods and native foods), how to prep foods, how to make dishes long forgotten as well as bringing in new techniques. And with less food transportation, because local farms are closer than the suppliers of standard foods in brick & mortar shops, means less energy usage, lower fuel consumption. Scotland’s efforts to combat the ongoing Climate crisis has helped it become less of a crisis. The farm-to-table economy has helped improve the local climate, but also possibly previously linked crises. A regular climate message now is, “There is some lasting damage, but we’ve managed to turn around most of the effects”.