Food - YOU CAN COOK

This week Bosco Santimano founder and executive director of social enterprise You Can Cook, shares his thoughts on why the council should invest in allotments to support small farms and residents in the Scottish Borders.

2025 is going to be another difficult year for many families and individuals who have seen not only their financial situation worsen but also their physical and mental health. Many will be forced to get their food via by Foodbanks across the UK. While food inflation has risen exponentially since the pandemic, citizens are less likely to have access to good wholesome foods at affordable prices.

The Scottish Borders is well placed to run small scale farms and other food related businesses and the local council should be providing startup investments for young people and local enterprises who are passionate about growing food and developing a thriving food industry locally so they don’t have to leave the region looking for work.

As of March 2025, the Scottish Borders region faces several challenges concerning allotments. There are significant number of overgrown and unused allotment plots, particularly at the Wilton Park Road site in Hawick, which have remained vacant and overgrown. This neglect has deterred potential gardeners, especially when plots become increasingly difficult to cultivate over time. This raises significant management and maintenance issues for allotment holders who have repeatedly expressed concerns over the lack of regular inspections and maintenance by Scottish Borders Council. Instances have been reported where plots have been left unattended for extended periods, leading to overgrowth and reduced appeal for prospective tenants.

There are development pressures in Peebles where allotment holders are contending with potential displacement due to development interests. Despite legal challenges and community opposition, the threat of losing these allotments to housing projects remains a pressing concern.

The demand for allotments continues to outstrip supply. For instance, in Peebles, the waiting period for an allotment at sites like The Gytes, Burgh Hall, and Moss Park is approximately three years. In Hawick, sites such as Guthrie Drive and Wilton Park Road have waiting periods of up to two years, indicating a need for more plots to accommodate interested residents. Addressing these challenges requires a collaborative approach involving local authorities, community organizations, and residents to ensure that allotments remain accessible, well-maintained, and protected from external development pressures.

Local elected councillors and MSPs should come together to work on long term solutions to alleviate food shortages and higher prices of essential commodities in the region. Party politics should take a back seat and elected representatives should work in partnership with local people, young and old, community groups, schools and social enterprises that put people first across the Scottish Borders.

Land to build houses can be found very quickly as profit motives drive this trend, but land for growing, that is another matter. We need to act quickly as current global events unfolding in front of us will keep having a detrimental impact on our health and well-being.

This column was published in the Peeblesshire News on Friday 21st March 2025

The UK imports over 60% of its food. Not a very clever strategy for any country that looks to be self-reliant and take back control of its borders. Government figures reveal that the UK relies on imports for roughly 40% of its food according to 2022 data.

Since Brexit we have been importing food from out with Europe, where animal welfare and safety are not to high standards. In desperation we are currently importing foods like meat and dairy products both processed and unprocessed from countries that do not have robust and strong regulatory institutions like our European counterparts and the UK. It’s mindboggling to see the direction of travel the country has taken since Brexit and the pandemic. I remember politicians and bureaucrats making talking points during the pandemic that a drastic change is needed to plan a new path forward for the country’s food security while also taking in to account the impact of climate change on our environment and food production. Once the politicians got the green light that the pandemic was over and citizens could go back to work, everything was instantly forgotten, the pain, suffering, desperation of millions were being sacrificed again for politicians and corporation to take advantage of the changed landscape.

Many locals across the country were growing their own food as they realised the folly of depending on imports to live a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, many of these enthusiastic new growers abandoned their motivation to go back and join the rat race of our modern economic system. Food growers, especially the young, should be inspired and encouraged to take on farming, not chemical farming i.e., growing food the natural way and without the use of expensive pesticides and fertilisers that often trap farmers into debt. These chemicals also poison our land, water and our ecosystem in the long term by causing health issues to not only the growers but consumers. Our education system is not fit for purpose and has not evolved over time. Many of you know that the current educational system was setup during the industrial revolution as companies needed cheap labour, hence the setting up of schools, followed by creche services to also include women. We were enticed into an economic lifestyle that ultimately benefitted the rich, while the poor were left to pick up the pieces of their now ruined social, family and financial health due to government resources ploughed into making the rich richer!

Can the council along-with the Scottish and UK governments work together with locals across the country rural or urban to provide subsidised land for growing? At the same time, can our educational regulators and institutions work together with professionals in the fields of food and growing to help support our young people take-up food as a subject in all its forms and introduce these topics in school curriculums?

Published in The Peeblesshire News on Friday 23rd August 2024