By Anne MacLennan
I’ve heard it said that the proposed new Tesco supermarket in Portree will make us more food secure, but it may not be that straightforward.
A food secure community has physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for active and healthy lives for everyone at all times.
Worldwide production, and distribution of food has been challenged by factors such as climate change, conflict and economic shocks (eg the pandemic and tariffs). The number of undernourished people around the world is increasing due to poverty, conflict, and climate change, but also distribution issues and crop diversion for biofuels and other purposes. At present, 14 million people in the UK are food insecure, which the Food Council blames on an interplay between global and domestic pressures, industry responses, and government strategies. 2025 food prices are up 37% on 2020. ‘Healthy’ foods tend to be more expensive with a shorter shelf life, so low income families are often trapped into unhealthy diets (including on Skye and Raasay).
UK food cost inflation. Source: Office for National Statistics
The UK imports nearly half of its food and rising, due in part to ‘ongoing consumer demand for non-indigenous produce’, but also to strained domestic production.
Brexit brought problematic regulations and severe labour shortages across our food system. Weather extremes particularly affect arable crops, fruit and vegetables. The 2024 wheat harvest was down 20% on 2023, with oilseed rape dropping over 30%. Meanwhile, previously stable fertiliser costs for UK farms rose by a third in 2022 along with electricty and gas price hikes. Food price inflation hit a 45-year high in 2023, with climate-related costs (‘climateflation’) accounting for over 60% of the increase that year.
Scotland’s main crops are cereals, potatoes and oilseed rape, with barley the main cereal. In 2021 half of Scottish barley and a third of the wheat went for malting. A quarter of the barley and over a third of oats were used as animal feed.
Supply lines have become longer and more complex. Dependency on imports from countries experiencing their own challenges is a real vulnerability, compounded as supplies try to reach Skye. Our roads can be blocked by accidents, weather impacts and maybe even windfarm-related traffic movements. Cyber attacks will not be limited to the Co-op.
Several reports make great recommendations for improving food security in the UK generally. As Skye and Raasay are especially vulnerable, the recommendations to boost domestic regenerative and sustainable food production are particularly relevant here to secure nutritious food, create jobs and build community resilience. Compared to supermarket-imported food (Tesco or Co-op), local production reduces transport emissions, plastic pollution and unhealthy ultraprocessed foods, with more economic benefit to the local economy.
I suggest that a new supermarket may increase choice, but is not the answer to food security. Support of local food produced on crofts, gardens, schools and community plots could be a safer plan.