[A version of this exclusive story was first published in The Times, April 21, 2020.]

The Coronavirus pandemic means COP26, the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow and the largest ever summit to have been held in the UK, will not take place this year – dashing hopes of seeing Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist, sail up the Clyde if not exactly in a banana boat then in some ultra-green sailing vessel.

The virus has also caused the postponement of another first for Scotland – the launch of the Glasgow City Food Plan, a unique and ambitious blueprint for a healthier and more resilient food system for the city and beyond.

However, its creators believe both setbacks could yet bring benefits for the city’s food culture and its parlous diet- and poverty-related health statistics.

A multi-agency project group from the Glasgow Community Food Network, the Sustainable Food Cities network and the Centre for Population Health together with Glasgow City Council, Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Board Health, and Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership, have been working together to develop a draft ten-year City Food Plan. It was due to go out for public consultation from this month [April] as preparations for COP26 were ramping up, and be implemented towards the end of the year, just as COP26 was taking place.

The launch has been on hold during the pandemic as workers address the immediate problem of sourcing free food for those citizens most in need. A crowdfunding campaign, Food For Good Glasgow, has been launched by the Glasgow Community Food Network and Slow Food Scotland to facilitate this in the meantime.

But, as a sign of their commitment to the City Food Plan, its creators are simultaneously preparing an application for a substantial £2.5m grant from the National Lottery and the Climate Action Fund to enable them to implement it as soon as it can be launched.

The City Food Plan’s ten-year action plan aims to help Glasgow in its commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030 and to reach consensus on how to deliver a sustainable, healthy, fair, accessible - and for the first time cohesive - food system that can help save not only the planet but also its own citizens.

Localising food production, creating a larger network of spaces for growing and urban farming - ex-bowling greens, underused golf courses and other open/green spaces for example – building a wider range of community shops, weekly markets, vegetable barras, swap shops and making public transport free to facilitate access to them are key aims.

It is also suggested that Green Assemblies of teachers, cooks, gardeners and others in local areas could empower community decision making.

The Plan’s ambitions chime with the ethos of the climate activists and campaigners from around the globe who, when COP26 does eventually take place, are expected to anchor themselves in their thousands on the River Clyde at the Scottish Event Campus in coracles, canoes and yachts.

It’s anticipated that while in Glasgow they will seek out hyper-local, high-welfare, ethical, healthful, sustainable and affordable food experiences in their quest to shorten global supply chains and localise the food system - which alone contributes 20%-30% of the carbon emissions that drive climate change though production, processing, storage, transportation and disposal.

While number of grassroots food initiatives are already established in Glasgow, they remain unsung and patchy. Three market gardens supply local restaurants and deliver hundreds of veg boxes each week; community orchards are being planted; there are almost 100 community gardens and growing spaces across the city, and 32 allotment sites; local food and drink products are flourishing through start-up funding; and the social enterprise supermarket, Locavore, has recently expanded into the city centre. The city also boasts a growing number of independent, progressive, chef-owned restaurants.

But food deserts and food swamps persist, and there are criticisms that while restaurants are celebrated, food growing is not.

A major restriction is the lack of growing space for a more diverse range of produce to suit modern diet trends, and the knowledge of how to grow and prepare it.

But perhaps the greatest hurdle is that such initiatives and schemes are implemented separately to address different issues around the food system, culminating in a lack of coherence to policies, strategies and practices already underway.

The City Food Plan aims to brings these disparate strands together for the first time.

"There are lots of enthusiastic and innovative people and projects working on food across the city who would benefit from a more coordinated approach to the issues in our food system," Abi Mordin of the Glasgow Community Food Network, and one of the key architects of the City Food Plan, told The Times. "We want to involve as many of Glasgow’s citizens and businesses in shaping our City Food Plan and in making it happen. We are very excited about it and delighted that Glasgow is taking the initiative ahead of any other Scottish city.

“The current crisis has shone a light on the inadequacies of the global food system, and shows why we urgently need a more resilient local food system that can respond effectively to shocks, as well as one which has lower carbon emissions.

"We are sure we have a proper chance to change Glasgow's food culture for the better when we launch the City Food Plan later this year, and the prospect of COP26 can only give it more impetus."

[Photo credit: Alamy]