Response from the Chairperson

Mr Steve Farrell,
Clerk to the Communities Committee,
Room T.3.40
Tower 2
The Scottish Parliament,
Edinburgh.
EH99 1SP

Dear Mr Farrell,

Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) (Scotland) Bill

I am writing on behalf of the Scottish Group of the McCarrison Society. This Society was formed in 1966 by doctors, dentists and veterinarians who were convinced that nutrition was of supreme importance in the promotion of health and the prevention of disease. The Society was named in honour of Sir Robert McCarrison, a pioneer researcher in the field of nutrition before the Second World War. Sir Robert’s researches demonstrated that poor nutrition was the main cause of poor health and degenerative diseases. The Scottish Group was formed in 1981.

The purpose of the Society is to assemble scientific knowledge on nutrition and health in order to give advice that is free from economic and political pressures with the object of securing the physical and mental health of future generations.

We would wish the following matters should be addressed in this most important Bill.

1. School meals should be healthy as well as free.
2. Unhealthy foods should not be a option in schools - this includes removing the licensing of burger vans in the vicinity of school gates.
3. Local sourcing should be given priority with a commitment be made to build up the percentage of local organic produce as it becomes available.
   This will create a demand. The use of local organic food is in line with the pressing matter of global warming. There is a need to reduce the use of fossil fuel for unnecessary transport of goods.
4. Nurseries should be given provision. Nutrition programmes should ensure that young children are provided with healthy food in the school environment. This was the case when milk was provided to Schools in the war time years and after.
5. Processed and industrialised foods should be avoided.
6. Micronutrient as well as macronutrient standards are needed - levels of mineral content in all vegetables and fruits have fallen dramatically in the past five decades.
7. We are concerned about who is setting the nutritional standards.
8. The nutritional advice regarding standards should be given by independent experts e.g. British Society for Environmental Medicine, the Soil Association as well as the Caroline Walker Trust.

Please submit this letter to the Communities Committee before the closing date. This letter will also be sent through the mail together with some information about the McCarrison Society.

Yours sincerely,

Cedric W.B. de Voil