CalMac conference hears from Skye restaurateur Shirley Spear
SCOTLAND has a “magnificent” natural larder but more needs to be done to improve people’s understanding of healthy food and its benefits.
That was the message from Shirley Spear, co-owner of The Three Chimneys restaurant on the Isle of Skye and chair of the Scottish Government’s Food Commission, as she addressed the CalMac Travel and Tourism Conference 2016.
Speaking at the event in Glasgow, Spear said the Food Commission is leading the Good Food Nation campaign which aims to change attitudes towards food and put “good, healthy food choices at the heart of the public’s agenda”.
“We have a magnificent natural larder in Scotland,” she said.
“But our health record is very poor and deteriorating. There needs to be much more understanding of food and why it’s good for us. A vast amount of information is ignored – why is that? A Good Food Nation is everyone’s business and we have to step up and improve.”
The third annual conference also heard from Scots cyclist, adventurer and broadcaster Mark Beaumont, who said Scotland is the “world’s best adventure playground”; journalist, broadcaster and author Muriel Gray, who described herself as “probably the biggest CalMac fan in the world”; CalMac’s master mariner Lachie Wotherspoon, who shared stories of his life at sea; and Graeme MacFarlan, CalMac’s director of customer sales and marketing, who talked about changes that can be expected over the next eight years of CalMac’s contract, including improvements to booking and ticketing systems, working more closely with communities, and major investment in the appearance of ports and vessels.
