All but two councils fail to give pupils gold-standard organic lunch

That means they are the only local authorities in Scotland which buy at least 15 per cent of their produce from chemical-free organic suppliers.

Environmental groups have thrown their weight behind Food for Life as a way of cutting carbon emissions in food and agriculture, Britain’s biggest single contributor to global warming.

However, the Scottish Greens have questioned whether the Government is doing enoughto support councils to buy local and buy green.

READ MORE: Two thirds of organic land in Scotland has disappeared

Agriculture spokesman, Mark Ruskell MSP, said: “There arequestions to be asked about whether the Government is putting enough money into this scheme.

“We have seen in Denmark how public procurement has been used to back organic farming. This is a form of agriculture which is good for jobs, good for the environment and good for diversity.

“There are also questions about whether the market should be the only way to support farming. We can create a gold standard market through state procurement.

“Moreover, with Brexit, there is a chance to redesign subsidies to encourage sustainable farming.”

Mark Ruskell

Mr Ruskell was previously a councillor in Stirling, which along with Aberdeen, has achieved a silver accreditation from Food for Life. He believes schools can make

He believes schools can make the transition to local and fresh ingredients without huge extra costs.

But he admitted this was easier to do in council areas that had kept in-house catering staff and were therefore capable of working with teachers and pupils on new healthy and sustainable menus.

This weekend Labour called for schools to stop offering children processed meats, such as ham and bacon, which are treated with nitrites, chemicals linked with a higher risk of bowel cancer.

The Herald on Sunday revealed three-quarters of schools still served such “nitro-meats”. The same paper also revealed Scotland had fallen behind key competitors on organic farming. Two-thirds of the nation’s organic farmland has reverted to conventional use since 2002. The nation’s market for organics, despite recent growth, is just £64m a year, compared with £1.5 billion in Denmark.

The Danes use both public procurement and subsidies to underwrite their organic industry - which, because of its lower hydrocarbon use, is backed by the UN as a core weapon against climate change.

Food for Life is administered by the Soil Association, the charity that leads the drive for organic farming.

Sarah Duley, programme manager for Food for Life Scotland, said: “Supporting local authorities to get more sustainable Scottish produce onto school dinner plates is at the heart of what we do at Food for Life Scotland.

“At Silver and Gold award levels, the Food for Life Scotland programme has boosted annual spend on organic food, which helps to reduce synthetic pesticides and fertilisers in our environment and supports biodiversity.

“At the same time, shorter supply chains mean fewer food miles and lower emissions, all supporting our country’s aspiration to become a world leader on climate change mitigation.”

Successive Scottish Governments have declined to set targets for a transition to organic farming. A spokeswoman for the current administration said some £2.8m was being spent Food for Life from 2012 to 2021.

She said the government was currently reviewing the success of plan on organics begun in 2016 which has seen a long-term decline arrested and a rise in the number of producers.

Last year the Scottish Conservatives discovered that just 16 per cent of the raw food materials used to make school dinners came from Scotland. Another 15 per cent, the party found out using Freedom of Information laws, was manufactured in Scotland with ingredients sourced elsewhere.

East Ayrshire Council's primary schools have secured a Gold Food for Life award 11 times, since 2008, more than any other UK council. 

Andrew Kennedy, the local authority's head of facilities and property management, said: “We’re proud that East Ayrshire schools, pupils and families can have the assurance that their food is fresh, honest and almost all of the food served is unprocessed.

“Every day, we serve over 5,100 Food for Life accredited meals across 40 primary schools, 3,600 of which are free school meals.

“Our pupils regularly enjoy:

North Sea white fish supplied by Pieroni & Sons

Quality Meat Scotland and Red Tractor assured products from Ayrshire butchers Pollok Williamson

Organic milk from Graham’s Family Dairy

Award-winning Isle of Arran cheddar from Torrylinn Creamery, supplied by First Milk Cheese Co.

Free range eggs from Corrie Mains Farm near Mauchline

Potatoes, fruit and vegetables from A&A Spittal, Auchinleck

Gluten free, special dietary and organic food produce from Greencity Wholefoods

“Since 2003-04 we recognised that there was limited scope for existing suppliers to provide fresh ingredients, with higher animal welfare standards and ethical provenance, including organic, that reduced our impact on the environment while benefiting our local economy, so we identified a smaller number of local producers who could supply what we needed.

“Our ‘farm to fork’ journey has improved our sustainability, invested in local businesses and created jobs, with our catering staff cooking fresh meals everyday with quality ingredients.

“Food for Life in East Ayrshire is about making an all-round investment. We place a higher value on better quality food for our young people, their enjoyment and understanding of good food and the community benefits from us buying fresh local and organic produce.