With a new UK Food Strategy currently in development and consultation recently completed on a UK Land Use Framework, the UK government is working diligently to define policies to make healthy and sustainable food more affordable, accessible, and appealing. While this marks an exciting step, there are considerable challenges to navigate.
Isabelle Williamson, a Consultant in Eunomia’s natural economy team, shares some insights on the UK’s food system, how it needs to change, and how the new Food Strategy could help bring this about.
The challenge
The UK government’s ongoing work to develop a new Food Strategy and Land Use Framework recognises that the current food system does not give everyone access to affordable, nutritious, appealing food. People are experiencing unequal food choices and health outcomes across regions and socio-economic groups, with children being hit particularly hard. Childhood obesity rates have shot up over the last two decades, and poor diet in the early years can have detrimental impacts on health and social outcomes in later life.
While momentum for change has been building, the issues are often politically charged because they affect the everyday lives and pockets of citizens. The UK food system involves both imports and exports as part of complex global supply chains that create interdependencies, potential knock-on effects, and both positive and negative feedback loops. Because of this, potential solutions are similarly complex and interdependent, and finding the best path through the necessary trade-offs is genuinely hard.
A vision for change
Despite this complexity, we have a clear idea of what needs to be done and how to achieve it, based on previous and ongoing studies, as well as Eunomia’s own work on sustainable food systems.
An excellent starting point is the National Food Strategy, which drew on extensive research with scientists, practitioners, and citizens for an independent review led by Henry Dimbleby in 2021.[1] Although the previous government failed to implement many of its recommendations, the rationale and strategy for action it offers are still highly relevant.
Since its publication, further research by various organisations (including Eunomia’s own studies for WWF, DESNZ, and the LUNZ Hub, for example) have highlighted other promising solutions. We also know there is consensus that change is needed among both citizens and farmers, based on engagement we have facilitated, and in the food industry, which is pushing for regulations that will level the playing field.
Integrating these perspectives into emerging policy will be vital to its effectiveness. The Land Use Framework will inform supply-side measures that influence how we change food production – and how this articulates with other demands for land, both urban and rural, in the UK. Crucially, these policies must be aligned with and supported by clear leadership to deliver coordinated and meaningful action.
The Food Strategy is an opportunity to influence the availability of and demand for healthy and sustainable foods. Changes in these areas are politically sensitive – which has likely impeded progress on them to date – but there are ways to navigate this that could deliver multiple political objectives simultaneously.
Done the right way, the strategy can result in better outcomes for health, economic output, farmers’ livelihoods, food security, and equality, as well as climate and nature. Below, I outline potential measures and their benefits and drawbacks:
- Reducing food waste, a win-win option that would cut costs at both household and corporate or institutional levels, as well as reducing carbon emissions and softening wider environmental impacts – although not an easy option to achieve at the scale and pace required to meet targets.
- Dietary changes that involve increasing the consumption of plant-based foods (beans, pulses, legumes) and bringing down the consumption of dairy and meat, especially red and processed meat, to reduce carbon emissions, water use, and land use from livestock production (and deliver many health benefits).
- Emerging agricultural technologies such as vertical farming, precision fermentation, and agricultural robotics, which are likely to yield environmental benefits and reduce farmers’ costs in the long term – but are not enough independently to change the food system and will remain expensive and largely inaccessible until they are scaled up, a process that itself needs substantial investment.
Of these, changing diets has the greatest potential to bring about social benefits and environmental wins. However, it is politically thorny, for a range of reasons.
One is a concern that efforts to influence people’s diets could be seen as government over-reach. However, multiple citizen engagement studies, such as the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission’s Citizen Mandate for Change, have found that many in the UK want more government involvement on food to guide informed decision making. Once we realise that our food system already pushes us in certain dietary directions, it is not so difficult to imagine changes that could encourage us to eat a little differently.
Applying a global perspective, and acknowledging the need to encourage both supply of and demand for carbon-efficient food, will be key to addressing farmers’ concerns and making sure changes to the food system have equitable impacts. (I’ll explore this issue in a separate insights piece, coming out soon!)
Realising the vision
The new Food Strategy should be developed with an awareness of these nuances, and with a focus on better food as essential for the nation’s health, environmental goals, and economic performance. Below are some key priorities for the emerging strategy. I believe it should:
- Define clear goals and a long-term plan for food, agriculture, and land use, recognising it can take a generation to impact behaviour and health outcomes.
- Take a holistic approach to policymaking, leadership, and research across government to develop integrated policies that connect health, environment, and agriculture. Only a combination of levers will achieve system change. Ensuring that publicly procured food is healthy and sustainable would help grow the market and set a strong example for consumers.
- Use (rather than duplicate) previous research, including Dimbleby’s review, to implement quick wins like those identified by The Food Foundation, Green Alliance, and Good Food Institute in Low hanging fruit: A policy pathway for boosting uptake of plant-rich diets.
- Acknowledge that national policies are essential, but local policies can deliver more immediate impact. Cities and local authorities are best placed to adapt ideas to their communities. Policymakers should empower and enable (but not overly rely on) local action to drive change.
- Prioritise policies that will change consumption patterns by making healthy and sustainable diets more easily available and affordable, as well as appealing to a wide demographic. The Food Strategy should follow the ‘lifestyle in transition’ approach adopted by France’s food strategy to help households shift habits. This could bring substantial economic as well as social benefits. According to the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, unhealthy diets cost the UK government £92 billion annually in health and social care services, plus £176 billion in indirect costs due to reduced productivity and other factors.
- Action should take precedence over deliberation. Food policies and strategies across Europe vary, but they commonly lack clear implementation plans. Uncertainties shouldn’t delay progress; they should prompt testing and learning.
While we wait to see how the UK government’s Food Strategy will emerge with support from the UK Food Strategy Advisory Board, we hold power in the decisions we make as individuals. Where possible, farmers could look to experiment with regenerative agriculture practices. Consumers could make their diets more plant-based and reduce food waste. The more we act locally while thinking globally, the better it will be for our health and the environment.
[1] Dimbleby, H 2021 The National Food Strategy: The Plan – July 2021. Available at: https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/
