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The author is Emeritus Professor at the City Center for Food Policy, University of London.
When it comes to food, the British can't decide what they want. So you wait for a crisis to come and then do nothing. This is her legacy from the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. At the time, the country decided it needed to keep wages down and food cheap to keep prices affordable. Two world wars punctured that simple free trade recipe.
Other countries, such as France and the Netherlands, take farmers and producers seriously, not only for cultural reasons but also for economic reasons. They tend to think of farms not as investments for the wealthy, but rather as critical economic infrastructure for food security. And protecting food interests is not necessarily seen as a protectionist approach.
Earlier this month, the Farm to Fork Summit, which was held at 10 Downing Street last year, was reconvened. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has issued two policy statements showing he is listening to farmers' concerns.
Firstly, the horticulture 'blueprint' is expected to increase funding to £80m, including support for automation. The horticulture industry has been hit by farm labor shortages and rising costs for essential gases, fertilizers and equipment since Brexit. The plan maintains a seasonal farmer system and cuts through “bureaucracy” to allow producers to install new greenhouses, ignoring the fact that they are not planting crops within existing buildings. I promise to break it.
The report said nothing about the ongoing debate about the impact of tight contracts between retailers and suppliers, which are still criticized by some as squeezing primary producers. Ta. Or what to do about Britain's food market, which, according to the Food Foundation, pays between 34 and 52 per cent of a person's weekly food budget, even if poor households buy the cheapest fruit and vegetables available. That's a problem. 5 times a day for 1 week.
At the other end of the spectrum, Mr Sunak's second Food Security Index publication created a set of nine new indicators, most of which were given ratings of 'mostly stable' or 'some reduction in risk'.
These ignored internationally agreed definitions and indicators of food security. Since 1996, the term has come to mean availability (it's there), access (it's available and affordable), utilization (it's not wasted), and stability (confidence that it's there) . To these were added sustainability (the ecosystem continues to exist) and ownership (consumers do not feel powerless).
Applying these indicators, the situation in the UK is not so bright. Brexit border delays are causing regular holdups in supplies from Europe, which provides a quarter of Britain's food. Food inflation may be down, but food prices are still 25 percent higher than they were a few years ago. Waste is a scandal. The same goes for farm and food contamination. And consumers are feeling anxious.
Fear not, thought Whitehall. New indicators could suggest a rosier picture. The first indicator tracks global food supplies and is marked as “mostly stable.” However, this does not mean that UK consumers are food safe. Last month's Food Standards Agency survey found that 25 per cent of consumers were classified as food insecure. The index also does not recognize the erosion of confidence among farmers who plant crops on or access flooded land. The effects of climate change, geopolitics, and poor diet on health care costs are also poorly understood.
Reeling from the impact of the 2007-2008 oil price crisis on food, the last Labor government finally took control of food security strategy by 2010, but lost the election. No administration has since shown serious interest in the topic, despite independent reviewers urging them to do so.
So we should not be surprised that today the UK is again in denial about the threat to its food system. As I discovered in my review of civilian food resilience, Whitehall tends to not even think about consumers, only about supply. Will we have to wait until the next world war until approaches to food security become more comprehensive and governments take control?