Conclusions and recommendations
1. We
do not currently have the basic science base to deliver more sustainable
food production practices. Relying on markets to identify and
to direct where this research is needed, and on sufficient scale,
is likely to fail. The Government must be prepared to intervene
with universities, colleges and the Research Councils to develop
incentives for them to train more agricultural and food scientists.
It must also take a more active role in directing the Technology
Strategy Board and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development
Board to focus research on sustainable food production. In developing
the Green Food Project, and a subsequent food strategy, the Government
must explicitly recognise the need for more research into:
- the interactions between the
impacts of food production practices and the environment, so that
these can be better managed to increase production in a sustainable
way;
- the impacts of agriculture on climate change,
to provide a basis for encouraging farmers to adopt more sustainable
practices and behaviours; ??
- the life-cycle impacts of food, to give producers,
suppliers and customers the information they need to be able to
make decisions which would have less impact on the sustainability
of food;
- soil science; and
- the benefits of new farming practices, such as
those in fresh water fish farming. (Paragraph 27)
2. Unless
and until there is both clear public and political acceptance
of GM, it is proven to be both beneficial to the environment and
to producers, and evidence that demand for these products is based
on understanding by consumers and transparent product labelling,
the Government should not license its commercial use in the UK
nor promote its use overseas. The Government must ensure that
the public and Parliament is well informed on this issue. It should
establish an independent body to research, evaluate and report
on the potential impacts on the environment of GM crops, and their
impacts on farming and on the global food system. An initial focus
of such research should be on the scope for, and risks of, the
co-existence of GM crops with conventional and organic farming
regimes. (Paragraph 28)
3. The National Planning Policy Framework potentially provides local authorities with more powers to provide communities with better access to local food and to be able to grow their own food. However, the NPPF lacks the detail that could assist planning authorities in drawing up local plans to provide for this. The Government should make clear in the subsequent guidance it provides for local authorities that for Local Plans to be consistent with the NPPF they should take account of communities' access to sustainable food and ensure that they are provided with alternatives to unhealthy food options. There should also be provisions in Local Plans to ensure that communities are provided with open spaces to grow their own produce, including for example options for communities or co-operatives to buy land for these purposes. To help develop such guidance, the Government should also identify best practice from leading local authorities in this field and quantify the benefits of developing local food strategies.
(Paragraph 37)
4. Food systems are
more likely to be sustainable if food reflects value or cost of
the environmental impacts of producing it; an area we identified
as needing more research. In the absence of such mechanisms food
prices have been relatively low particularly when supplied through
supermarkets which are able to bring economies of scale to bear.
The Groceries Code Adjudicator's role in delivering fairer prices
to producers will be vital in helping all food producers to achieve
a fair price for their produce and with the means to invest in
less impacting methods of production. The Groceries Code Adjudicator
should be established so that it is able to begin investigations
following representations from third parties, and it must have
the power to fine retailers for breach of the Code. (Paragraph
42)
5. The Government should amend the Office of Fair Trading's remit to take account of sustainable development while protecting competition, and task the OFT and the Competition & Markets Authority to investigate and clarify the scope for supermarkets to cooperate in developing shared sustainability good practice.
(Paragraph 44)
6. The Government
Buying Standards for food should be extended to cover the wider
public sector, to ensure healthy and sustainable food is made
accessible to more people and to help establish new markets for
producers. Though it is proven that the Standards can be adopted
for minimal cost, voluntary measures to promote them have not
achieved the necessary improvements across the sector. The Standards
must be extended to require local authorities to adopt them across
schools and hospitals. It should also continue to raise the Standards
further, to reflect existing best practices in particular for
eggs, dairy and meat. Effective public food procurement standards
could also allow Government to lead by example, and make any new
food strategy more credible. (Paragraph 49)
7. The Government
has a vital role to play in advising consumers on the environmental
and health benefits of eating well, by ensuring that they have
clear and easily-understood information. The sustainability of
food, however, is a multifaceted concept, as we have described
in this report, covering a range of health, animal welfare, environmental,
climate-change, resource-efficiency and ethical dimensions. As
a result there is a wide range of different food label claims
— recyclable packaging, food miles, organic, local, carbon
footprint, fair trade, lower fat, low salt, etc. Recognising the
multi-faceted nature of sustainable food, the Government should
examine the scope for simple and consistent labelling on the sustainability
of food products, perhaps through a weighting system to produce
an overall score. (Paragraph 52)
8. We welcome the findings of the Food Growing in Schools Taskforce. Good food education and skills, such as cooking and gardening, should be part of the curriculum in all schools. The current review of the national curriculum provides an opportunity for the Government to promote that. The Government should consider stricter advertising limits, to extend the protection for children from junk food marketing on children's television to all media viewed by children, including the internet.
(Paragraph 56)
9. We welcome that the Government will now enable local authorities to use the £250 million Weekly Collection Support Scheme to initiate food waste collections. Without such collections, there is a risk to the use of food waste in anaerobic digestion, as well as for packaging recycling rates. The Government must ensure that there is sufficient funding available for all councils to be able to make sufficiently regular and separated food collections, to help develop a healthy anaerobic digestion sector.
(Paragraph 61)
10. The Government
should undertake new research to consider the opportunities and
risks in using food waste to feed livestock. (Paragraph 62)
11. The overarching
aim behind the Government's work in improving the UK's food system
is 'sustainable intensification'. The Foresight report presented
sustainable intensification as the solution to the global food
crisis. The challenge for the Government is to define what this
term means in practice, and particularly for the UK. Sustainable
intensification must be more than simply increasing yields: The
emphasise should be on 'sustainable'. Policy must take account
of social and environmental impacts of the food system, including
retaining space for small scale production practices and local
food networks. (Paragraph 67)
12. The Government must use the Green Food Project to provide a foundation for developing a broader food strategy that takes into account the health, environmental, social and economic consequences of the way that the food we eat is produced, sold and disposed of. Such a strategy should explicitly shape the way policy is to be co-ordinated across departments to provide a sustainable food system. It must provide information on the trade-offs that need to be examined when considering food sustainability and give direction on the types of foods considered sustainable. It must also provide an impetus to shift food policy to deliver a more equitable food system so that healthy and sustainable food is available to all.
(Paragraph 71)
13. A key theme of the Rio+20 Earth Summit will be sustainable food production. The Government should review its food policy in the light of the Summit agenda, and after the Summit it should build any commitments agreed into that strategy. That review must ensure that UK food policy is consistent with the global aspirations for delivering a sustainable food system.
(Paragraph 72)
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