The UK’s food ministry has spent the last few months looking into its crystal ball to see what the future holds for global food production. Its conclusions are stark. How we get there seems unclear.
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Yesterday (10 August), the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its vision for the global food sector. In short, Defra argued that the world needs to produce more food, in a more environmentally-friendly way and in a way that proves sustainable, to feed a growing population.
In March, the UN predicted that the world’s population would break through the 9bn-mark by 2050 – a jump of almost a third on current figures. Last year saw crop failures on one side of the world caused prices to spike thousands of miles away and food prices cause riots in countries from Haiti to Somalia. That the world needs to produce more food is obvious. That production needs to be greener is just as clear. However, there is disagreement on how these goals can be reconciled, while there are concerns that moves by countries to shore up their domestic food supplies could lead to a spate of protectionist policies around the world.
Hilary Benn, the UK’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, said “the world had a wake-up call” after the price of oil and food rose last year.
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Benn argued “a radical rethink” is needed on food production, on how natural resources are used, on the sector’s impact on the environment and, critically, on the interdependent nature of the food supply chain.
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By GlobalDataHe said: “Because we live in an interconnected world – where the price of soya in Brazil affects the price of steak at the local supermarket – we need to look at global issues that affect food security here. That’s why we need to consider what food system should look like in 20 years, and what must happen to get there. We need everyone in the food system to get involved – from farmers and retailers to the health service, schools and consumers.”
Given the size and complexity of the issues involved, Defra’s assessment – perhaps understandably – was light on detail on what the “radical rethink” would mean in practice. Benn was keen to outline some of the policies already brought in here in the UK, including investment into anaerobic digestion, but Defra’s report was more a call to all stakeholders to work together to tackle what is a set of very complicated problems.
The food and food retail industry’s response was mixed and, perhaps predictably in some quarters, tinged with criticism. The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) – a body of which Benn has been a vocal supporter in the past – said a “genuine long-term vision and strategy” was needed and said Defra’s five to ten-year time-frame was not long enough to reflect all of the long-term threats to the food supply. The FDF then reeled off a list of how it is “already leading the way” on issues like water use and carbon emissions but, though these initiatives should be applauded, the Environment Secretary was right to urge that much more needs to be done.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said government departments needed “to all sing from the same hymn sheet” on food policy. Mixed messages and a lack of “joined-up thinking” can hamper policy formulation and implementation, the BRC warned.
The retail association also trumpeted its members’ own work on sustainability. “We do need a sustainable supply chain but retailers don’t need Government statements to wake them up to these issues – they are already taking action,” BRC food policy director Andrew Opie insisted.
However, one area in which retailers rightly attract criticism is in their use of buy-one-get-one-free offers, a promotional tool that their detractors argue is a key factor in the mountain of food waste generated in the UK each year. Now, in the wake of the Defra report, the future of the BOGOF looks under threat.
Elsewhere, the National Farmers Union (NFU) welcomed the importance Benn and Defra is placing on domestic food production.
The NFU argued that the UK farming sector will need more investment and attract better returns for farmers if it can help achieve the aim of boosting domestic food production.
However, talk of improving domestic food production raises questions over whether it could lead to protectionism. The NFU is keen to boost the UK’s domestic capacity to produce food to make the country less reliant on imports – and imports that could be threatened for myriad reasons, from the weather to geo-politics.
It’s a understandle viewpoint. But is food produced in the UK necessarily better for the environment, for instance, than produce cultivated abroad and exported here? What about the Government’s aims of international development, of helping improve the livelihoods of those in the developing world? Fairtrade sales have proved resilient to the recession, proving that the desire for helping those less fortunate remains strong among certain shoppers. These are all questions that need to be pondered and Benn is right to argue for global food production to be increased and made more efficient, not just UK farming.
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The Defra report also revived the hot potato of the future and potential use of GM. It is an issue that raises fierce arguments on both sides. The NFU’s views, for instance, are likely to raise the hackles of those who oppose the production of “Frankenstein” food.
Terry Jones, head of government affairs for the NFU, told just-food that GM food is “one of the things in the toolbox” that could be used to meet Defra’s goals.
“Everyone else is evaluating it, we would be foolish if we didn’t evaluate it properly as well,” Jones said. “If other people are using this technology we are in danger yet again of making UK agriculture uncompetitive.”
However, green campaigners at Friends of the Earth yesterday insisted that GM is not a solution, while organic supporters at The Soil Association dismissed the notion that GM would be a “silver bullet” to the task of boosting food production.
After a couple of weeks in which organic food has received a bit of a kicking in the UK, Helen Browning, a policy advisor at The Soil Association, used Defra’s report as an opportunity to promote how organics could help boost food production in an environmentally-friendly way.
“Organic farming techniques are going to be critical if we are to meet the growing worldwide demand for food,” Browning said.
Browning pointed to a distinction between certified organic products and organic farming techniques, which she predicted would become “the norm” in food production. The techniques include such practices as mixed farming, crop rotation and less dependency on fossil fuels. “We feel that these technologies should be a cornerstone of any successful food strategy,” Browning said.
All the talk about food and sustainability comes as National Allotments Week is marked this week in the UK. Perhaps we could all ‘do our bit’ by growing our own veg? Unfortunately, the waiting list in some parts of the UK lasts for decades. Solving the problem of feeding the planet needs to be resolved a lot faster.
