AIC this week: Food security, trade and fairness in the supply chain
At the end of an especially busy week for the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), we recap some of the media coverage, parliamentary committee appearances and political mentions on food security, inflation and fairness in the supply chain.
BBC Radio 4 and 5 interviews
On Tuesday morning (19 March), AIC's Chief Executive Robert Sheasby took to the airwaves to feature on BBC Radio 5's Wake Up to Money show.
Mr Sheasby discussed how inflation has impacted agricultural supply businesses and explained why the UK would benefit from having a Food Security Committee that is independent of government and takes a long-term view.
Half an hour later, he joined BBC Radio 4's Today programme to share what he planned to tell MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee about fairness in the food supply chain.
Watch clips from each radio interview.
- Listen back to the full BBC Radio 5 interview, which starts around 41 minutes in, by clicking here.
- Listen back to the BBC Radio 4 interview, which begins at around 22 minutes in, by clicking here.
Efra Committee on "Fairness in the Food Supply Chain"
As part of an inquiry into "Fairness in the Food Supply Chain", on Tuesday afternoon (19 March) the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee heard evidence from AIC's Robert Sheasby and other trade bodies, as well as food processors and manufacturing businesses.
MPs heard how improving the UK's long-term food security can help to ensure fairness in the supply chain and protect against the inflationary impacts of global market volatility.
Read the full story and watch the video highlights below.
AIC Members at Scottish Parliament Committee
On Thursday (21 March), two AIC Member businesses give evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee in the Scottish Parliament.
Paddy Jack from DLF Seeds UK and Cefetra Ltd's Margaret Carlin were speaking to MSPs about how the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement is working for businesses and what improvements could be made.
Watch the session on the Scottish Parliament TV website.
It follows AIC Head of Policy and External Affairs Ed Barker's appearance before the same Committee earlier this month. Click below to read more and watch video highlights.
MPs debate food security
Following the publication of the Environmental Audit Committee's report "Environmental Change and Food Security" late last year, in which food security was deemed a public good and a "Food Resilience Forum" was called for, MPs heard from the Government and debated its response to key findings.
AIC is calling for a statutory UK Food Security Committee to operate independently of government and short-term parliamentary cycles, providing a cross-Whitehall, cross-UK oversight of what recent events have highlighted as a critical issue.
This is one of three core food supply chain asks of the next UK Government, as set out in AIC's recently published 2024 General Election manifesto.
Author
Oli Hill
As Head of Communications, Oli creates and oversees the content published on AIC's website, emails, Member briefings, print publications, and social media. A qualified multimedia journalist, he previously spent six years working at Farmers Weekly magazine as a Senior Reporter on the arable team, and latterly as Community Editor. More recently he was Communications Manager at Red Tractor.
