MPs deem food security a public good and call for "Resilience Forum"
The need for greater food security in the UK has been highlighted by a Parliamentary committee of MPs, as its latest report calls on the Government to establish a "Food Resilience Forum".
The Environmental Audit Committee published a new report "Environmental Change and Food Security" [PDF] on 8 December which follows the Select Committee's inquiry focussing on the UK’s preparedness and resilience to future food supply stresses or shocks caused by climate change and biodiversity loss.
The Committee report puts forward a series of actions to support food security while meeting environmental targets. It calls for a new "cross-government, cross-sector food security body that brings together all actors in the food system to examine and make policy recommendations on long-term food resilience and environmental issues".
Close alignment
The inquiry's scope and report's findings align closely with the Agricultural Industries Confederation's (AIC) call for an independent UK Food Security Committee to be established, which continues to gain support from the agri-food industry and politicians.
This was the central recommendation to come out of "Powering Productivity for Sustainable UK Food Security" - an independent report written by Dr Marcus Bellett-Travers of Anglia Ruskin University, commissioned by the agri-supply trade association to mark its 20th anniversary.
The report was launched at the AIC Conference in Peterborough on 15 November.
Common themes
Both reports highlight that environmental change threatens the nation's food supply, while environmental policies are sometimes in conflict with food production.
The Powering Productivity report concludes that the UK would benefit from the oversight provided by a statutory body established by the government to operate independently beyond short-term parliamentary cycles, similar to the independent Climate Change Committee.
Meanwhile, the Select Committee report notes that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) collaborates with other government departments and with industry on food security issues, but describes this as "neither sufficiently co-ordinated nor long-term".
It recommends that the Government establishes "a cross-government, cross-sector food security body to bring together all the actors in the food system to examine and make policy recommendations on long-term food resilience and environmental issues."
It adds that while much of food policy is devolved, some areas that affect food security, such as trade, are not.
"Therefore the cross-government body should also involve the devolved administrations. The body could be in the form of a "Food Resilience Forum", but must take a long-term view.
"One responsibility with which this platform could be tasked would be to conduct forward-looking reviews in specific markets to inform investigations ahead of, rather than during, a crisis."
The MPs' report also recommends that the Government "designates food security as a public good and incorporate food security and environmental goals more explicitly in the design of Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs)."
AIC view on food security
Robert Sheasby, AIC’s Chief Executive, says: "This Environmental Audit Committee report is welcome because it underlines the need for the UK to strengthen its food security while acknowledging the complexity and challenges faced by the nation's agri-food industry - encompassing pre-farm suppliers, farmers and growers, through to processors, manufacturers, food service and retailers.
"Productivity in the agri-food industry is complicated and no one policy or innovation drives its progression. It is the sheer breadth and complexity laid out by this report which has led AIC to call for the establishment of an independent UK Food Security Committee."
Chaired independently, this statutory body would advise the UK and devolved governments on the drivers of food security and report to Parliament on progress made in enhancing the productivity and resilience of the UK’s entire agri-food supply chain.
"The introduction of such a body for the agri-food industry can significantly enhance our nation’s food security for the long term, well beyond short-term parliamentary cycles," says Mr Sheasby.
"We welcome the support from industry and stakeholders so far. AIC is encouraging the entire UK agri-food sector to back this report’s core recommendation and we look forward to working with industry and government to make it happen."
Watch the launch of the Powering Productivity report at the AIC Conference below.
Read the Powering Productivity report's key findings to find out more.
Click below to learn more about the report and download a PDF copy. Visit the Powering Productivity report webpages to find out more or contact AIC’s Head of Policy & External Affairs Ed Barker ([email protected]).
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.
