Call for action over Defra food policy

East Anglian farm leaders have described the government’s food strategy for the next 20 years as long on aspiration but short on new policies.

Environment secretary Hilary Benn launched the government’s Food 2030 strategy at last month’s Oxford Farming Conference. Farmers must seize the opportunity to produce more food in a sustainable way, it says.

“We need to produce more food, do it sustainably, and ensure the food we eat safeguards our health,” said Mr Benn. “It’s a big challenge, but it’s also a big opportunity for farming.”

But publication of the document soon prompted accusations that the UK had effectively isolated itself politically from the EU debate on the Common Agricultural Policy when it should be playing a central role in the debate.

Nicola Currie, eastern region director of the Country land and Business Association, described the strategy as a welcome endorsement of the need to improve food security – producing as much food as possible to reduce dependence upon imports.

But she added: “Regrettably the paper is long on analysis, aspiration, exhortation and rhetoric – but it is extremely short on any new measures and policies to bring about the new vision.”

While the strategy appeared to encourage farmers to think they should be producing more food, it reiterated – albeit in very gentle language – the government’s long-stated policy to eliminate EU agricultural subsidies and border protection.

“The government well knows that this will significantly restructure farming to fewer larger units, reduce production and increase imports, some of dubious environmental quality.”

This aspect of the strategy undermined much in the paper that was positive and to be applauded, said Mrs Currie. She added: “There is a dishonesty in not confronting the industry and the British public with this stance.”

The NFU described the strategy as a useful blueprint for the future of the UK’s food system. But it too warned that care was needed as the government moved to meet its goals and realise its ambitions.

NFU president Peter Kendall said: “Farmers and growers are already demonstrating that they can produce more food while impacting less. What we now need are policies that underpin and enhance a productive agriculture sector.”

The fact that the government wants to deliver its vision for food in partnership with farmers was good news. But the need to base decisions on sound science, particularly where food production was concerned, had never been greater.