Retailers Tesco, Booths, and Aldi have now signed the Good Food Bill, and they are among 100-plus organisations urging prime minister Andy Burnham to introduce it urgently to increase national food security in the UK and improve the nation’s health.
The letter to Andy Burnham has also been signed by longer-term Good Food Bill signatories Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Co-op, and many others – Green Retail World covered news of Sainsbury’s joining the movement last month.
Investment companies including Rathbones and The First Thirty Ventures, as well as farming organisations such as Soil Association and Nature Friendly Farming Network, all have their names on the letter too.
The cross-sector letter was sent to the prime minister on 30 July, calling on him to urgently introduce a Good Food Bill. This – they said – would act as a legally binding framework to improve national food and nutrition security, public health and food system resilience.
It comes with wildfires raging across Europe and geopolitics remaining uncertain, and the fragility of the UK food system is there to see. With diet-related disease at record highs, according to The Food Foundation which is leading the charge with the bill, changing the food system is viewed as a matter of national priority, alongside energy, and defence.
The UK’s food system has suffered repeated shocks in recent years. Farmers and growers face rising costs and increasing pressure from climate change and nature loss. International conflict has pushed fertiliser costs up by around 40% since last year, according to the foundation, while more frequent extreme weather events – exemplified by this summer’s devastating wildfires across Europe – are making harvests vulnerable.
The letter states: “Each new shock lands on a food system with less capacity to absorb it.
“British production of fruit and vegetables has fallen 16% since 2015, and we now import 78% of our supply. The next food shock is not a question of if, but when. To meet it prepared, food has to stop being an afterthought for the government: we need mechanisms to put food high on the priority list of every part of government, both national and local, so that any decisions that impact on health, farming, planning, and trade secure better access to healthy and sustainable food for everyone.”
It continues: “The cost of doing nothing on this issue is already falling on those with the least resource, with food insecurity already affecting 15% of households with children. Economic pressures continue to push a healthy diet further out of reach for many, with the NHS then left to pick up the bill.”
Tesco UK CEO Ashwin Prasad remarked: “The Good Food Bill has the potential to provide the accountability and long-term commitment needed to drive meaningful change, and by working together across government, business and communities, we can shape a food system that genuinely supports healthier futures for generations to come.”
Nigel Murray, CEO of Booths, noted: “The Good Food Bill is an opportunity to take a longer-term view of food security, strengthen British agriculture and help ensure that healthy, affordable food remains within reach for future generations.”
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, said: “The UK food system is dangerously exposed to shocks far beyond our borders.
“Over the last few years, we have seen this play out through rising food prices and increasing diet and health inequalities, with the price gap between healthy and less healthy food at the widest it’s been for over a decade. At the same time farmers are struggling to make ends meet. What we need now is a Good Food Bill that sets out a long-term framework for building resilience in the UK food system – one that holds successive governments to account and protects businesses, citizens and farmers alike.”
[image credit: Green Retail World]
