Our food system must change, but there’s only so much it can do

The UK must transition to sustainable food and farming system by 2030 – or risk further “deforestation, loss of wildlife, soil degradation, widespread pollution and rocketing diet-related ill-health”. Or so says a new report by the RSA Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. 

The independent commission, which is led by Barclays UK chair Ian Cheshire, has conducted a two-year independent inquiry, sponsored by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Calling for a “fourth agricultural revolution”, its report sets out a blueprint for the UK’s food, farming and countryside system ahead of Brexit.

Many of its findings are familiar. Agriculture contributes 11% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, it says, and is the biggest driver of wildlife loss. Our drive for ever-cheaper food is doing untold damage to the environment and our health. We need to change our food and farming systems before it’s too late.

But the report is also refreshing in some ways. It recognises that farmers are part of the solution, not just part of the problem, for example, and insists they must be in the driving seat of any revolution in our food system. 

Unlike many of its predecessors, the report also recognises the role pasture-based livestock could play in a healthy and sustainable British food system, rather than insisting everyone ditch meat for imported soy.

It’s still missing something, though. Because while it recognises the cost of cheap food, it fails to address why the race to the bottom began in the first place.

As the report points out, the UK has ‘the third cheapest food amongst developed countries’. But we also have some of the highest rents and transport costs in Europe, and we rank 11^th on average wages, according to a recent study by online banking service Revolut. It found the average Brit takes home £1,976 a month – compared with an average of nearly £3,000 a month in Switzerland and Denmark.

In other words, Brits simply have less money to spend on food. Household budgets are already tight and in some areas of our society, parents are already being forced to choose whether to eat themselves or feed their children.

If we overhaul the British food system without keeping that in mind, we risk creating a situation whereby only the wealthy can afford home-grown food, with everyone else forced to supplement their diet with cheap imports.

Even if we keep British food on a level playing field with the rest of the world by insisting imports meet our same high standards – as the report suggests – that won’t address the problem of how we can increase food prices without increasing food poverty.

So while I wholeheartedly support the RSA’s vision for an agricultural revolution that puts farmers in the driving seat, let’s stop pretending the food industry can solve the climate and obesity crisis alone.

If we truly want to stop the damage cheap food is doing to our environment and our health, we need to address why shoppers are so obsessed with food prices in the first place. And work out how to lift people out of poverty so they can afford a more sustainable diet.

The responsibility for that lies with politicians and economists, not with farmers or supermarkets