Defra unveiled its draft strategy for the future of food and farming and its response to the Curry report to a meeting of industry leaders this week, but received a strongly critical response.
The meeting was the latest in a series of consultations chaired by food and farming minister Lord Whitty.
A number of food production, environmental and retail bodies were represented at the meeting including the BRC, Sainsbury, the Food and Drink Federation, RSPB and the NFU.
They were shown the first draft of the report which they were told is likely to be released in early December.
However, Defra has a long way to go to develop a coherent strategy for the sustainable food and farming, according to a source at the meeting.
He said: "This was a discussion of a first draft, which had clearly been written by a number of different people within Defra. It was bitty, patchy and repetitive, and lacked a coherent strategy. There is plenty of time to develop one by December, but whether Defra is able to is a different question."
The contact group is unlikely to meet again in its current form as it is due to be superseded by a new working group, chaired by Sir Don Curry.
That group will be charged with implementing the government's finalised strategy for sustainable food and farming.

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