Call for holistic food policy

An advisor to the British government has called for a more holistic approach to food policy, involving the adoption of a raft of measures to avert an impending world food crisis.

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at London’s City University, said government policy was failing in this area. And he criticised the government for disregarding arguments about food security and the need to ensure the UK’s “capacity” to produce its own food.

“The current UK food policy is a market focus,” he said. He also claimed the nation’s self-sufficiency in food production was in a dangerous decline: “It’s dropping and it’s dropping very rapidly indeed.” He said eight fundamental issues needed to be dealt with.

Lang called for a policy which took account of soaring commodity prices, climate change and rising oil prices. But it also needed to address other issues, such as water shortages, land use and a falling number of people working in agriculture, he claimed. Demographic changes around the globe, which have created a growing demand for food in countries such as China and India, needed to be taken into account, argued Lang. And lastly, he added, health and nutrition issues related to diet had to be factored into the policy.

While different groups were proposing a variety of solutions to the impending crisis, Lang argued that these were often too narrowly focused. “We need more discussion about the options,” he said. “Most are single issues when eight fundamentals need to be addressed. We need to redefine UK food policy goals.”