Government should increase support for food industry
The government must set out a clear vision for food manufacturing to safeguard future food security, attendees at a Labour Party conference fringe event in Brighton heard last week.
Food and Drink Federation (FDF) director of communications Julian Hunt, one of the panelists at Food for thought: can the UK continue to feed itself, said: “One thing the government can do is set out a clear vision for manufacturing in the UK and make farming and food manufacturing an important sector. We’re not hearing that enough. Every time a minister stands up and has a chance to say something about this they blow it.”
Andrew Opie, director of food policy at the British Retail Consortium, said: “We’ve got the building blocks. We need a [government] response to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA’s) Food 2030 discussion so we can start to prioritise issues in the supply chain.”
The debate was launched in the wake of the government’s update of its Food Matters report, published in July, a year after the original.
The DEFRA online forum for the discussion, which examines solutions to the crises facing the food industry, such as climate change and rising populations, will stay open until October 16.
Hunt agreed with Opie, but added: “We don’t want the vision to be woolly, which is the danger of the consultation at the moment. It could be really simple - what do we have to do to foster a thriving food chain in the future?”
Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers’ Union and another panel speaker, said: “I couldn’t agree with Julian more. Food and farming is a central part of the economy and we want to make it successful. We want the government to come out and say ‘we hold it central’."
Jim Fitzpatrick, food and farming minister, agreed a simple message was needed and recognised that fostering better skills for the food and farming industries was a crucial part of moving forward.
