What people around the UK tell us they want governments to deliver
The next election will be contested over the economic impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, household food security, health and social care and the rising risks and costs of inaction on the climate and nature crisis.
In our work with communities across the country, people tell us they want a coherent and cost-effective plan that unities healthy and affordable food, grown close to home and in harmony with nature, with real investment in their future. Farmers stand ready to produce plentiful, healthy food in a climate and nature-positive way that achieves Net Zero – but to do so they need the confidence of strong, consistent government backing.
Now is the time for bold and ambitious UK leadership to meet the scale of these challenges. There is a balanced, fair and inclusive pathway – a clear and achievable government programme to deliver the dietary, farming and land use transition:
- Extend free school meals to all children living in food or fuel poverty.
- Improve on the government’s current ambition for 50% of food served in public institutions to be sourced from UK farmers, grown locally or to high environmental standards.
- Set long-term targets to improve diet-related health for all with a Good Food Bill.
- Apply clear environmental standards and benchmarking throughout the food supply chain to provide a level playing field for producers, processors, manufacturers, and retailers.
- Guarantee the current total budget for farming and land management to 2029 and use it to fund policies which deliver environmental targets by investing in agroecological, climate and nature positive practices across 75% of the farmed landscape by 2030.
- Provide clear governance through the regulation of natural capital markets to ensure investment is channelled fairly into food and farming businesses, and rural economies.
- Ensure any trade deals uphold high UK core environmental standards, not passing off our environmental responsibilities to other countries, nor undermining UK food and farming standards.
- Adopt a polluter pays principle alongside incentives to foster environmental responsibility through the food and farming supply chain, ensuring taxpayers stop picking up the costs of cheap food in ill health, air and water pollution, and species loss.
- Introduce a land use framework that supports local decision making and balances all the demands placed on land to deliver for food production, climate, nature, health, and the economy.
- Adopt the recommendations in the National Food Strategy.