Responding to the targets set out in the Government Food Strategy, food industry trade organisations have questioned the Strategy’s likeness to the National Food Strategy which was published by Henry Dimbleby in two separate parts over the last two years.

The government’s new Food Strategy is based on the recommendations of the National Food Strategy.

NFU president Minette Batters said the strategy had stripped Dimbleby’ s proposals “to the bare bones”. She commented: “We want to be eating more British and more local food but again I just ask how.”

Strategy aims include:

• The government is seeking to further build the UK’s resilience to future crises and shocks, it will continue to “monitor and strengthen” the resilience of the country’s supply chains and support its domestic production.
• The government is looking to incentivise the food sector to make use of surplus heat and CO2 from industrial processes, and renewable sources of energy.
• The skilled worker visa route aims to allow skilled professionals from overseas to bring their expertise to the UK in developing this sector.
• Government will work with industry to develop plans to “bolster resilience of critical inputs” such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and fertiliser. This will include a specific long-term plan on CO2 in 2022 and a focus on pioneering more organic-based fertilisers, to “ensure continued certainty and availability for all inputs which underpin our food production.”

Amongst its other recommendations, the report noted that government will commission an independent review to assess and ensure the quantity and quality of the food sector workforce. The review will seek to encompass the roles of automation, domestic employment and migration routes.

Meat industry reaction

A spokesperson for the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS), Tony Goodger, said that the environment is “uppermost in the minds of many”, but added that the report’s proposal to reduce meat and dairy consumption by 30% was “never the solution.”

He explained: “The proposed research into feed additives that can reduce methane emissions from livestock should provide reassurance for our country’s farmers that beef, lamb and dairy product remain on the nation’s menu and that this work, if successful, has the opportunity to add further sales benefits to British red meat in the valuable export markets.”

Goodger said that the body welcomed both the strategy’s emphasis on using technology to drive the food industry forward and the launch of an independent review to tackle labour shortages in the food supply chain.

Commenting on the Strategy’s approach to “bolster resilience” of Co2 supplies, Goodger noted that the Strategy had noted the issues surrounding the supply of CO2 within the meat and poultry processing industry for the last four to five years.

Goodger concluded that AIMS, overall, were “very supportive of the pragmatic response” from the government in respect to a food strategy for the country. AIMS said it will work with government to its members “to deliver its vision.”