New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should honour the commitment he made in the summer to set targets for food security, NFU president Minette Batters said at this week’s Institute of Agricultural Management’s annual conference.
Prof Tim Lang, professor of food policy at the University of London, also issued a call for the Government to introduce a Food Act that includes food security.
Ms Batters said: “In our food and farming hustings during this summer’s leadership contest, Mr Sunak committed to a food security summit, to establish a statutory framework setting levels for food self sufficiency and that 50 per cent of publicly procured food should be locally sourced.”
“I mentioned this to [new Defra Secretary] Therese Coffey this week and she said she would raise it with him.”
Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee and Conservative peer, went on to say food security is intrinsically linked with climate change and the UK must recognise what happens in Africa and Australia has a direct impact on food availability across the world.
Lord Deben was also critical of the government’s approach to policy, including its keenness to change the Northern Ireland Protocol.
He said: “The Government’s word should be its bond and it signed up to the protocol.”
“To unilaterally change it would damage the UK’s standing in the world, particularly in areas such as climate change where it has a good international reputation.”
Emily Norton, head of rural research at Savills, claimed there was an important role for Government in providing a framework for delivering food and natural capital targets, but argued farmers need to be looking at developing multiple income streams for themselves.
“There is the potential on many farms to ‘stack’ enterprises,” she said.
“That might include producing crops and livestock, sinking carbon, providing agri-forestry services or delivering water management for water companies. That approach will probably also attract Government investment.”
These comments were echoed by Prof John Gilliland, professor of agriculture and sustainability at Queen’s University, Belfast, who said setting carbon intensity indicators and working with farmers in a voluntary scheme has had a major impact in Northern Ireland.
“We have 95 per cent of farmers signed up to the scheme, which is one of the largest uptakes of any voluntary scheme in the world,” he added.
