A National Food Strategy in 2025: Some lessons from the Sustainable Food Places movement

Steve Reed’s announcement that the Government will develop a new National Food Strategy in 2025 is good news.

A national food strategy was one of two main calls at the Sustainable Food Places Day of Action in Parliament last month. Every nation needs a food strategy. The other was for a food partnership in every local authority area, building on the existing 114 food partnerships in the UK taking a cross-sector, systems approach to transformation. Every area needs a home for good food.

Sustainable Food Places echoes the sentiments of many of those involved in food who have responded to the announcement. Anna Taylor of the Food Foundation welcomed the systems approach. This is part of the power of food, it demands collaboration between, and within, sectors. Mhairi Brown from the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission asked the key questions ‘who is the strategy for’ and ‘who will influence it’? Steve Reed and Defra will be inundated with those wanting to steer the development of this strategy. The food system is about as complex as systems can get and affects, well, everyone.

Sustainable Food Places have been supporting food strategy development for over a decade in cities, counties, regions, and nations. Here is what we have learnt that might help Defra in the challenging work ahead:

• Make time and space to listen small food businesses, including hospitality. They are busy and pressured, and their voices are less heard. So, meet and listen on their terms. They are the lifeblood of a vibrant food culture and economy.
• Listen, really listen, to farmers. Soil Association, NFU, Landworkers’ Alliance can help with that. And what better place to do this in early January than ORFC and The Oxford Farming Conference
• More listening. This time to communities. Don’t assume what they want. Food, Farming & Countryside Commission showed this with their brilliant food conversations.
• Be wary of the food industry lobby. They have more resources than any of us, including government, and are very, very smart. Ask Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming as they have been seeing through the tricks for some time.
• Learn from your peers. For example,  the work in Wales for funding for a food partnership in every local authority area led by Welsh Government and Food Sense Wales. The Good Food Nation act in Scotland is ahead of the game, supported and critiqued by Nourish Scotland.
• Create the space, funding, and capacity for those best positioned to deliver change. There are some things only government can do, such as planning (don’t forget planning!), but much that is best delivered by those more experienced and ready to go.
• Watch out for binary arguments:  Household food security and a diet that doesn’t damage our natural world aren’t mutually exclusive.
• Watch out for the tech quick fixes: We are not all going to eat insects or have a vertical farm next-door. It is always going to be a mix of solutions.
• Never underestimate the power of procurement: It is difficult but a game changer. Public sector food procurement is worth around £5 billion a year. What if it was all Food for Life Served Here standard?

And finally, it is not all about the numbers… Tonnes of carbon saved or changes in BMI may tell us something, but when did food only become about crises and negatives? Could a decent food strategy make it about culture, celebration, and beautiful landscapes too?

Let’s be hopeful, let’s be cautious, let’s be involved.