Boris Johnson’s new food strategy for England contains virtually no new measures to deal with rising food costs, child hunger, obesity or a climate emergency, a leaked version of the white paper shows.
The strategy, seen by the Guardian and due out on Monday, was to be an innovative response to the recommendations of restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, who wrote two government-commissioned reports on obesity and the environment.
Dimbleby made a number of notable suggestions, including expanding free school meals, raising environmental and welfare standards in agriculture, and a 30% reduction in meat and dairy consumption.
But the slim 27-page document makes few recommendations and refuses to address the contribution of food prices to the cost-of-living crisis or to meet the demands of consuming less meat and dairy.
Among his few policy proposals is the suggestion that there could be more fish farming, which is controversial in the environment, and an increase in the use of “wild deer of responsible origin.”
Labor called the strategy “facing the absurd” for its lack of concrete proposals on food prices and “worse than half-done” by environmental group Greenpeace.
Johnson has recently delayed measures to tackle obesity and has been criticized for not helping families enough with the cost of living, with 9% inflation.
While the White Paper agrees that food prices are a significant part of the pressure many families face and that many low-income people struggle with food, it suggests that this is not the business of a government food strategy. .
Instead, the White Paper focuses on “long-term measures” to support the food system instead of “doubling the work on the cost of living,” citing the £ 15bn Treasury support package focused on reduce energy bills. He avoids growing calls from teachers and others to expand eligibility for free school meals to an additional one million children in poverty, though he says the idea will remain “under review.”
It is presumed that it has “facilitated” young low-income families to apply for and use the Healthy Start Fruit and Vegetable Voucher program, while ignoring Dimbleby’s criticism of the program’s inadequacies, its call for expand as well as without taking into account recent issues with the digital part of the schema.
“The government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty and supporting people on lower incomes, helping them to enter and progress in work and lead happy lives,” he says.
The White Paper also ignores Dimbleby’s proposals for a tax on sugar and salt used in processed foods as a way to escape what he called the “junk food cycle.” Dimbleby insisted on bold regulatory measures, rather than relying on consumer education and voluntary agreements with the food industry, to deal with the huge and growing unhealthy food market.
But while the White Paper accepts that obesity is prevalent, with 64% of adults and 40% of children overweight, it makes it clear that there is no great desire for state intervention and insists on the importance of responsibility and individual choice to influence the demand for healthy products. food.
Experts had also urged the government to reduce meat and dairy consumption to improve land use and deal with the climate emergency. Dimbleby called for a 30% reduction and Greenpeace a more ambitious 70%. In his executive summary, Dimbleby stated: “Careful farming can be a blessing to the environment, but our current appetite for meat is unsustainable: 85% of farmland is used to feed livestock. We need a part of this land. “
However, the government is not making that commitment, instead opening a consultation on new technologies to help livestock produce less methane. There is also a focus on regenerative livestock, which uses more land than intensive agriculture to produce less protein.
He says: “Sustainable sources of protein do not have to be new or new or displace traditional sectors. Regenerative agriculture will also provide more sustainable production from traditional sources of protein. The use of livestock to benefit the environment in balance with food production is already being advocated by many small-scale farmers. “
A new announcement in the White Paper is about animal welfare. Ministers plan to make it easier for countries to trade with the UK if they have strong animal welfare legislation.
The report also mentions an expansion of aquaculture, fish farming, to potentially replace some of the meat in the diet. This is despite the fact that fish farming is often very harmful to the environment.
Deer hunters will also benefit from the report, as one of the few announcements it makes is that the government “will look to increase the use of wild deer of responsible origin, which would otherwise have been eliminated, in the food chain “. .
Environmental experts who fueled the strategy said it was “worse than expected” and did not have high expectations.
There are also fears that the report will indicate a reduction in the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) as no land use change targets are mentioned.
Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, was very critical of the leaked strategy. “The UK is in a cost-of-living crisis with a spiral of food prices, falling real wages, falling growth and rising taxes. It is now clear that the government has absolutely no ambition to ‘fix the mess they’ve created,’ he said.
“A food strategy is vital, but the government has hesitated, delayed and has now been unable to comply. This is nothing more than a vague statement of intent, not concrete proposals to address its major problems. “Calling it a food strategy is limiting nonsense.”
Tim Farron, a Liberal Democrat spokesman on the environment, food and rural affairs, added: put food on the table.
“By doing nothing to help farmers across the country, the government is almost guaranteeing a generation of higher food prices.”
Louisa Casson, head of food and forestry at Greenpeace UK, said: “The government’s food strategy is not just half-baked, it’s flatter than a pancake and it lacks most of the crucial ingredients needed to really ensure our safety. “Instead of listening to warnings from climate scientists about the urgent need to reduce meat production, ministers seem to be urging UK farmers to produce even more.”
Ben Reynolds, executive director of the food and agriculture charity Sustain, added: “Our understanding is that the government’s White Paper on Food Strategy will recognize the many problems facing our food system. , but it will fall short with strong, law-abiding policies needed to make wholesale changes.
“The Dimbleby review has generated considerable understanding and a desire for change. Health advocates, businesses, food companies and investors have called for government intervention to help prevent the health, climate and natural crises caused by We would appreciate any mandatory responsibility from industry and the public sector to help make healthy and sustainable diets the norm, but if the government publishes a white paper with little more than reheated commitments, consultations and reviews, this will only will make the can lower. road. ”