Grow green jobs – back sustainable British farming
Double investment in nature-friendly farming across the UK. Make sustainable farming more widespread and profitable by delivering economies of scale.
Make long-term environmental and economic sustainability across the UK possible through multi-annual budgets for nature-friendly farming.
Stimulate green jobs in food and farming in the UK by increasing the amount of land under organic production to 10 percent by 2030. Well-resourced, co-ordinated organic actions plans should deliver this target and address supply and demand across all sectors. This will ensure that more of the organic food we eat in the UK is produced here.
Provide incentives to double the integration of trees on farms while supporting woodland management on farms.
Support new entrants to nature-friendly farming, creating opportunities for a more diverse generation of growers, particularly on the edges of cities and towns.
Invest in research and green technologies across the UK that support agroecological practices. Provide digital infrastructure that allows for more smaller farmers to supply sustainable food to public places, like schools and hospitals.
Put in place clear guidelines for monitoring farm level data on environmental outcomes. This will provide confidence to green finance investors and reduce dependency on public funds. Once guidelines to support farmers are in place, monitoring should also be a requirement of government farm support.
Protect the NHS – feed our futures with healthy and sustainable food
Tackle the diet-related public health crisis through a cross-departmental food strategy for England. Ensure healthy and sustainable diets are accessible and affordable for everyone.
Help people eat ‘more and better’ plants and ‘less but better’ meat.
Cut ultra-processed food consumption, particularly for children. Introduce a percentage reduction target for the national diet in England.
Support healthy and sustainable diets. Harness the Land Use Framework to double the land used for fruit and vegetable production from less than 2 percent to 4 percent.
Ensure at least half of food in schools and hospitals is British, local, sustainable, and includes organic. Improve the quality of the school fruit and veg scheme.
Expand free school meals to all primary school children in England. Provide a nutritional safety net that ensures all children get one healthy, sustainable meal every day.
Invest in food and farming education. Support a whole school approach so that children adopt healthy, sustainable eating habits from an early age. Promote the Food for Life model to better understand where our food comes from.
Increase the production and consumption of local, healthy and nature-friendly food by funding the provision of expert support and advice, such as through Food for Life Served Here. Enable all public caters to deliver the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering, or higher certification schemes.
Protect and restore nature – transform farmland to save wildlife
Boost wildlife without compromising food production, particularly in lowland areas, by increasing the amount of land in England under organic production to 10 percent by 2030.
Stop the polluter from profiting. Create a level playing field for nature-friendly farmers, by creating a new permitting system in England. This would prevent industrial livestock farming from harming human health, animal welfare or the environment.
Ban new intensive poultry units. Set targets to reduce nitrous oxide and ammonia emissions from farming, which are poisoning our rivers and contributing to respiratory illnesses like asthma.
End reliance on imported soya crops that are sprayed with highly hazardous pesticides that poison wildlife abroad. Set maximum residue levels in crops used for animal feed.
Prioritise nature alongside net zero. Government policy must give equal weight to biodiversity and carbon capture.
Soil not oil – end reliance on expensive and damaging chemicals
End reliance on fossil fuel-based nitrogen fertilisers with a reduction target. Support farmers to transition away from these expensive and harmful chemicals.
Recognise soil’s essential role for all life on earth. Include healthy soils as a key priority area for legally binding environmental targets alongside biodiversity, air, water and waste.
Set a plan to achieve an ambitious 2030 soil health improvement target.
Fair food prices – for shoppers and farmers
Ensure supermarkets offer a fair price for food, for farmers and shoppers. Reform and expand the scope of the Grocery Code Adjudicator (GCA) and new supply chain regulations. This would cover regulatory gaps and reduce non-compliance by retailers.
Ensure that supermarkets operate responsibly across the UK. This includes their involvement in public health, environmental health, and fair pay and reward across the food and farming sector.
Invest in infrastructure such as local processing facilities and small abattoirs to support short, local supply chains. These allow nature-friendly farms to deliver fresh, local food to customers at affordable prices.
Produce an ambitious, crossing-cutting horticulture strategy that supports British fruit and vegetable production and consumption.
Invest in local food partnerships that work to tackle food insecurity, supply chain disruption and inequity, and the climate and nature emergency. This should follow the example of Sustainable Food Places.
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