Soil Association urges new Prime Minister to fix the food system

Today (Monday 20 July) the Soil Association has welcomed in the new Prime Minister with an open letter urging him to fix the nation's food system following positive action in Manchester.

In a letter to Andy Burnham, our policy director points out that the "future of the country’s environment, health and economy" depends on this mission.

As mayor of the first combined authority member of Sustainable Food Places, we welcome the new Prime Minister's recent recognition of the importance of food and farming as well as the role of public procurement.

In his first speech as Prime Minister, Mr Burnham pledged to "reindustrialise Britain using public procurement to back British industry". Our open letter urges him to ensure this includes food as a priority, while also outlining the challenge Soil Association feels he needs to meet to deliver food system resilience.

Soil Association's open letter to Andy Burnham in full

Dear Mr Burnham, 

We welcome you with great excitement as our new Prime Minister. As well as backing sustainable supply chains in Manchester, you have rightly recognised the food and farming sector as critical national infrastructure. It is the biggest determinant of environmental health, public health, and the cost of our NHS – with diet-related ill-health costing a staggering £268bn a year, roughly 20% of overall government spend. Rising food prices caused by climate change and costly synthetic fertilisers imported from volatile regions, drive the headline rate of inflation, exacerbate inequalities and smother the economy. Yet Defra has one of the smallest budgets in Whitehall.  

It needn’t be like this. We know how to produce food with little or no synthetic fertilisers, so long as farmers get support to improve their soils and make the transition, increasing resilience to climate change in the process and boosting food security. Backing organic farming with the promised organic action plan for England will boost domestic production to meet consumer demand so we can stop offshoring the economic and environmental benefits. More generally, continued support for regenerative practices through the Sustainable Farming Incentive is vital, with sufficient funding for all farmers. Transitioning the food system is just as critical to the country as transitioning the energy system, yet it currently receives a fraction of the investment.  

This transition can’t all fall on the Government; the polluter must pay. Large agri-food businesses should be subject to regulation and reporting commensurate with other sectors, and the impact they have on the environment and public health. They need to support farmers to transition to sustainable practices as part of fair and transparent supply chains that baseline, monitor and report against environmental, health, and welfare outcomes.  

Crucially, we must put communities and local economies at the heart of the food system. We need shorter supply chains that get healthy food to those in society that need it most, in the process creating bigger markets for a diverse range of farmers producing to certified high standards. In your first speech as Prime Minister you committed to using public procurement to back British industry - this must include food and we urge you to prioritise it. The Government currently spends around £2.4bn on food in public catering – around 85% of the budget that’s designated for incentivising sustainable farming. The power of this budget is huge, but it needs to be used strategically – including targeted support to help caterers source and serve healthy, sustainable food through programmes like Food for Life Served Here.  

Under your Mayoralty the Greater Manchester Food Partnership Board recently became the first combined authority member of Sustainable Food Places. It showed a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between diet and local food environments, and what progressive local government can do to improve this in partnership with local businesses and communities. Scaling this approach across the country could be transformative.  

You have demonstrated thus far a critical understanding of the food system and many of the levers needed to change it. We look forward to helping you and your departments pull those levers so we can deliver true food security with healthy and sustainable food produced by a resilient and nature-friendly farming sector. The future of the country’s environment, health and economy, depends on it.  

Yours sincerely,

Brendan Costelloe

Soil Association Policy Director