National Food Strategy

National Food Strategy 2021

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Henry Dimbleby

In July of last year, I published Part One of the National Food Strategy, a Government-commissioned independent review into the food system. This had originally been intended as a broad analysis of the strengths and flaws of the entire food system from farm to fork, with Part Two following on behind with recommendations.

But COVID-19 intervened, and Part One became instead an urgent response to the issues of hunger and ill health raised by the pandemic, as well as the trade and food standards issues created by the end of the EU Exit transition period. Part One contained seven specific recommendations, intended to help the most disadvantaged families eat well, protect the UK’s high food standards and ensure proper scrutiny of any trade deals. The Government has already agreed to implement four of those. I will be returning to the other three in this report. (Please see the box on page 5 for details.)

For Part Two, I have returned to the original brief. In these pages, we will take a close look at how the food system really works, the damage it is doing to our bodies and our ecosystem, and the interventions we could make to prevent these harms. We will consider the characteristics of complex systems and the mechanisms that cause system failures. And we will set out a strategy for the future, based not just on rigorous science but on the needs and wishes of ordinary citizens. In writing this strategy, I have been able to call upon the research, commitment, energy and insight of academics, farmers, scientists, business leaders, charity workers, politicians and experts from many fields, some of whom are on our Advisory Panel (see Acknowledgements, p. 264).

Above all, I have been lucky enough to work with a dedicated and extraordinary group of civil servants and consultants, led by the indefatigable Tamsin Cooper. Together, we have spent the past two years travelling the country, holding Zoom meetings, talking to people from all over the food system, crunching numbers, digging into research, questioning received wisdoms, running mathematic models and inspecting policy ideas for hidden bear traps. I usually refer to “us” and “we” in this report because it has been such a collaborative effort.

In the course of researching this strategy, we – the National Food Strategy team – conducted extensive interviews with people at the sharp end of the food system. We also held “deliberative dialogues” with citizens across the country to establish what changes the public is willing to embrace. The recommendations we have put together are intended to create the kind of food system the people of this country say they want – and need. The food system we have now has evolved over many years. It won’t be easy to reshape it. But time is not on our side. The effects of climate change are already becoming apparent around the world. Diet related disease is putting an intolerable strain on our nation’s health and finances – and COVID-19 has only increased the pressure. For our own health, and that of our planet, we must act now.

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