Government Food Strategy published today

13 Jun 2022

The Food Strategy White Paper has been published online and laid in parliament today.

The Strategy was announced with a press release with comments from the Prime Minister and Environment Secretary: Tech and innovation drive to boost food production and back British farmers. The Government food strategy will back our farmers by helping to increase domestic production, spread jobs and grow the economy.

The strategy sets objectives for:

• a prosperous agri-food and seafood sector that ensures a secure food supply in an unpredictable world and contributes to the levelling up agenda through good quality jobs around the country
• a sustainable, nature positive, affordable food system that provides choice and access to high quality products that support healthier and home-grown diets for all
• trade that provides export opportunities and consumer choice through imports, without compromising our regulatory standards for food and animal welfare, whether produced domestically or imported

The strategy sets out plans to:

• Consult on an ambition for 50% of public sector expenditure on food procurement to be on food either produced locally or to higher standards
• Incentivise the sector to use surplus heat and CO2 from industrial processes, and renewable sources of energy to increase domestic horticultural production
• Review the planning permission process to support new developments of glasshouses
• Launch an independent review to tackle labour shortages in the food supply chain, to look at the roles of automation, domestic labour and migration to ensure UK businesses can access the labour they require
• Consult on how to improve on and expand animal welfare labelling, to help consumers identify when products meet or exceed our high UK animal welfare standards
• Extend the Seasonal Workers visa route to poultry, following a successful pilot last year
• Publish a framework for land use in England next year
• Consult on food waste reporting for larger businesses over a certain size
• Publish a statement setting out requirements for those wishing to access the UK market to objectively demonstrate they deliver an equivalent level of health protection to our high domestic standards
• Explore how to make the most of innovative feed additives that can reduce methane emissions from livestock, to support sustainable farming
• Launch a new partnership between the public and private sector to provide consumers with more information about the food they eat while incentivising industry to produce healthier, more ethical and sustainable goods

DEFRA are encourage stakeholders to share feedback on the strategy using agrifoodchainengagement@defra.gov.uk and foodstrategywhitepaper@defra.gov.uk. You can follow the conversation and share your views on their social media using #FoodStrategy.