So far this year Defra has consistently claimed the food sector, the UK’s largest manufacturing industry, has a major part to play in growing the economy. NFU chief Peter Kendall, whose organisation, through its lobbying work, has a significant influence on government policy, said the UK food and farming sector would be a driving force behind economic recovery at last week’s NFU conference.

Around the same time, Farming minister Jim Paice said, “We saw food exports rise by something like 11 per cent last year and we’re looking to build on that and tap into that growth,” when he unveiled the government’s new export drive last month.

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The government has said it will be running road shows to give smaller businesses the tools they need to access lucrative export markets and will be cutting bureaucracy to enable them to do this. However, there remain some questions as to what this drive hopes to achieve. If, as the government states, the end aim is to create a low-carbon, equitable economy where people have enough food, enough money and future opportunities, there may be a need for deeper changes.  

As a case from January this year demonstrates, cutting ‘bureaucracy’ is not a cure-all solution; a Yorkshire MP recently called on the government to facilitate exporters’ work following difficulties experienced by pig meat processing company Cranswick in exporting to China. Although Graham Stuart MP called for a reduction in red tape to benefit the sector, which he felt was being hampered by regulators, the Food Standards Agency rebuffed his comments stating that they were working with Cranswick to enable the company to meet China’s regulatory demands, against which the company was falling short.

Speaking to the BBC earlier this week, former hill farmer and Professor of Food Policy at London’s City University, Tim Lang questioned the government’s export drive. He said that, if the desired result of the drive is to develop economic and food security, then government policy should focus on social benefits and research as well as economic returns for a handful of enterprises.

Professor Lang first stated, “I think there is quite a fudge here about what it meant; are just going to export more or are we going to actually produce more food? Because we have to be growing more; there is absolutely no doubt in my mind. Whereas over the last twenty to thirty years we have seen a steady decline in the amount of food that Britain grows, and to governments this hasn’t mattered, there is only now a creeping realisation that actually it does matter.”

Professor Lang said that, if the government and farming sector are serious about food security, and not merely using the label as a veil for deregulation and generating money for a limited number of businesses, then instead of focusing their efforts on alcohol, meat and dairy, the UK’s current major food exports, research and policy bodies should turn their attention to horticulture.

He elaborated, “What matters to me is growing plants; it’s plants we need to grow, these are the foundation of human health and a good food economy,” and spoke of the need for rapid expansion in jobs, skill sharing and production. The respected food policy professor said that only if knowledge transfer and sustainable, healthy food production are supported by the government can the UK move in the direction of a meaningful green economy.

He followed on from Conservative backbencher David Davis in criticising the govenrment’s proximity to large retailers in forming policy. Professor Lang said, “We need a food policy; you can’t just sit back and leave it to Tesco et al. The retailers and the food supply chain that they are gatekeepers for are locked into a totally unsustainable vision for food. We have to think long-term; what would a decarbonised, water reduced, socially just food system look like?”

He also decried the lack of support for rural regions where changes must take place and spoke of the need to invest in skills and countryside communities to avoid rural flight and support people working and living in rural areas with better working conditions, housing and services. Studies have consistently revealed that, although residents in rural regions pay more in average tax, services have been stripped away leaving them with poorer public transport, education, health and recreational facilities.

Although courses at land based colleges are full each academic year, careers guidance and rural support services have undergone massive cuts and none of them offer courses in commercial horticulture. Professor Lang said “We have to invest in colleges of agriculture, which have been turned into equestrian fantasy lands for the middle classes escaping the city. Actually, these are about a basic element of the economy, growing food for people. We have to invest in skills.”   

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