A new report by the Waste and Recycling Action Programme (WRAP) outlines risks to the UK food system over the next ten years, and finds serious changes are needed in the way food is produced, sold and consumed.

Given warnings from climate scientists and campaigners of continuing down the ‘business as usual’ route, WRAP is calling for a business unusual approach to change the food system for the better. In its ‘Food Futures’ report, which was published on Thursday to coincide with the Programme’s annual conference, WRAP assesses 15 topics in the UK food system from farm to fork and outlines recommendations for actions by industry and government.

Increasing global demand for food and the pressure on the environment of meeting that demand, using traditional methods and ingredients, is not sustainable, WRAP warns. In its report, the charity states, “The UK food system was built for an era that has passed; businesses and policymakers are having to adapt and react to new and rapidly evolving economic, environmental and social realities.”

The current government’s food policy revolves largely around driving up exports of resource-dense food, to narrow a £21m food trade deficit and bolster food manufacturing, one of Britain’s largest remaining industries. However, experts have pointed out that this is unsustainable in public health, social justice and environmental terms - they call for moves to rekindle Britain’s horticulture sector to provide healthy, affordable and environmentally sound foods.

Some of the risks and opportunities identified in the WRAP report that affect the whole industry, are external, including climate risks to food resilience, biodiversity loss (which is linked with food production, but only lightly touched on in the report) and deep environmental and societal challenges like reducing food waste or tackling diet-related ill health. WRAP is calling for moves to provide the food sector with skills to meet new challenges and new technological breakthroughs, including ‘data-enabled technology’.

In addition to these calls, which sit well with current Defra policy, WRAP’s report recommends action to make the food system more resilient and bring together public health and environmental agendas, for a more holistic response to the complex challenges the sector faces; the Labour Party promised to introduce a ‘long-term food plan’ ahead of the last election, which would have made moves in this area.

Farming

For farming, challenges identified by WRAP include ensuring the UK has a diversified, sustainable supply of protein. Two topics discussed in the report: new commercial models for sustainable aquaculture and alternative feeds and proteins offer significant potential to overcome this challenge.

The government-funded charity said the next ten years could see changes in farming such as a growing appreciation of the benefits of adopting precision agriculture and other ‘data-enabled technologies’. ‘Controlled Traffic Farming’ (CTF) techniques which use water, energy and fertilisers only where needed, optimising yield, production efficiencies and nutritional outcomes, could reduce machinery and input costs by up to 75%, according to the report. WRAP believes that a ‘green data revolution’ will provide opportunities for agriculture.

For the recommendations to be successful, and for food to become sustainable, WRAP noted that there will need to be a change in ‘lifestyles choices’, including moves towards a “healthier and sustainable diet” on the part of food buyers.

The report also recommends driving down farm to fork food waste; currently between a third and one half of all food produced around the world goes to waste before it can be used. Of the estimated 15 million tonnes of food wasted in the UK, households account for around half, with manufacturing responsible for around 3.9 million tonnes and pre-farm gate losses the third largest area of loss, at around 3Mt.  

Commenting ahead of the report’s release, WRAP CEO Dr Liz Goodwin OBE said, “In the next ten years we will be faced with challenges around feeding a growing population and nutritional security. Our ‘Food Futures’ report highlights how governments, businesses and we, as consumers, can turn these challenges into opportunities. We need to be 21st Century ‘FIT’ to meet this challenge. By embracing the growth in data enabled technology and aligning healthy and environmentally sustainable diets we can nourish both the individual and the planet.”

The report can be read here.