Peter Fox MS has introduced a bill to the Senedd that would establish an overarching food strategy for Wales. Here Kevin Morgan and Simon Wright says it’s a long overdue initiative as Wales urgently needs a food security plan.
If there is one key lesson we should be learning from nature at the moment it’s surely about interdependence. As our understanding of ecosystems develops, the one message that emerges above all others is that the complexity of the connections that has evolved amongst living things is the very lifeblood of existence.
The more we learn, the more we begin to appreciate the limits of our understanding of this tangled web and how our interventions, however well intentioned, can have noxious effects that have either been ignored or never imagined.
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Nowhere is this more true than in relation to food. Our food system globally is responsible for around 30% of greenhouse gas emissions and food production is the single biggest factor in the tragic decline in biodiversity. Climate issues may be top of the agenda, but they are only one part of a deeply disturbing picture.
Other issues concern alarming increases in diet-related disease, health inequalities, a fragile global food supply system vulnerable to disruption, and the effect on communities of an increasingly corporatised and intensively-farmed countryside which pays little heed to the health and welfare of the communities that live there.
It’s a rare day when food doesn’t feature somewhere in the headlines in relation to one of these issues. That shouldn’t surprise us - along with oxygen and water there is nothing more fundamental to our very existence. Common sense therefore suggests that a Good Food Bill, which aims to create a sustainable and inclusive food system, should be considered second to none in the Senedd’s policy priorities. But sadly, common sense is not common practice. Indeed, the reality is that food often languishes in the back seat of our politics when we desperately need to put it in the driving seat.
The consequences of this couldn’t be more serious, what seems like a good idea in one policy area can have dire consequences in another. The modern food system has become highly reliant on intensity and the concentration of production, with geographical specialization increasingly being the norm. In general, we source food from where it is (superficially) cheapest, but the impact of that system has been to generate enormous costs elsewhere for the environment, health and in the economic wellbeing of our communities.
It is only by acknowledging these realities and facing up to the long-term consequences of how we act now, that we can secure a better future – a future where we spend fewer resources dealing with the symptoms of a dysfunctional system and begin to reap long term benefits by dealing with the causes now.
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The challenges we face in Wales in relation to food are enormous, but the opportunities are equally massive if we find the will to take control of the levers available to us and be proactive in designing a food future that works for all. A future in which the ballooning bills for diet-related disease are slashed by investment now in school food and food education. A future in which the food served in schools, and the public plate in general, plays its part in catalysing a just transition to nature-friendly farming.
A transition that also secures financial stability for farmers and the rural economy through shorter supply chains and the retention of the added value that currently flows out of Wales . Where the need for productive agriculture does not take second place to the very necessary initiatives to plant trees, but where both are considered in a coherent plan for land use in Wales.
Peter Fox’s bill does a good job of setting out much of what is needed. Among other things it will:
- Place a duty on Welsh Ministers to produce an annual Food Strategy for Wales to tackle food poverty and malnutrition, to ensure the sustainable growth of the food sector to create jobs and attract investment, and to ensure that sustainable local food producers have access to adequate support and incentives.
- Establish a Wales Food Commission to co-produce and deliver a more integrated and resilient food system strategy in collaboration with stakeholders.
- Deliver a more sustainable, localised food system, requiring local authorities and other public services to develop community food plans to strengthen public procurement and create better infrastructure to link food producers and consumers.
- Require Welsh Ministers to report annually on levels of food production in Wales, and to develop a set of indicators to show the contribution of the food sector to ensuring food security.
- Aim to eliminate all forms of food waste and mandate supermarkets and other relevant shops to donate unwanted food to charities and food banks to help the most vulnerable in society.
- Strengthen statutory requirements on food labelling, such as country of origin labelling for food consumed at home and food consumed in foodservice/hospitality settings, as well as the sustainability of food produced in Wales.
There is a good deal of consensus around the urgent need for an overarching plan for food and farming in Wales - not just amongst politicians, but also in the food community from farmers and producers to activists and academics. The Welsh Government has signalled its intent to introduce a Community Food Strategy, though we have yet to learn what the scope and ambition of that will be. Plaid Cymru committed itself to a Food Commission for Wales in its manifesto for the last election.
Mr Fox’s bill provides a rare opportunity for all parties to come together to begin the urgent work to fashion a secure and sustainable future for food in Wales. Common sense, as well as reams of research evidence, tells us we must deliver. Future generations will find it hard to comprehend our failure to do so.
- Kevin Morgan is the dean of engagement at Cardiff University and Simon Wright, the founder of Wright’s Food Emporium, is a professor of practice at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.