A high-level commission has released that the true cost of cheap, unhealthy food is one of a spiralling public health crisis and of environmental destruction.
They have stated that the UK's food and farming system must be radically transformed to become sustainable within 10 years. The commission's report has concluded that farmers must be enabled to shift from intensive farming, into more organic and wildfire friendly production - this means raising livestock on the grass and growing more nuts and pulses. It believes a National Nature Service should be created to be able to give young people opportunities to work in the countryside and help tackle the climate crisis by planting trees or restoring peatlands.
To quote: “Our own health and the health of the land are inextricably intertwined [but] in the last 70 years, this relationship has been broken. Time is now running out. The actions that we take in the next 10 years are critical: to recover and regenerate nature and to restore health and well being to both people and planet." The report was produced by leaders from farming, supermarket and food supply businesses, along with health and environment groups, along with conversations with thousands of rural inhabitants. A new non-profit bank is recommended to be set up so finance can be provided to farmers investing in new practices.
The commission has criticised decades of government policies that were aimed at making food cheaper, which only helped to fuel rising obesity and other health problems. Pritchard has said the UK had the third cheapest basket of food in the developed world - coupled with the highest food poverty in Europe in terms of people being able to afford a healthy diet. This is having a severe negative effect (Type-2 Diabetes costs the UK £27bn a year).
Further, they have said that the UK's agriculture was responsible for more than 10% of the UK's climate heating gases and is the biggest destroyer of wildlife.
The commission has adapted for the newly published scientific diet that is both nutritious and environmentally sustainable - this calls for more nuts and pulses in diets, so these and more vegetables should be grown in the UK (crops like lentils, quinoa, beans, peas and walnuts).
The government must put the countryside - and communities living there - at the centre of their green economy. This report garnered a positive response, backed up by Labour and Liberal Democrats, along with Micheal Gove and the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas. Schools, hospitals and prisons are encouraged to buy more sustainable food.
