DEFRA 25 Year Food Plan

Martin Collison was one of over 80 representatives of industry and stakeholder groups who attended the DEFRA launch of the development process for a 25 Year Great British Food and Farming Plan on 16th July.  We welcome the government commitment to develop a long term plan for the industry and urge everyone in the industry to get involved.

Our top five priorities for the 25 year plan are that we believe the plan needs to:

  1. Ensure commercial investment in food production is supported so that the UK industry can prosper.  This needs a particular focus on supporting investments which promote growth in productivity in areas including water resources, automation and modern building technology;
  2. Promote the development and uptake of agri-food technology so that the UK retains its leadership in the adoption of innovation to support both productivity growth and a reduced environmental burden from the food chain;
  3. Promote the development of higher value added per employee through training and the adoption of automation.  As the UK’s largest manufacturing sector it is vital that we dispel the perception that the food chain is a poorly paid sector with no career prospects.  This is essential to enable us to attract new high quality entrants to work in the industry as the technicians, managers and entrepreneurs of the future;
  4. Recognise the need to develop new supply chain partnerships which respond to changing consumer demands in the UK and globally.  For the UK food chain to prosper it is essential that businesses right along the chain work together to deliver the products which consumers want, both in the UK and in the 99% of the global food market which is overseas;
  5. Develop new sustainability criteria to inform policy making which recognises that if we put the UK industry at a competitive disadvantage through regulations which don’t apply elsewhere, we will export our food industry.  Exporting our food supply is not only bad for the UK economy, it also often leads to a net increase in the global environmental footprint of the sector and is morally indefensible when there are still close to 1 billion people globally who lack access to sufficient food.

For further details of DEFRA’s initiative and to express an interest in attending further meetings to help develop the plan please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/industry-kick-starts-work-on-great-british-food-and-farming-plan