The first review Gordon Brown commissioned on becoming Prime Minister was a Cabinet Office Strategy Unit analysis of food issues. The initial report published in January 2008 concluded that: "existing patterns of food production are not fit for a low-carbon, more resource-constrained future", and "existing patterns of food consumption will result in our society being loaded with a heavy burden of obesity and diet-related ill health."

On 17 November, the Soil Association published 'An inconvenient truth about food', a report on Britain's food security. This report was based on 'Rethinking Britain's Food Security' - a research report for the Soil Association, written by David Barling, Rosalind Sharpe and Tim Lang of City University London.

'An inconvenient truth about food' summarises:

• UK food self-sufficiency has declined over the past decade and we have become more reliant on imported food.
• Government faith in global markets is undermined by recent events revealing their volatility and unreliability.
• The vulnerability of both the UK and EU food and farming systems to the new fundamentals of Climate Change and scarcer, costlier oil is underplayed in current policy.
• There is little awareness of the lack of resilience within UK based food and farming especially in terms of sufficient, skilled labour and the supporting regional infrastructure that a healthier diet and 'a low-carbon, more resource constrained future' necessitates.
• There is no overall, future-proofed 'Food Plan for Britain'.

Our Manifesto for Action

• A Food Plan for Britain – This summary review of the UK's food security, self-sufficiency and resilience confirms the need for a new 'Food Plan for Britain', which takes fully into account the new fundamentals – i.e. to provide a healthier diet while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80%, which combined with longer-term scarcer and costlier oil requires a radical transformation of farming methods and reconstruction of more regionalised food processing and distribution networks.
  
  Such a Plan based on a thorough analysis of the limiting factors and capacities we have touched on here, would enable strategic judgements to be made as to how much, of what type of food we need to grow here in the UK.

• Supporting low-carbon farming – Government must provide incentives for encouraging farming practices and soil-management that minimise carbon emissions and maximise carbon storage in agricultural soils. These should become a requirement of Good Agricultural and Environmental Practice under the Single Farm Payment scheme.

• Linking farming & health Policies – Bring health and farming policy objectives closer together, especially when non-intervention will result in avoidable premature deaths, rising obesity and other negative health effects and public costs of a poor diet

• Rebuilding regional food & farming communities – Working through the Food for Life Partnership, the Soil Association is recreating the diverse, regional food economies capable of responding to any future food emergency. By sourcing local, seasonal, organic food Food for Life schools are providing secure markets for farmers and encouraging mixed-farming that raises a greater variety of crops and livestock.
  
  Cities and Towns across the UK should follow the lead of London's Food Czar, Rosie Boycott who has launched an ambitious project to turn 2,012 derelict pieces of land into green, food growing spaces by 2012 and set-up a network of 'food hubs' across the Capital.

• Empowering & engaging individuals – With the largest share of our individual carbonfootprint (30%) coming from our food, consumers should be able to choose their food through the introduction of simple 'carbon-labelling'.
  
  The Soil Association's Community Supported Agriculture scheme is enabling communities to relearn the skills to provide a proportion of their personal food security.

The Head of the UN's Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, and the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Supachai Panitchpakdi, state in the report's executive summary, "The evidence presented in this study supports the argument that organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional production systems, and that it is more likely to be sustainable in the long-term".

» Read 'An inconvenient truth about food' [PDF, 283 KB]
» Read 'Rethinking Britain's Food Security' [PDF, 505 KB]

More food security news:

15/09/08:
The Soil Association give its response to the Defra discussion paper 'Ensuring the UK's food security in a changing world'
» Read our response [PDF, 63 KB]

18/07/08:
Soil Association director, Patrick Holden responds to the Defra discussion paper
» Read the press release

02/07/08:
Soil Association director, Patrick Holden comments on the No 10 Strategy Unit review on key food and farming issues
» Read Patrick's comments