Brexit could “diminish food security in the UK” and could result in “serious nutritional and political problems”, unless the Government acts “responsibly”, according to a study by academics at three universities.
Tim Lang of City University of London, Erik Millstone of University of Sussex and Terry Marsden of Cardiff University warn that the implications of Brexit for food are “potentially enormous”, in a report called “A Food Brexit: time to get real”.
The 86-page study provides what it calls a Brexit briefing, summarising 16 major issues on which Food Brexit has the potential to threaten UK food resilience and security, while providing insight on how politicians can put public interests first in Food Brexit.
It warns that “food has featured only marginally in public policy debates in the General Election”, while there has been “some slight discussion of Brexit’s impact on agriculture, mostly focused on farm subsidies”.
Among the major challenges that the paper outlines is the kind of vision and goals that any new post-EU food system will have, as new food legislation will be needed.
The report highlights the issue of food security, noting that “the UK’s home production has been steadily declining”, as the EU is currently providing 31% of the UK’s food, which the authors suggest cannot be overviewed without provisions in place.
Food labour is also among the issues discussed in the paper, which notes that “UK food manufacturing is our largest manufacturing sector, but one third of its workforce is migrant”.
The paper is urging the Government to give a policy commitment to a “modern, low-impact, health-oriented UK food system, and set out how that will be achieved with or without Food Brexit” and link it to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Paris Climate Change agreements.
It also recommends setting new clear targets for UK food security “which go beyond mere quantity of supply by addressing ecosystems and social systems resilience”, while creating a new National Commission on Food and Agricultural Policy.
In addition, it asks for a “clear and explicit commitment to address food matters in the Brexit negotiations”, including a “continued but reconstituted, co-operative set of arrangements with the EU food agencies with regard to regulatory synergies in food trade and standards”.
It adds that the Government will need to develop “an approach to food policy which is politically open and socially inclusive”, warning that “the British public has not been informed” about the implications of a Food Brexit.
The report reads: “Our main concern is that civil society, academics and external voices – whatever their specialisms – should unite around the call for the new Food Brexit Framework to locate food as a central (and cross-departmental) part of UK public policy in progressing and creating a more resilient, robust food system in the UK.”
You can read the full report here.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
