Eat This Newsletter 108: Govern, please
An opportunity to change food for the better
I have no idea what Brexit will mean for food in the UK in the short-term. I do know what it could mean in the long term. But I doubt that the opportunity will be taken.
A friend of mine strongly believes that the European Union is a very bad idea. He and I discuss Britain’s leaving from time to time, and the discussion often goes roughly the same way. I say, what about the fresh food, like tomatoes and peppers. And he says, the UK can buy tomatoes and peppers much cheaper from North Africa than from Europe. And I say, yes, but what about the trucks having to come through Gibraltar and then across the Channel. And he says they can come by boat and by plane. And I just don’t know whether a tomato will survive the boat journey or whether it is worth flying a green pepper. So we move on to wine, and he says that rich remainers (and even richer leavers) will still be able to afford their fancy French wines, but ordinary folk will benefit from cheaper Argentinian etc. On Ireland, he tells me with glee how the Swiss keep an eye on all border traffic, and I wonder why I’ve heard no mention of that in the UK context. And so it goes, round and round.
He hasn’t convinced me to embrace Brexit, and I haven’t persuaded him that my worries about the UK’s food supply are, in fact, worth worrying about.
They are.
Fear not
A year ago, Brexit was still six months away and food writers were asking “will our cupboards be bare?”. Profiteers in the form of canny scaremongerers were offering packages of ready-to-eat meals at “special” prices, though I was very pleased to see that they had not kept up with their own “Brexit News” and were happily announcing that “Brexit has already happened”. My hope is that they lost a bundle.
“UK food and water supplies” is one of the 12 areas of risk that Operation Yellowhammer, the UK government’s preparedness squad, identified. The latest report acknowledges that “certain types of fresh food supply will decrease,” but adds that while there will not be “an overall shortage of food in the UK,” availability and choice will be reduced and prices will increase, “which could impact vulnerable groups”. By 31 October, the UK growing season will be over and in the run-up to Christmas, “the busiest time of the year for food retailers … [t]here is a risk that panic buying will cause or exacerbate food supply disruption”.
Long before, influential people were announcing What (And Why) I’m Stockpiling For Brexit. I just do not know enough to decide whether that is a good strategy or not, especially for the vulnerable groups who will see the greatest impact. I do, however, know one thing. Brexit could be an opportunity to remake the UK’s food system.
Govern, please
The way the world produces food is profoundly broken. Yes, food in the developed world is cheaper than ever, but at what cost? You can blame whomsoever you choose, but clearly the agricultural and environmental policies of various governments and supranational organisations bear most of the blame.
The latest big report from an international think-tank estimates that we collectively offer more than £1 million a minute in agricultural subsidies. And yet, according to the Guardian’s report this morning, a researcher at the Food and Land Use Consortium said:
“We couldn’t find any examples of governments using their fiscal instruments to directly support the expansion of supply of healthier and more nutritious food.”
You can’t really blame farmers, or food producers, or retailers, or even consumers for doing whatever makes most sense to them. Grow for subsidies? Sure. Formulate “foods” to maximise instant desirability rather than health? Why not? Put the most profitable stuff where it catches the eye and where kids can nag incessantly for it? Obvs, really. Spend less per empty calorie the more of them you buy, even though you know you have no self-restraint? You’d be stupid not to.
What though, if a country had a government that was willing to create a policy that made a priority of an integrated farm, food and environment policy, which actually had as a goal ensuring a nutritious and fully sustainable food system? Of course, it would never happen if you had to abide by rules that guarantee access to your markets of foods that don’t meet your standards and that are cheaper than those that do. In fact, could you even have such independent standards?
I don’t think so, which is why Brexit could be an opportunity. But then, would your standards allow you to close the door on products that don’t make it? The fuss about keeping American chlorinated chicken out of the EU, for example, is not about chlorination, as such. It is about the average chicken-raising enterprise in the US (and elsewhere), which needs chlorination to mask the threat its chicken poses to human health.
The UK needs a government intent on promoting a sustainable food and farming system that puts a premium on providing as much as possible locally, while still allowing Brits to enjoy avocados and Zizania. It needs a land policy that lets, indeed encourages, people who want to farm to become farmers. Road transport for those giant food lorries is ridiculously inexpensive. Property taxes in the centre of town penalise small retailers, and not just of food.
Afterwards
My friend Colin Tudge has written far more, far more lucidly, on this and related topics. Here’s something from shortly after the referendum.
In truth the only way ahead for farming and hence for the biosphere and the human race is to re-think agriculture from first principles, and all that goes with it: the ecology, the sociology, the morality, the economics, the governance. We cannot simply throw it to the wolves of inadequately educated technophiles and businesspeople. As a matter of urgency we need the Agrarian Renaissance and, since governments like ours which are still seen to be among the world’s leaders have in effect abdicated, morally and intellectually, we … have to take matters into our own hands.
I commend his blueprint for a post-Brexit food system in the UK (and not just the UK), but I also think there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of any of it happening. But then, I thought that about Brexit too.
I know I have an acute case of confirmation bias. So, please: tell me whether the food system is likely to remain just as broken after Brexit as it is before? For extra points, what is to be done?
Jeremy
p.s. The emailer had a bit of a glitch last week. I hope it didn’t affect any of you and that all will be well this week.