NFU says government must take up the recommendations of NPC report
The NFU has urged the government to act on the recommendations of the National Preparedness Commission (NPC) following a stark warning that the UK’s food security is in a precarious state.
The NPC is an independent group of experts in national crises planning, and its new report calls for urgent action to make food systems more resilient in order to effectively safeguard the nation’s food supply in the face of increasing global shocks and pressures.
Among its key recommendations, the NPC says the government should legislate for a comprehensive UK food policy by introducing a Food Security and Resilience Act to ensure a sustainable and resilient food system.
It advocates for reassessing food as critical national infrastructure by requiring Defra to treat food security as a core component of national infrastructure planning.
And it calls for the creation of a national council for food security – essentially the establishment of an advisory body to provide evidence-based, consistent advice on food resilience.
Responding to the report’s findings, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “This report could not be clearer – food security is absolutely vital to our nation’s resilience, but our current food system is not where it needs to be to withstand future crises.
“We have seen our fair share of crises in recent years, from the Covid pandemic to the devastating war in Ukraine, and it was only a couple of years ago when a combination of high production costs here and bad harvests abroad meant the rationing of fresh produce in supermarkets. Governments can have short memories, but our ability to feed ourselves should always be a priority.
“Yet as we speak, food-producing businesses are taking a battering. Global conflicts continue to keep the cost of inputs such as energy and fertiliser high, while climate change and relentless wet weather has wreaked havoc on harvests. Meanwhile, domestic policy has exacerbated cashflow issues through crippling cuts to direct payments, delays to environmental schemes and this government’s brutal Budget which puts the future of many family farms at risk – all of which has a direct impact on homegrown food production.
“This report lays down very clear policy directions for the government to take to improve the UK’s food resilience, and it’s important to note that these are the recommendations of experts in security, defence and crises management. If the government means what it repeatedly says – that food security is critical to national security – then it will take the commission’s warning extremely seriously and follow its expert advice.”
