Professor Tim Lang launched a scathing attack on the horticulture trade, branding it “marginal” and “dying” in an attempt to shake up an industry he said badly needs to seek allies.
The professor of food policy at London City University openly admitted that his speech was designed to inject some impetus in the industry to help “push it dramatically up the agenda”, as UK horticulture has been “weak” in presenting its case to the wider world, he said.
He told the National Horticultural Forum in London: “You have a great story to tell, and not just linked to carbon, but you have been weak in presenting it.
“We are dominated by assuming the consumer is right and following their trends to sell products, which is nonsense and is far too voluntary in the issue of getting people to become more sustainable.
“The notion of a sustainable diet will undoubtedly be the key in unlocking ethical eating and if it can be presented clearly, it can influence both policy and consumers.”
Lang told an audience of horticultural representatives in the fields of business and research, as well as a number of trade association chiefs, that they needed to be “smarter and harder” and “seek allies such as NGOs”.
He said: “The problem is too much of the discussion is hi-tech versus low-tech - Waitrose versus Tesco - but they want such different things and neither has enough space in the discussion so they are divided. You are never going to get anywhere with an industry divided.”
Lang said the industry needed to move forward by setting a new R&D agenda looking more than 10 years ahead, resisting the temptation that “boxing yourselves into the biotechnology is the answer” and capitalising on policy opportunities relating to healthy eating and sustainable development.
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