A new report from the Centre for Food Policy at City University, London has identified the fruit and vegetable sector in the UK as “at risk” in terms of food security and sustainable production.
Report author and professor of food policy Tim Lang said specific studies of some sectors are needed. He said: “The fruit and vegetable sectors are prime candidates. Consumption of fruit and vegetables is lamentably low… as are measures of home production. In some cases, these are declining and, for some indigenous vegetables, production is declining even while imports are increasing.”
The professor is an outspoken critic of the UK’s reliance on imported fresh produce, but in his paper ‘Towards a National Sustainable Food Security Policy’ - partially funded by the Esmée Fairburn Foundation - he does not advocate total reliance on UK production.
“No one is saying we should produce only or all our own food, but at the same time it is completely stupid that we are being encouraged to eat more fruit and vegetables and by so doing we are increasing our carbon footprint,” he said. “Why do we have an enormous carbon load on our imports when we could produce more of our fruit? Only 10 per cent of our fruit is grown in this country. And while we can’t produce mangoes and papaya, do we really need to import apples and pears when we have hundreds of indigenous varieties in the National Fruit Collection?”
Lang found in his study that UK government urgently needs a better definition of food security built around sustainability and an audit of national food supply. He is also calling for a renewed focus on labour and skills in the fresh produce and wider food sector. “The drop in the UK farm labour force needs to be reviewed imaginatively,” he said. “If the government wishes to cap migration, attention needs to be given to alternative labour sources. How might seasonal work better be factored into labour markets?”
Nigel Jenney, ceo of the Fresh Produce Consortium, agreed with some of the calls made by Lang. He said: “All sectors of the fresh produce industry need to work together to ensure that the industry is sustainable. The global supply of fresh produce is becoming increasingly challenging and it’s important for the UK to remain in a competitive position. With most UK consumers only eating 2.5 servings of fruit and veg a day, there is a great opportunity for the fresh produce industry to help consumers increase their consumption of 5 A DAY.
“The consumer perception that fresh produce is expensive can be related to the amount of produce wasted in the home. It’s important for the industry to find solutions to the problem of food waste and we would like to hear from companies who want to get involved with initiatives such as those managed by WRAP.”
Lang has also been pointing out that the terminology used on the issue of food security and sustainability can be confusing. He said: “We propose that the term ‘food capacities’ could be useful to place the three key pillars of sustainability at the centre of the UK’s food security thinking. This report has pointed to a merger of sustainability and food security policy goals. This new ‘sustainable food security’ discourse needs to build sustainability issues into its core. Sufficiency of supply is not the whole challenge. We outline three complementary food capacities, which an integrated UK policy should address. These are sustainable production capacity, environmental capacity and social capacity.”
Lang is hoping through his report that the way government addresses food capacities will change. “We face huge changes in how we deal with food production,” he said. “We are going to have to revolutionise the way we use the countryside.”
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