Farming to the fore
A LANDMARK food summit intended to tackle issues such as food-price inflation, supply-chain issues, domestic investment and self-sufficiency in food production has received mixed reviews (Agromenes, page 75). The summit, titled Farm to Fork and hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at No 10, Downing Street, arose from a commitment made by Mr Sunak to the NFU last year and was designed to ‘convene the whole supply chain together’ to discuss the measures needed to ‘build resilience and transparency’ in the sector. Defra Secretary Thérèse Coffey was also in attendance, as were farmers, lobbyists, trade bodies and supermarket representatives.
After the meeting, the NFU was cautiously optimistic, with president Minette Batters noting ‘the number of cabinet ministers present shows the ambition for cross-departmental coordination to deliver measures to boost homegrown food production’. She also said that farmers and growers will be ‘relieved’ to see UK food security being taken seriously.
After the summit, an update was published by the Government that contained some new announcements, which include a £12.5 million investment into research on environmental sustainability and resilience, a boost to the number of seasonal workers available to horticulture and ‘cutting red tape’, as well as commitments on water and energy security. In advance of the summit, the Prime Minister also published a ‘letter to British Farmers’, in which he highlighted the importance of trade in boosting the agriculture sector and set out six principles ‘to ensure British farming is at the heart of British trade’.
The Prime Minister set out six principles “to ensure British farming is at the heart of British trade”
These are: putting agriculture up front; protecting sensitive sectors; prioritising new export opportunities; protecting UK food standards; upholding UK production standards; and
