UK food policy – ‘Wouldn’t it be nice…’

At times it is hard not to despair, such is the incapability and incompetence in the political system across the UK – not just Whitehall. Would it not be wonderful if said political class would take a more supportive interest in the largest industry system across these Isles, care about the resilience of domestic food supplies in a demonstrably volatile and uncertain world, and recognise not just the economic potential but enabling resources it can unleash to help solve the problems faced by society. And yet what does the industry receive? (Insert expletives).

At some stage it must surely come to pass that common sense will prevail, and the potential of the UK food system will actually be enabled by government. While potentially chronically naive, we must live in hope.

We can all recall the importance of the food system during the pandemic, when millions of key workers went beyond the call of duty to keep Britain fed; and just look at the social behaviour when supplies of loo roll, never mind food, was perceived to be threatened.

More than half a decade on and the world feels more uncertain, more volatile and more vulnerable.”

The British food system – be that farmers, café operators, prison cooks, or bakery managers – is collectively the country’s largest user of land, its biggest single-system employer, and at times a polluter of watercourses and source of carbon, but it is also the single biggest system responsible for feeding the nation.

We can all recall the importance of the food system during the pandemic, when millions of key workers went beyond the call of duty to keep Britain fed; and just look at the social behaviour when supplies of loo roll, never mind food, was perceived to be threatened.

More than half a decade on and the world feels more uncertain, more volatile and more vulnerable. Capricious weather patterns, noting the reports of 2026 El Niño brewing, higher tariffs as deglobalisation takes hold, major wars plus ongoing concerns about biosecurity serve to demonstrate that domestic food security should be a UK national priority.

It is interesting to note that in the 2025 UK Strategic Defence Review, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) referred to food as part of the critical national infrastructure, while the domestic intelligence community in a report entitled ‘Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security’ raised what the Sustainable Food Trust labelled stark warnings about food security – a report that it is suggested Downing Street actually tried to block. While not seeking to scaremonger, there are sound reasons from a food security perspective to step back at a national policy level and think, ‘hmmm, should we be moving to greater self-sufficiency?’

Amid this sound strategic question, the UK food system – one of the biggest contributors to HMRC coffers, unlike say Amazon or Apple, which are domiciled elsewhere for tax reasons – receives very little appreciation, recognition or support from governments. Far from it: the SNP in Scotland thinks neo-Soviet price controls are a good idea, while me-too ideologues in Whitehall spoke to potential voluntary price cuts before rapidly backtracking – such ideas being anti-competitive and leading to administrative nightmares generating potentially material secondary impacts that ultimately reduce necessary investment and thus choice; brilliant, eh?

The domestic intelligence community in a report entitled ‘Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security’ raised what the Sustainable Food Trust labelled stark warnings about food security – a report that it is suggested Downing Street actually tried to block.”

Hopefully, talk of State price controls for one of the most advanced food systems in the world – where food accounts for c11 percent of household expenditure (it is 13-14 percent in the EU), it was 50 percent in 1900 and 40 percent in the 1940s – will represent a low point from which more sane conversations between the UK governments and the food system can take place. This should take the form of a more grown-up and progressive conversation where big policy questions can be tackled, like:

• Can and how will the UK become more self-sufficient in food?
• Is it possible for UK public institutions to be predominantly fed from British sources?
• Could greater domestic food self-sufficiency rest alongside a drive to improve the nation’s health with respect to lowering diet-related disease?
• How can an upward self-supply step-change be delivered, while also yielding world-class animal welfare, measurable increases in biodiversity, cleaner water and a structural improvement in soil fertility?
• What are the roles for the UK’s great scientific and data institutions in solving problems for the industry?
• What skills and human capital is required to make a major breakthrough on these fronts?
• Could a UK Food Infrastructure Fund (UKFIF) be an enabling force for supply side change, drawing upon the skills and resources of the City of London and The Treasury?
• Could a Minister of the Food System and a British Food Board (BFB) advance these collective aims by raising the calibre of thinking and execution – possibly elevated export support too?
• To what extent can a combined food and energy policy deliver a beneficial economic multiplier effect?

Dealing with such big questions cannot be undertaken with any benefit amid rancour – it requires mutual respect and maybe shared visions; but what is not to like about further evolving the British food system to become perhaps the most enlightened, data-driven, sustainable and valuable in world? By creating and sustaining the next generation of advanced food firms – which may actually be going back to the future in many respects – wealth can be built, job creation can mushroom, tax contributions can rise and so the virtuous cycle of private capital and public good emerges.

Wouldn’t it be nice…