Major food retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Waitrose, and the Co-op have united with charities like Barnardo’s, Amnesty International UK, and WWF-UK to urge Prime Minister Andy Burnham to treat food security as a critical national priority. In an open letter, the coalition warns that the next ‘food shock’ is inevitable and that the UK’s food system is increasingly fragile.
Call for a Good Food Bill
The letter specifically calls for the urgent introduction of a Good Food Bill, which would establish a legally binding framework to strengthen national food and nutrition security, improve public health, and enhance the resilience of the food system. The signatories argue that food policy must be placed on a statutory long-term footing for the first time, with binding targets to reduce childhood obesity, increase fruit and vegetable consumption, boost domestic production, and cut household food insecurity.
Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts said: ‘Recent weeks have shown just how much pressure our food system is under. We need a more resilient food system that attracts investment, backs British farmers and helps keep affordable, nutritious food on tables across the nation. Food and farming should be at the heart of government policy, helping to build a stronger and more resilient future.’
Impact on Households and Health
The letter highlights that the cost of inaction is already falling on the most vulnerable. Food insecurity currently affects 15% of households with children, and economic pressures are pushing a healthy diet further out of reach for many, with the NHS ultimately picking up the bill. According to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), UK food prices are on track to be 50% higher by November compared to levels at the start of the cost-of-living crisis in mid-2021. Campaigners warn that struggling families often turn to cheaper, less healthy food and reduce fruit and vegetable intake to cope with rising costs.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, said: ‘The UK food system is dangerously exposed to shocks far beyond our borders. Over the last few years, we have seen this play out through rising food prices and increasing diet and health inequalities, with the price gap between healthy and less healthy food at the widest it’s been for over a decade. At the same time farmers are struggling to make ends meet. What we need now is a Good Food Bill that sets out a long-term framework for building resilience in the UK food system — one that holds successive governments to account and protects businesses, citizens and farmers alike.’
Economic and Environmental Pressures
The letter notes that British production of fruit and vegetables has fallen 16% since 2015, and the UK now imports 78% of its supply. International conflict has pushed fertiliser costs up by around 40% since last year, while more frequent extreme weather events — highlighted by this summer’s wildfires across Europe — are making harvests vulnerable. Earlier this year, the Government’s own National Security Assessment concluded that global biodiversity loss poses a direct threat to the UK’s food supply.
Danone vice president and general secretary for North Europe Richard Hall added: ‘Poor diet, especially amongst children, is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK today. Addressing it will require Government, industry and civil society to work together on practical, evidence-based solutions. The Good Food Bill provides an important framework to improve public health while giving businesses the long-term certainty they need to invest and help deliver that change.’
The coalition stresses that food must stop being an afterthought for government, and that mechanisms are needed to put food high on the priority list of every part of government, both national and local, so that any decisions impacting health, farming, planning, and trade secure better access to healthy and sustainable food for everyone.
