Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, confirmed yesterday that work is underway to develop a food strategy.

Starting in the new year, Defra will begin to engage with food system actors to co-develop the strategy. Defra will work across a number of government departments and has the support of the PM.

Scroll to the bottom for our Policy Champions’ analysis of what was said.

What happened yesterday?

Around 750 people and organisations scrambled to join a short-notice call with the Defra Secretary, Steve Reed, about plans for a national food strategy. While we didn’t get many details, we did get a sense of the government’s intentions and general approach, and the tone was welcome.

What was said?

• Defra will lead the development of an ‘ambitious’ national food strategy. The strategy will be co-designed with the help of the wider agri-food sector, drawing on shared expertise and ‘collective commitments’, alongside ‘a new way of working with the sector’.
• Engagement with the agri-food sector/ actors will begin in the new year: The government will form a coalition with ‘food sector leaders, academics, charities and key thinkers to corral our collective ambition, influence, and effort’.
• This will be ‘backed by a clear vision and framework for change from government’.  
• Developing the strategy will involve ‘close collaboration’ across-government, including with the Department of Health and Social Care, and Department for Education. Steve Reed also mentioned the Department for Business and Trade, and said he had been talking to Secretaries of State across these three departments, as well as Keir Starmer, and that he had support from all. The strategy will also be tied to the government’s health ‘mission’. The tone was that the government recognised the need to join the dots across health, environment and economy, and that food was integral to improvements in  each of these areas.
• A new sector delivery board will ‘ensure a joined-up and systems-wide approach, with clear impactful outcomes’.
• The strategy will aim to ensure the UK’s food system can ‘feed the nation, realise its potential for economic growth, protect the planet, and nourish individuals’.  
• The strategy will consider the food system across the whole of the UK, and Defra will work closely with the Devolved Governments to ensure a coordinated approach. 
• Answering questions about building on existing work, such as Henry Dimbleby’s Food Strategy, Steve Reed said he wanted to avoid reinventing the wheel and instead build on existing knowledge.
• He also said the strategy would need to consider how food security was defined.

What does Defra want the food strategy to achieve?

• Provide healthier, more easily accessible food to tackle obesity and give children the best start in life and help adults live longer healthier lives
• Maintain food security by building resilience in the face of climate shocks and geopolitical changes and protecting the supply chain
• Drive investment, productivity and innovation to ensure that the food and drink sector can realise its potential for economic growth.
• Support the Farming Roadmap to reduce the impact of farming on nature and biodiversity and deliver a credible plan to decarbonise food and farming, while supporting the sector through that transition.

How can I get involved? 

Defra says; “We are very keen to continue to engage with the sector as we develop the strategy, so if you have further questions, you can use the email address foodteam@defra.gov.uk to contact the food strategy team directly.” This came from Tessa Jones & Toby Nation, Agri-Food Chain Directors

AFN Policy Champion analysis

“Steve Reed’s plans to develop a food strategy, and his action to reach out to the agri-food sector to help co-produce it, have largely been welcomed. However, Defra is being urged to move quickly and build on good work that has already been done, including Henry Dimbleby’s Food Strategy, and work by multiple other organisations and researchers. The Secretary of State said he was keen not to reinvent the wheel, which is a good sign.

“Of particular note is the intention to join up policy with the departments of Business, Health and Education, with the policy led by Defra, but linked to the government’s major health ‘mission’. The fact that Steve Reed also says he has the support of those departments’ Secretaries of State, as well as the PM himself, hopefully shows the level of commitment and attention food policy will now receive.

“We know that citizens and the sector are keen to see food policy that advances the health of people and planet, and for politicians to do away with their fear of nanny statism that has so often paralysed action.

“It was therefore good to hear Steve Reed’s comments that he was keen to join the dots across health, economy, security and environment, and in doing so he recognised how critical and far-reaching food is. The challenge now will be to co-produce a meaningful policy, while also moving with urgency.”

– Elta Smith, Ali Morpeth, Emily Norton (Policy Champs), and Jez Fredenburgh (Knowledge Exchange).  Read more about our Policy Champs.