The inconvenient truth about food

Thursday, November 20, 2008
Posted in Organics | Tagged Organics

Food and farming will be in crisis unless governments take global action to create secure ‘food plans’, according to new research to be launched at the UK Soil Association’s conference in Bristol on 18 November 2008. [1] The report, An inconvenient Truth about Food, based on research by City University London states that the current UK food and farming system is ‘not fit for purpose to meet the challenges of climate change, costlier oil, or for providing a foundation for people’s health’. [2] Director of the Soil Association, Patrick Holden, is calling for a national campaign to develop a UK food plan, based on sustainable production rather than industrial models based on rapidly depleting and increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

Patrick Holden said,
“We need to evolve beyond intensive food production systems, which use ten calories of mainly fossil fuel energy to produce each single calorie of food. We have to cut greenhouse gas emissions from farming by 80%. This represents the greatest challenge that has confronted our food and farming systems since the Industrial Revolution.

“Action at every level - government, local communities and individuals - will be essential if the necessary changes are to be put in place. We have to act now to start cutting greenhouse gases. Diet-related ill-health is already causing misery to many and costing the UK billions of pounds. According to a UK Industry Task Force we could face serious price and supply problems with the fossil fuels our current farming systems rely on well before 2020.”

The Soil Association are proposing a six-point action-plan to secure sustainable and affordable food supplies of staple foods - sourced from the UK as much as possible.

Key points of the plan include:

Soils
Develop strategies to enhance soil fertility, improve water quality and tackle climate change through carbon sequestration. Improved management of cropping, grazing, and forest lands could offset vast quantities of the carbon released by fossil fuel combustion over the next 50 years.

Energy
Plan now to shift from dependence on fossil fuels to farm-based sources of renewable energy to power agriculture, food processing and transport. Renewable energy will be derived from a mix of sources, including wind, solar, biomass, methane, water and geothermic.

Sustainable Farming
Shift from fertiliser dependent monoculture to diverse mixed rotational farming, based on organic principles, using clover and grass leys to build fertility. This will result in major changes of output from British agriculture - less white meat, reduced cereal output, more vegetables, more livestock in the East of England, more arable in the West of England and a greater emphasis on mixed farms as the most sustainable model.

Food Processing and Distribution
The reversal of 20th century trends towards centralisation and globalisation of food systems through a shift to more local food economies. More localised food processing will boost local rural economies. More local abattoirs will improve animal welfare. Switching food distribution to rail and other more sustainable forms of transport will reduce our carbon ‘foodprint’ and reduce vulnerability to sudden interruptions of fossil fuel supplies.

Diet and Health
Link Britain’s 21st Century food and farming strategy to the public health agenda with the objective of improving diet and tackling obesity. Features will include encouraging a shift away from excessive meat consumption with higher consumption of vegetables and cereal products, better tasting foods of higher nutritional quality, increased mineral content and reduced pesticide residues.

Education
Change the national curriculum to ensure that schools teach children how to grow and cook food. Every school should have access to working allotments or farms. Toughen standards for school (and pre-school) meals so that all food is locally and sustainably sourced and meets high nutritional standards.

Soil Association report: An inconvenient truth about food - Neither secure nor resilient

Notes

[1] An Inconvenient Truth about Food will be launched at the Soil Association’s conference, ‘Transition: Food and Farming in 21st Century Britain’, held on 18-19 November at The Passenger Shed, Commonwealth Museum, Bristol.

Key note speakers at the conference include:

Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Monty Don, President of the Soil Association
Rob Hopkins, Founder of the Transition Network
Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association
Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University
Jeremy Leggett
Caroline Lucas MEP, Leader of the Green Party
Pete Smith, Professor of Plant and Soil Science, University of Aberdeen
Dr Vandana Shiva

For more info: http://www.soilassociation.org/conference

[2] The report can be downloaded here http://www.soilassociation.org/foodsecurity
We are grateful to Dr David Barling, Rosalind Sharpe and Professor Tim Lang of the Centre for Food Policy, City University London for producing the background research upon which much of this report is based. However, we have also accessed additional sources and as such, this report, its analysis and any errors are the responsibility of the Soil Association.

The full original report from City University, titled ‘Rethinking Britain’s Food Security’ is also available at this web address.

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