UK Agricultural Policy Post-Brexit Editor: Will Melling Writers: Bence Borbely, Trevor Chow, Tom Nott, Yang Zuo
8. Public Health According to current proposals, public health benefits are not considered among the “public goods” subsidised by the Environmental Land Management scheme. 239 There are ‘knock-on’ public health benefits contained in other public goods currently considered by the ELMS, for instance see the ‘Air Quality’ section of this paper. Nevertheless, neglecting public health in its own right might prove to be a missed opportunity. The agricultural sector and public health are interrelated on multiple points, most saliently on dietary issues. The upcoming section sets out a model for incorporating people’s dietary needs into the ELM subsidy scheme by encouraging the production of affordable and easily available fruits and vegetables (F&V) to the UK population. Realising this goal necessitates considerable, yet realistically attainable structural reconfiguration in the UK crop production sector. The paper considers the proposed changes in crop production priorities a long-needed step forward with growing urgency, and the implementation of the ELM provides a unique chance to initiate major steps towards a 21 st century British agriculture.
8.1 Insufficient F&V intake and poor nutrition According to recommendations of the National Health Service’s Eatwell Guide, a healthy diet should include 5 portions of a variety of fruit or vegetable every day. They can be fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced.240 The findings of NHS surveys reveal that the UK population lags far behind the advised proportions. “In 2018, only 28 per cent of adults were eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day – and the average (mean) was 3.7 portions per day. Fewer men than women meet the five-a-day guideline, and young people aged 16 to 24 are also less likely than other adults to get their five-a-day. In 2018, 18% of children aged 5 to 15 ate five standard portions of fruit and vegetables per day.” 241 Such figures are even more disheartening in the light of long-term tendencies, which show a slight decline of vegetable consumption from 2006 in all examined age groups. The consequences of poor British diets are self-evident: 63 per cent of adults in England were overweight or obese. In the 2017 OECD Obesity report, the UK ranked as the 6 th most obese economically developed country with a 27% adult obesity rate, more than double of that in Italy, Norway or the Netherlands.242 Compared to eating less than one portion of fruit and vegetables, the risk of death by any cause is reduced by 14% by eating one to three portions, 29% for three to five portions, 36% for five to seven portions and 42% for seven or more. Each daily portion of
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Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, The Environmental Land Management scheme: public money for public goods [October 2020 ] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-environmental-landmanagement-scheme-an-overview/the-environmental-land-management-scheme-public-money-for-publicgoods 240 National Health Service, ‘The Eatwell Guide’ <https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/> accessed 13 January 2021 241 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ‘Obesity Update’ [2017] http://healthsurvey.hscic.gov.uk/data-visualisation/data-visualisation/explore-the-trends/fruit-vegetables.aspx 242 IBID
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