Planting Value In The Food System By Alex Lockwood

What will our food system of the future look like?

Hopefully one that is sustainable, secure, and fair for all.

The Vegan Society launched a major new piece of research in July looking at just what we need if we are to get to that system -

and yes, it is of course plant-based.

Coming in the same week as the National Food Strategy, which called for 30% more fruit and veg in our diets (on prescription of those who need them most!), and a 30% reduction in meat consumption, it’s heartening to see how many mainstream positions are adopting this direction of travel towards plant-based foods.

Our Vegan Society report— Planting Value in the Food System—goes further, and is fairer. A food system cannot be fair unless it is fair for everyone—including animals. With the National Food Strategy requiring a response from government by January 2022, this is the best opportunity in the last 75 years to get food done right.

Here in the UK, we need to increase two things within the system:

1) the value, and

2) the fairness, with which we produce food in this country. In fact, three things, because we

3) need to invest in our fruit and veg production. We grow a tiny proportion of the fresh food we eat, importing the rest.

As the author of that report, I needed to know what challenges and obstacles farmers face. I could only do that by speaking to all those involved. This approach is important, we take a multi-criteria approach to food and land use. So I sat round the table with people across food and farming, to understand the issues from their perspective and work towards a shared vision.

So, what’s in the report? There are three proposals for pieces of legislation. These are:

1) a new Food Sustainability Bill

2) a Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill

3) an End to Animal Slaughter Bill

The first two should be implemented in the next six years to bring UK food policy into alignment with legal commitments to tackle climate change and achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The third will follow as we shift onto this transition.

A Food Sustainability Bill is needed that goes beyond the Agriculture Act and Environment Bill. It will be backed by legally binding targets and new governance mechanisms to underpin social, cultural and planetary well-being.

And a Well-being of Future Generations Bill for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, will align the rest of the UK with Wales. Then together the four nations can frame decisions on environment, food, climate and health, and animals, in terms of future needs.

We call for reduction targets and a pathway to a plantbased system. This should include government-set targets for reducing consumption of animal products, placing us on a transition pathway to a plant-based food system.

And we propose a National Food Sustainability Council to provide oversight of government in a framework of “policy coherence” adopted by Defra and across government to ensure policymakers see that a plant-based food system can provide real public value.

I hope this report contributes a way to reimagine our story, reprogramme our food system, rewrite our policies, and change our relationship to animals and to each other.

Check out the full report here:

https://www.plantingvalueinfood.org/

About Alex:

Dr. Alex Lockwood is a writer and scholar working at the intersection of animals, activism and narrative theory. He was a founding member of Animal Rebellion, and is a Research Advisory Committee member for The Vegan Society. His 2016 memoir The Pig in Thin Air explored paths to connect climate change with the food we eat. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland and has published in Environmental Communication, Environmental Humanities, Animal Studies Journal, as well as the anthologies Vegan Geographies and The Vegan Studies Handbook.