Q&A: Will England’s National Food Strategy help tackle climate change?

In this Q&A, Carbon Brief examines the report and discusses how its suggestions align– or do not align– with the UKs environment targets and decarbonisation goals.

The NFS is the conclusion of more than 2 years worth of meetings and dialogues with market leaders, academics, policymakers and the public.

The report, which is more than 150 pages long, sets out 14 recommendations for the UK government to consider, consisting of financial incentives, reporting and trade standards and targets for long-term change in the food system..

The government has actually devoted to producing a white paper and propositions for future laws in reaction within the next six months, although the early action from UK prime minister Boris Johnson has actually been “noncommittal” to a number of the NFS proposals, according to the Guardian.

Recently, part two of Englands National Food Strategy (NFS) was published, providing a broad introduction of the state of the “food system”– a comprehensive term that covers the production, processing, transportation and consumption of food– in England..

The first part of the technique, released in July 2020, supplied suggestions for the federal government to attend to food insecurity and appetite in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The newly released 2nd part has actually the stated goal of providing a “extensive prepare for changing the food system”..

What is the National Food Strategy?

Its aim was to offer a roadmap for transforming the food system from its present state to one that is healthier for the planet and the population..

The NFS has actually certainly brought these problems to the leading edge, Edward Davey, the global engagement director of the Food and Land Use Coalition, tells Carbon Brief. He describes:.

Davey includes that, in his view, “every nation in the world would benefit from doing something of this kind”.

Some have actually criticised the recommendation to tax wholesale sugar and salt as unreasonable or as disproportionately affecting lower-income households. Others state that the measures laid out in the report do not go far sufficient towards making the food system more sustainable.

The NFS was commissioned by the UK federal government in 2019 as the very first independent review of the governments food policy in almost three-quarters of a century.

The scope of the report covers England alone, it notes that the home countries “food systems are so securely linked as to be in places inextricable”. It continues that it hopes the devolved federal governments “might in turn discover some beneficial ideas” in the method.

This report by @food_strategy has some interesting and far reaching concepts that would indicate a big modification for the much better in our food system and make us all much healthier. I hope that these plans will be taken up by this government. https://t.co/gl5rZJCrhO— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) July 15, 2021.

” The international food system is the single greatest factor to biodiversity loss, deforestation, dry spell, freshwater pollution and the collapse of water wildlife. It is the second-biggest contributor to environment modification, after the energy market.”.

The response to last weeks release saw members of parliament, star chefs and even rockstars weighing in on its significance.

” [The report] brings everybody around the table for a discussion about what type of system do we have, what sort of system do we wish to bring, what are the compromises and could federal governments do things in a different way.”.

The report itself calls the food system “both a disaster and a wonder”. While the present food system can feeding the “greatest worldwide population in human history”, it states, this comes at a high environmental cost. The report notes:.

Why is the food method essential for taking on climate change?

The food system has actually seen considerably smaller sized decreases in sector-wide emissions considering that 2008 as compared to the economy as a whole: economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions have actually reduced by nearly one-third since 2008, however food-related emissions have actually reduced by just 13% over the very same time..

” Without attending to the emissions of the food system, it will not be possible to fulfill those environment change responsibilities [laid out by law] and to contribute to mitigating environment modification.”.

Research study recommends that the food system is responsible for about one-third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. And the numbers have to do with the very same for the UK, Dr Marco Springmann, a population health researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, informs Carbon Brief. (The NFS report puts that figure at 19%, however different research studies draw different limits around what counts as the food sector.).

Trying to develop a much healthier population while farming in a less damaging method needs partnership throughout disciplines, Davey informs Carbon Brief. He states:.

Other significant factors to the emissions include transportation, fertiliser and food production and product packaging..

Nearly half of all food-related emissions are because of farming, including rearing livestock. The methane produced by cows and other ruminants is “estimated to have triggered a third of overall international warming given that the industrial transformation”, the report notes.

Practically all of the gains made in the food sector have been due to cleaner energy and increased efficiency in the energy sector. Changes due to farming have actually been negligible– as seen by the large green bar in the chart below.

Under its dedications to the Paris Agreement, the UK has vowed to minimize emissions from 1990 levels by 68% by 2030. The government has actually likewise set a lawfully binding target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Springmann states:.

” Theres quite a great deal of siloed thinking of the food system. So, from the perspective of integrated national policymaking that delivers, its fantastic.”.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector as a percentage of the 2008 emissions in that sector. Source: The National Food Strategy, Part II.

What parts of the food technique could make the most significant effect on environment modification?

Davey calls the recommendations a “great starting point”. Nevertheless, he adds:.

A lot of the suggestions made in the report relate in some method to climate change or ecological sustainability. These suggestions consist of:.

” The question is how rapidly will those reforms actually resolve the environment challenge … I believe the jurys out. Is it not as ambitious as it should be, from the point of view of what the land sector needs to do to attain the UK nationwide targets? I dont know. Its definitely a step in the best direction, however theres most likely an argument that its not ambitious enough.”.

Ensuring financing for farming payments till at least 2029 at the present level of ₤ 2.4 bn in order to help in the shift to sustainable farming. The report likewise states that at least ₤ 500m of this must be “ring-fenced” for plans that encourage environment remediation and carbon sequestration, such as peatland remediation. Producing a “rural land use framework” that will encourage on the very best manner in which any provided piece of land need to be used– whether for nature, farming, bioenergy or something else. The proposed framework uses the “three compartment design”, which makes every effort for a balance between semi-natural land, low-yield farmland and high-yield farmland to meet the targets of both sustainability and food production.Investing ₤ 1bn in UK Research and Innovation and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), in addition to smaller centres to spur development to “produce a better food system”. The funds would be focused on innovating fruit and veggie production, methane suppressants and alternative proteins, among other areas. Lowering meat consumption by 30% over the next decade. The report stops brief of advising a tax on meat to attain this objective (as it advises for sugar and salt purchased wholesale). Instead, it specifies, the federal government needs to intend for “nudging consumers into changing their habits”. Introducing necessary reporting on a range of metrics for food companies employing more than 250 people. These metrics would include the tonnage of food waste generated.Creating a nationwide food system information program, which would permit companies and the federal government to examine their progress on the objectives set out in the report. The programme would include both the land-use information and the mandatory reporting data described above. Bringing these 2 kinds of data together, the report writes, will help “develop a clear, available and progressing image of the impact our diet plan has on nature, environment and public health”.

What are the limitations of the food strategy in dealing with environment change?

The report also “truly shied” far from taking a strong position on minimizing meat usage, Springmann states, with effects on both the environment and public health. He states:.

The food system “is extremely complex”, Gill states, “however I do not think thats any reason for not really highlighting some of those concerns right at the start”.

Gill likewise notes that the report, while thorough, does not totally think about the unintentional effects of its suggestions. A much higher proportion of fresh fruits and veggies is squandered than meat. The suggestions to eat less meat might increase the amount of food waste.

Limousin beef cattle in a barn feeding on hay, Selside UK. Credit: John Bentley/ Alamy Stock Photo.

” If you take the food system as a holistic thing, then you really require to address all sort of concerns. And if you want to attend to correctly the environmental concerns, plus the health concerns, you actually have to attend to the overconsumption of animal-sourced foods in our diets.”.

For example, the recommendation towards buying innovation lists alternative proteins as a key area in requirement of research study financing. Nevertheless, Springmann states, the alternative-protein industry is currently extremely well-developed. He tells Carbon Brief:.

The recommendations “seem to be practically sort of looking in reverse instead of looking forward”, Prof Maggie Gill of the University of Aberdeen, tells Carbon Brief. She includes:.

” Another thing that seems to be missing is that foresighting, wheres the world going to from other sectors … Theres going to be a change in farming … And its going to take years [for the recommendations in the report] to come to fulfillment by which time the world might have altered.”.

” There are currently lots of meat substitutes on the market and much more so when you consider natural meat substitutes like more beans, lentils and those kinds of things … Explaining more clearly that healthy and sustainable diet plan does not always need to consist of processed meat options would have been very important, however that was missed there and instead this sort of pro-business angle was taken.”.

The commissioning of the report– it was led by business owner and restaurateur Henry Dimbleby– implies the report itself “shows a bit of a manipulated focus” towards business-focused solutions, Springmann says.

How does the food technique address the completing interests of agricultural land use and land use for carbon sequestration?

” Implementation of any of those suggestions truly needs political will … The recommendations themselves might have been more progressive, but even the ones that are there do not appear to resonate extremely much with policymakers that are in power at the moment.”.

As an outcome, the report states, the food system is being “asked to perform an accomplishment of acrobatics” in supplying adequate land to produce the necessary food, but also to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions.

In order to deal with these contending interests, the report requires a national land-use technique to best designate land to nature, carbon sequestration and agriculture.

Nature-based options, such as peatland remediation and afforestation, are anticipated to play a major function in many nations and companies net-zero targets, but a number of these require the repurposing of agricultural land.

The report keeps in mind that with the right rewards for farmers to repurpose their land, the strategy might be mutually helpful towards farmers and the environment. It mentions:.

The report itself calls the food system “both a catastrophe and a wonder”. The proposed framework uses the “3 compartment design”, which strives for a balance in between semi-natural land, low-yield farmland and high-yield farmland to fulfill the targets of both sustainability and food production.Investing ₤ 1bn in UK Research and Innovation and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as well as smaller sized centres to stimulate development to “produce a much better food system”. These metrics would consist of the tonnage of food waste generated.Creating a national food system information program, which would permit organizations and the federal government to assess their development on the goals laid out in the report. The right-hand side of the chart, using the exact same scale, reveals how much land is used abroad to produce food for the UK. The teal bars suggest the direct emissions associated with the supply chain of each product, while the yellow bars show the carbon “chance expense”, suggesting the quantity of CO2 that could be sequestered in the land used to produce that food.

The federal government has committed to producing a reaction to the strategy, consisting of propositions for new legislation, within the next six months..

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” The type of land that could provide the best ecological benefits is frequently not very agriculturally efficient. The most efficient 33% of English land produces around 60% of the total output of the land, while the bottom 33% only produces 15%.”.

Total carbon expenses (kgCO2e) per kilogram of various food. The teal bars indicate the direct emissions related to the supply chain of each item, while the yellow bars show the carbon “chance expense”, suggesting the quantity of CO2 that could be sequestered in the land utilized to produce that food. Source: The National Food Strategy, Part II.

The chart listed below programs that when the carbon sequestration “chance cost” (yellow bars) is included to the emissions of different food groups (teal bars), the carbon expense of lamb and goat meat in fact exceeds that of beef, due to the large amounts of land needed to graze those animals and their hunger for tree saplings.

” Globally, the biggest prospective carbon benefit of eating less meat would not really be the reduction in emissions, but the chance to repurpose land so that it sequesters carbon.”.

The chart below demonstrate how all land in the UK is designated (left) and just how much overseas land is used to produce food for the UK (right).

UK prime minister Boris Johnson has already shown his hesitancy to support some of the policy recommendations laid out in the report. This does not bode well for the reports adoption, warns Springmann:.

Establishing the strategy will include gathering data on agricultural efficiency, priority nature locations for preservation (such as existing peatlands) and highly polluted locations. It will also construct on work such as Englands trees and peat action plans– released earlier this year– in order to identify the land best suited for nature repair..

The UKs Climate Change Committee (CCC) has actually estimated that simply over 20% of agricultural land should be rewilded or transformed to bioenergy or other, non-agricultural crops in order to achieve net-zero by 2050. The NFS report states:.

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Decreasing meat usage would likewise assist minimize the pressure on land resources, the report finds. About 70% of the landmass of the UK is devoted to agriculture, with feed and pastures for beef and lamb using up the large bulk of that land.

UK acreage divided up by purpose. About 70% is committed to agriculture, primarily livestock and livestock feed and pasture. The right-hand side of the chart, utilizing the exact same scale, shows how much land is utilized abroad to produce food for the UK. About half of the total land usage happens overseas. The combined acreage for raising beef and lamb for UK consumption is larger than the UK itself. Source: The National Food Strategy, Part II.