Manifesto for food t
Areport from the Wales Centre for Public Policy published last month forecasts tough times ahead for Welsh farming. It recommends, among other things, investment in longer-term partnerships between government, food retailers and others to grow business networks across Wales.
Meanwhile, in other circles, there is concern that the food industry is suffering from a skills shortage (and an image problem) and that it needs to do more to tackle public health problems such as obesity and diabetes.
Elsewhere again, there are social concerns. Increasing demand for food banks has led to the formation by the Welsh Government of a Food Poverty Network. Children are growing up in a world where food is perceived as something that comes from the supermarket shelf, and there is an epidemic of loneliness, with people of all ages eating alone – and not by choice.
It seems that the crisis facing farming is part of a much bigger picture of social disconnection from where our food comes from, where competing points of view struggle for air time in the rush to promote simple solutions. The pressures of Brexit only serve to intensify the discord.
But if the threat to farming subsidies and export markets provides a painful stimulus to action, it also gives us permission to think more deeply than before and question received truths.
Discussions about food readily reveal ideological splits – the current debate about meat-eating being just one of them – but food by its very nature also brings people together.
While we may have very different views on what constitutes sustainable food production and makes for a nutritious diet, we can nevertheless agree on some shared values. We surely all want to see a Wales where everyone has enough to eat, food is of high quality and we are fair in our dealings with each other.
Fortunately, we have some new structures to support a fresh approach to food.
One is the Well-Being of Future Generations Act, which requires public bodies to act in a more collaborative way with business and civil society, and thus gives NGOs a new opportunity to step up and be heard.
Another is the Assembly’s Rethinking Food in Wales consultation (closed, but still in progress).
There are also many encouraging initiatives that use food to cross sectors and silos.
The Nature Friendly Farming Network honours the unity of food production and care for the environment.
Food Cardiff brings together the public sector, academia and community groups to tackle problems such as school holiday hunger.
The UK campaign Peas Please includes supermarkets, farmers, caterers and others in a bid to increase vegetable production and consumption.
There is a bigger question here. Could it be that the future of food and farming is not simply a challenge, to be overcome by new partnerships, but also a means to creating a more connected society and thus tackling many of our social ills?
Food creates a human connection which is ultimately closer to most people’s hearts than money. We want a thriving economy – but it should be in support of human happiness, not the other way