The Green Food Project is a bold and ambitious initiative that is looking at the challenge of how we can both increase food production and enhance the environment in England, and how we might reconcile any tensions that this raises. The Government made the commitment to carry out the project in the Natural Environment White Paper, published in June 2011.
Recognising that we all have a role to play in addressing this challenge, the project, chaired by Jim Paice MP, has been set up and brings together the farming and food industry, environmental and consumer bodies and Government. These organisations will work in partnership to examine some of the challenging food security related policy issues that have been difficult to resolve to date, identifying the wins-wins and the difficult tradeoffs that need to be considered now and in the future.
The project will need to get to grips with a range of key issues that will be integral to how we produce our food and manage our natural resources going forward – such as how we manage competing pressures on land use and on natural resources, how we should embrace new technology, the implications of changing consumer behaviour and the potential to innovate.
The project has begun by identifying some initial ‘test cases’ to open up the debate about the challenges of the project, and project members will be exploring specifically the dairy industry, wheat and bread production, production of packaged meals such as a curry dish, and issues affecting certain specific regions, including the Lake District, Norfolk and the South West of England.
The project steering group has committed to publishing conclusions from this work by June 2012. The group will be asking for your input to the project in an online consultation and discussion in the Spring.
Background:
The Foresight Report on the Future of Food and Farming examined the approach that needs to be taken to ensure that a rise in global population can be fed sustainably. At a domestic scale, there is a need to consider how the UK can make a contribution to global food security and environmental improvement.
The Green Food Project has been initiated in response to the Foresight report and to a commitment that has been made in the Natural Environment White Paper, published in June 2011:
We will bring together government, industry and environmental partners to reconcile how we will achieve our goals of improving the environment and increasing food production. We will publish our conclusions within the next 12 months.’ (NEWP pg 24, paragraph 2.46)
Through this project, Government and organisations involved in the project are aiming to help deliver a more strategic framework for agri-food policy going forward.
No comments have been made.