Professor Lang's presentation made at CCRI's 'Growing the Future' event. "Food Brexit options: an inclusive trade and food strategy?"

1. 1
Food Brexit options:
an inclusive trade and food strategy?
Tim Lang
Paper to conference ‘Growing the Future:Prospecting for innovative approaches to food,
farming and the environment’, University of Gloucestershire, Oxstalls Campus,
Gloucester, March 29 2018

2. 2
Ecological public health
Rayner & Lang 2012

3. SUSTAINABLE
DIETS
QUALITY
Taste; Seasonality;
Cosmetic appeal; Fresh
(where appropriate);
Authenticity
SOCIAL
VALUES
Pleasure; Identity ; Animal
welfare; Equality & justice;
Trust; Choice; Skills
(citizenship)
ENVIRONMENT
Climate change; Energy use;
Water; Land use; Soil;
Biodiversity; Waste
reduction
HEALTH
Safety; Nutrition; Equal
access; Availability; Social
status/ affordability;
information & education
ECONOMY
Food security & resilience;
Affordability (price);
Efficiency; True
competition & fair returns;
Jobs & decent working
conditions; Fully
internalised costs
GOVERNANCE
Science & technology
evidence base;
Transparency;
Democratic
accountability; Ethical
values (fairness);
International aid &
development
Mason & Lang (2017)
Sustainable Diets,
Routledge, Chapter 9

4. Decision time
What sort of food system?
Who is for / against what?
Meeting multi-criteria demand
4

5. D1. Public requirements
• Cheap food: can it go cheaper?
• Sustainable food production: single vs multi-
criteria approaches
• Location and sourcing: do they matter?
• Eco-systems: a social value or costed value?
• Public health: diet as big driver of ill-health
• Migrant labour: reliance in 3.9m workforce
• Socially divided Britain: regions, class, etc.
5

6. D2. What vision for UK food?
Possible model What it means
Neo-imperialist Food from (former) colonies + green UK
Mercantilist Special food trade agreements
Atlanticist Special food trade deal with USA (‘roll over’)
Quasi-European Join EEA (Norway) or EFTA
Special deal One-off deal e.g. Canada ++, Switzerland,
Little Britain Rebuild home production
Devolved difference England, Wales, Scotland, NI do their thing
Bio-regional Sustainable localism
6

7. Each of those affects….
• Public expectations
• Future dynamics in the food system
• Prices
• Institutional structures
• Infrastructure / underpinning
• Investment and R&D
• Land use
• Labour
7

8. D3. Where UK food comes from?
Countries supplying UK food in 2016
GLOBAL
•UK – 49%
•EU - 30%
•Africa – 5%
•N America – 4%
•S America – 4%
•Asia – 4%
•Rest of Europe – 2%
•Australasia – 1%
Of the EU 30%:
•Netherlands - 5.9%
•Spain - 5.1%
•France - 3.3%
•Irish Republic - 3.2%
•Germany -2.6%
8

9. Imports & Exports, by commodity, £bn
source: (HMRC
data) in Defra
Food Statistics
Pocketbook
2017 Fig 3.4
https://www.gov.uk/g
overnment/publicatio
ns/food-statistics-
pocketbook-
2017/food-statistics-
in-your-pocket-2017-
global-and-uk-supply
9

10. D4. Fruit & Veg production up/down?
F&V as % of total supply (tonnage)
Defra (2017) Horticulture Statistics 2016.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/646536/hort-report-22sep17.pdf 10

11. D5. Food Trade Gap
• 2016 food, feed and drink Trade Gap = £22.5
billion (up 4.2% on 2015)
– Imports £42.6bn (6.3% up on 2015)
– Exports: £20.1bn
• Fruit & vegetables:
– £5.9bn imports
– £108m exports
• Whisky biggest export category
– £4.1bn
source: Defra 2017 Agriculture in the UK 2016, chapter 13 11

12. D6. Food Infrastructure
• 50 years of legal / standards integration
– Food Safety White Paper 2000
– Acquis Communautaire: 40% = food
• directives, regulations, decisions
• https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/policy/glossary/terms/acquis_en
• 35 Scientific et al agencies:
– EFSA, Medicines/Pharmaceutical Agencies,
veterinary
• Trade agreements
– EU 27 member states = 550m consumer market
– 50 external trade treaties 12

13. D7. Northern Ireland
13
• The Good Friday / Belfast Peace Agreement
• N Ireland / Republic border: 275 crossings (300
miles) cf East of EU = 137 crossings (3,725 miles)
• N Ireland food trade

14. D8. Food Culture: food as
health, pleasure, identity?
• NCDs UK’s biggest health problem
• Pizza = UK children’s favourite food
• Rise of processed food yet TV chef
shows
• European food culture or back to brown
food?
• What is BRITISH food?
14

15. D9. Migrant labour
• UK food manufacturing is UK’s biggest
manufacturing sector
– 116k (33%) EU migrant labour force
• Food Service industries
– varies by region, but big cities eg London ?50%
• 27k migrant workers f-t in English agriculture
• Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme
(SAWS) closed in 2013
– Horticulture – 75k EU migrants each summer
See: http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7987
15

16. D10. Will food feature in Brexit?
• Brexit = a disruption
• Sustainability clock is ticking
• Defra has been silent on FOOD
• Progressive food forces are divided
• Rebalance UK: E / S / W / NI
• Rebalance England: new Regionalism
16

17. P Mason& T Lang
(2017)
Sustainable Diets
Abingdon:
Routledge
Earthscan
17