Future of Food - A few ideas for DEFRA ministers to come

I think all can agree that there is plenty of land to produce abundant food for our population, probably we need more fruit and veg and less arable, pigs and poultry, mixed farming and a lot more labour and a lot less fossil fuel. It is biologically possible. In terms of distribution I don't see the problem with retailing in cities and towns without centralised distribution and the current unsustainable centralised system. Apparently a huge amount of the carbon involved in food production is people driving to the supermarket. A more effective use of fossil fuels would be smaller multiple outlets where people do not need to drive, or of course delivery.

The current corporate statist centralised system, with a handful of major "monopoly" retailers (local and national) is a long way from true conservative principles, or the principles of freedom and free trade outlined by people like Ben Franklin and Adam Smith and is certainly unsustainable from an environment point of view. A free and fair market, and a market that works for the good of people, leaves the land better for the next generation is the responsibility of government.

The negative externalities of the existing system are huge...... Pretty et al. (2000), for example, estimated the total external environmental costs of agriculture in the UK was £2.3 billion in 1996. The cost in terms of water pollution of nitrate fertiliser on which our agriculture now depends is huge - if applied to the industry by a nitrate tax it could be as large as total farm profits. The balance sheet over the past 20 years if you take in the cost of BSE, Foot and Mouth etc are huge sums coming from the public purse. Then of course there are the single farm payment costs. ..

At the moment with the total profits of UK agriculture less than £2billion a year for the past 10 years the current systems is unsustainable financially as much as it clearly is environmentally and socially ( see farmer suicide rate data). Therefore the industry is not and cannot pay its way.To say its broken and mad is a record that's been playing and been obvious to rational observers since Sir Richard Body wrote about it in the early 1980's. Policy and common sense have rarely been acquainted since 1947.

But its the supermarkets that are the issue. Yes people in towns and cities will want to buy food at retail outlets that is convenient - btw 50% of consumption is restaurants and catering - but I think the brave thing to do would be to break up the monopoly buying power of the supermarkets into many small local players to get a true free and fair market.

Clearly therefore the current financial and economics are unsustainable, therefore even without social and environmental good, an agri-ecological model of food and farming is the logical place to start. With an even, and "public" good playing field it would be the only game in town.

The answers are all there, its just a matter of incentives and regulation being used to create a sustainable food system and restore our "green and pleasant" land.