National Food Strategy: sugar tax, food education, sustainable farming, fake meat….
Great to see the National Food Strategy launched today. Did you know that this is the first one since the 2nd World War! And probably why we have problems like:
– 20% of NHS spend is on food related disease
– On average farmers on get 9p in every £1 spent on food in the supermarket
– Many children think that milk comes from supermarkets not cows
– For every £1 we spend on food cost £2 when you add subsidies and environmental damage
Lots of good recommendations are in the report including;
– sugar and salt tax to reduce obesity and heart disease
– sustainable farming to reduce emissions, pollution and soil degradation,
– food eduction to improve health
– food data to decrease waste and increase efficiency
– Dynamic Local Food procurement to allow government contracts to be awarded to small local producers instead of big corporates importing cheap produce.
fresh healthy food
We are a little annoyed that it has taken this long for successive governments to react to our very unsustainable food industry. BigBarn exists to make changes to the food industry and the government must act decisively to avoid following the USA where 40% of food is wasted and the food industry is effectively bankrupting the health industry.
Borris has already rejected one of the prime recommendations for a tax on sugar and salty foods as it is seen as a tax on the poor. What a shame, especially when the country needs the money to make the other short term changes.
Perhaps he will just increase borrowings to make the much needed changes and hope that NHS cost of food related disease pay for the debt?
Whatever happens please use our Local Food Map and sign up for local Alerts to buy fresher, better local food and encourage more and diverse local food production. Please use our MarketPlace and KIS Cookery videos to cooke delicious healthy meals or even add your recipe video and be discovered as the next famous chef. And please tell your friends.