Food Strategy chief wants fundamental change of the UK’s food system

“We have a system where the unexpected consequences of doing a good thing are people are getting sick from the food we eat, biodiversity has been impacted, there is too much nitrogen in our rivers, too much ammonia in our air, and we now realise the food system creates 30 per cent of our carbon,” he said.

“Those are problems we have to resolve.”

Though Mr Dimbleby was clear he did not want to be radical ‘for the sake of it’, he said the scale of change the system needs is ‘very large’.

At the moment, he envisages Government will need to use two or three ‘big policy levers’, such as paying for certain outcomes and regulating or banning as yet undefined things to bring about such a transformation.

Survive

Talks have been taking place with all the major parties to try to ensure the strategy can survive any future political storms, especially given the ‘high passions’ around certain issues under consideration.

A Citizens’ Assembly will be convened in the new year to give any proposed changes democratic consent.

Citizens Assemblies give members of the public, chosen to reflect the wider population, the time and opportunity to learn about a topic to arrive at workable recommendations.

It is not yet clear who will be speaking to the assembly, but Mr Dimbleby claimed ‘the most important thing’ would be who decides what gets said at it.

“These are quite fundamental things, and in order for the Government to act on a lot of them, they need consent, otherwise you will have the Gilet Jaunes,” he said.