Fears Sunak food security summit will not lead to meaningful action

Fears are growing that the long-awaited food security summit hosted by 10 Downing Street will be nothing but a talking shop.

The event, which is due to be held on 16 May, will feature speeches and breakout sessions on key themes, but is not expected to be a policy reset moment.  

See also: Ditching of English horticulture strategy ‘beggars belief’

It follows a commitment prime minister Rishi Sunak made to personally chair a UK-wide food security summit while campaigning for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

The NFU, which led calls for the event, has welcomed the news that it will take place and called for it to be held annually.

But president Minette Batters also warned the summit needed to deliver “actions, not just words” after a tumultuous 18 months for the food industry.

“A start would be a serious commitment from government to maintaining Britain’s food production self-sufficiency level at 60%, with a statutory duty to report on domestic food production and use powers under the Agriculture Act to make supply chains fairer,” she said.

Mrs Batters has previously expressed concern that food production is a poor relation to the environment in legislative terms, with many legally binding environmental targets, but none for food.

Lack purpose

Vicki Hird, head of sustainable farming at Sustain, also feared the May event may lack purpose.  

“It is extraordinary that just weeks out from this summit, the government has binned its own planned horticulture strategy – one of the very few solid pledges contained in its food strategy plan,” she said.

“If the only result of this supposed ‘summit’ is a photo of Rishi Sunak meeting the head of the NFU, then it will be a clear sign that the government has no plan.”

Ms Hird also questioned the invitation list for the event, noting that attendees would be mostly industry representatives.

“The government cannot leave the nation’s food security in the hands of the supermarket chains alone,” she said.

“It needs a plan that includes maintaining the independent Groceries Code Adjudicator, new, legally binding supply chain codes of practice, more transparent labelling and ideally an action plan to increase the market share of shorter and farmer-focused supply chains.”