Publications c
Our UK Food Economy: The case for improving the UK labour government’s approach to long term food strategy within and between several of governments five missions
What was the motivation of the Rochdale Pioneers, who codified the values and principles on which the co-operative movement has based since 1844? As Dame Pauline Green, a former President of the International Co-operative Alliance reminds us, “We know it today as food security” in what is 2025 International Year of Co-operation.
There is a growing and widespread recognition that our food system is not working – for people’s health, for people on low incomes, for farmers, for the wider economy. The problem, and many of the solutions, have been identified and discussed at length but we have lacked the political will to take the necessary steps to effectively address one of the greatest long-term health challenges this country faces https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-obesity-government-strategy/tackling-obesity-empowering-adults-and-children-to-live-healthier-lives (2020)
In October 2024, the House of Lords food diet and obesity committee concluded poor quality diets were the primary factor contributing to an obesity crisis https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/a-plan-to-fix-our-broken-food-system-house-of-lords-food-diet-and-obesity-committee-report/ The government’s response in January 2025 to this was ‘Recipe for health: a plan to fix our broken food system’ report. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-house-of-lords-food-and-health-report/government-response-to-the-house-of-lords-food-diet-and-obesity-committees-report-recipe-for-health-a-plan-to-fix-our-broken-food-system
“These statistics are not the result of people not knowing what to eat – they are driven by the ubiquitous nature of unhealthy foods across our everyday settings” See Prof. Vogel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0tKHW3QY30
The impacts of our broken food system is felt across many areas of Government and has a major impact on several of Labour’s Five Missions. Most notably, this included the impact of obesity on health, the long-term sustainability of the NHS and inequalities in healthy life expectancy. However, there are also major impacts on educational outcomes and children’s prospects in life and on economic growth – with obesity one of the most important factors dragging down productivity and increasing health-related economic inactivity.
It is therefore reasonable for the Co-operative Party to have a dedicated process to exploring policy development in this area, as it is critical to many of Labour’s main objectives and cuts across many areas. The NHS 10 Year Plan is due imminently and will allow us to understand the Government’s current ambitions for fixing the health-harms of food.
If as a Co-operative Party are to contribute, how can we prepare at a very early stage for a cross departmental focus upon food across the economy and society, and avoid a policy development process that is currently siloed?
These are examples of how we should examine the cross-cutting role of food across several different policy areas. For example, the combined cost of current rates of obesity and overweight to the UK economy is £97.9 billion per year. £19.2 billion of this is paid by the NHS and £15.1 billion is paid in productivity losses. https://www.frontier-economics.com/uk/en/news-and-insights/news/news-article-i20358-the-rising-cost-of-obesity-in-the-uk/
To examine it is recommended that representatives from several policy areas to consider how food intersects with their sphere of interest? The Government is rightly working on a cross-government Food Strategy with involvement from DEFRA, DHSC, DCMS, DSIT, DBIS and others. The Co-operative Party should have an equivalent process to work across siloed policy areas, which should involve devolved administrations, combined authorities and other local governments in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
