Food 2030 strategy is not empty rhetoric - Benn

Mr Benn faced tough questioning from cross-party MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee who said the strategy to secure a sustainable source of food over the next 20 years seemed ‘long on rhetoric, but short on detail’.

Michael Jack, Efra committee chairman, said: “A strategy should define what needs to happen across all sectors, including the role of all individual players within the food chain. But this strategy is thin on these details.”

Mr Benn disagreed, however, and said Food 2030 was ‘vitally important’ and part of a ‘range of measures’ the Government had undertaken to provide more sustainable British food.

“Food 2030 is not the start. We have real measures already in place and Food 2030 is a joined-up strategy across Government departments to continue.

“There are challenges for everyone involved in the food system, from production right through to managing food waste and this strategy helps to tackle those,” he said.

He listed the Campaign for Farmed Environment, the pig industry task force, the fruit and vegetable task force and £50 million of increased investment into agricultural research as recent examples of where Defra had already taken action to increase sustainable domestic production.

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