The government’s new ‘Good Food Cycle’ has been broadly welcomed as a positive step in shaping the UK’s food strategy, but ministers must follow through with clear, coordinated and practical policy to ensure it delivers real-world outcomes.
Unveiled this week, the Good Food Cycle sets out ten priority outcomes designed to bring about a “generational change” in the country’s relationship with food.
It aims to build more resilient food supply chains and was developed in collaboration with government departments, the Food Strategy Advisory Board, charities, businesses, and a Citizen Advisory Council.
Among the framework’s goals are creating a food environment that encourages healthy, sustainable choices; improving access to affordable food; and ensuring the sector is positioned to grow through investment in innovation, productivity and more transparent supply chains.
Other outcomes include attracting skilled talent to the industry across all regions, ensuring food production is environmentally sustainable with high animal welfare standards, supporting sustainable trade and expanding exports, and boosting domestic production for a more secure food supply.
The strategy also promises improved preparedness for supply chain disruptions, greater connection between people and local food systems, and wider recognition and celebration of UK food culture.
While the NFU acknowledged the ambition and intent behind the strategy, it stressed that meaningful progress will depend on well-developed policy initiatives across government.
In particular, the union praised the emphasis on innovation, supply chain fairness, trade expansion, and resilience to shocks.
However, it warned that progress would stall without more detailed plans for implementation, adding that much of the strategy’s success would depend on existing frameworks such as the Land Use Framework and the 25-Year Farming Roadmap.
Following the release of the strategy, the NFU is calling for food production to be given equal prominence alongside climate and environmental priorities.
Critically, it flagged the strategy’s failure to recognise farming as a business that must be economically viable in order to meet environmental and societal goals.
Responding, NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “The food system is complex... I welcome the positive things within the strategy around investment in productivity and resilience to risk and shock.”
However, he added: “There is a lack of joined-up thinking, as evidenced in this food strategy, that farms are commercial businesses and to succeed they must be profitable.
"This poses a real risk to British farming’s ability to deliver on food, the environment and economic growth.”
He also voiced concern about the current state of the sector: “A key issue for the sector is that farm business confidence is at an all-time low.
"While a long-term strategy is important, the development of policy behind it has to move at pace to provide much-needed certainty in the short-term and restore farmer confidence.”
Mr Bradshaw concluded by urging government to recognise the full economic and strategic value of British farming.
“We need everyone in government to recognise that a resilient food system is not just an ambition but a necessity, and that a thriving, profitable farming industry is critical to delivering this.”