In a new independent report, Public First argues that the current spike in food prices has shown that long-term thinking is required to ensure a sustainable, prosperous domestic agricultural industry, one that is more insulated from global shocks and the impact of climate change in order to restrain food prices increases in the medium and long-term.

The report sets out the scale of concern about this issue amongst the British public 94% of the public are concerned about food prices – more than worry about NHS wait times, and similar to concern about energy prices (96%). 64% of people say they have not seen the UK government address rising food prices. With prices set to remain high for months to come, this issue will, therefore, be of high public concern at the next election.

At the same time, people know that the agricultural sector matters. There is widespread support for UK farmers, and the public have a strong desire to support food produced in Britain. They want short-term help, and long-term support for British food. Yet, the two main UK political parties have said little about how they intend to secure the UK’s food system for the future.
In our extensive opinion research for this project we found there is political gain to be made from a policy programme that:

• Limits price rises. We make the UK less vulnerable to the global supply chain shocks which push up our food prices;
• Ensures more affordable, sustainably produced British food. We work with farmers and help them modernise so they can grow more British food, more sustainably;
• Brings more good jobs in the UK. We create more good quality jobs in the UK, by supporting new industries and safeguarding the future of the agricultural workforce;
• Decarbonises agriculture. We incentivise sustainable food production, help farmers to decarbonise their assets, and support innovation in new low carbon products.

This report has considered policy expertise and investigated public opinion to develop pragmatic policy solutions and made recommendations which would support the realisation of these goals:

• Provide money to farmers to invest in green technology to make their farms more productive and better for the environment by significantly scaling up the Farming Investment Fund to invest in sustainable productivity improvement
• Increase the amount of public funding for research and development to support the creation of new domestic industries and new technologies that will help to insulate British agriculture from future energy price shock
• Make sustainable production of food an explicit goal of support for farmers by making sustainable food production a ‘public good’, rewarding farmers financially for the amount of food they produce in the UK in a way that’s good for environment
• Establish a new Cabinet Office unit which brings together every area of government that impacts food policy with a strategic aim of supporting the development of a sustainable, prosperous food system.
• Increase the number of farming apprenticeships and increase access to continued professional development for farmers to futureproof the agricultural workforce

Read the full report here and find the polling tables here. For press enquiries contact thais.portilho@publicfirst.co.uk