The Prime Minister has defended the government’s new food strategy after it was criticised by its own adviser for not including a tax on sugar and salt.
Speaking at a vegetable farm in Cornwall for the launch of a major review of the UK’s food system, Boris Johnson said the food and drink industry was “voluntarily reducing the amount of sugar, the amount of salt very substantially”.
A report due to be published on Monday (June 13) is expected to recommend more investment in automated farming methods to improve productivity.
It will also set out a vision for 50% of public sector food spend to go on food produced locally or certified to higher standards, and plans for a new professional body for the farming and growing industry, to boost training and equip businesses with skills needed to work sustainably and profitably.
Mr Johnson was responding to reporters’ questions during a visit to Southern England Farms in Hayle in south west Cornwall, after food tsar Henry Dimbleby said the government had only taken on half of his proposals.
The co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain said while policy was moving in the “right direction”, he criticised the strategy for not taking on recommendations he had made to improve the nation's health,
Among these was a cut in meat consumption and production, as well as an effective tax on the use of salt and sugar in processed foods.
Food minister Victoria Prentis insisted earlier on Monday that such a levy would be a “blunt instrument” to tackle a “complex” problem.
The MP said “voluntary initiatives” could work, despite stark warnings including from Mr Dimbleby that Government intervention is needed to help reduce child obesity.
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Weighing in on the obesity debate during his farm visit, the Prime Minister said: “What we don’t want to do right now is start whacking new taxes on them that will just push up the cost of food.”
He added: “The best way to lose weight, believe me, is to eat less.”
Mr Johson said the new plans would allow more food to be grown and consumed in the UK, boost Britain’s farming industry and food security from future economic shocks.
Environment Secretary George Eustice has said the government did not want people to eat less meat, and dismissed Mr Dimbleby’s accusation there was an “ideological arm wrestle” between ministers who want more state intervention to encourage healthy eating and those who oppose it.
Mr Eustice told BBC Radio 4: “We are looking at this a different way which is, rather than lecturing the public on their diet and telling them they shouldn’t eat meat, what we should actually be doing is reducing methane emissions from livestock production, and there are some really interesting technologies coming into this space that significantly reduce methane emissions.”
Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union, said a comprehensive food strategy was “really needed”.
But she told Times Radio there was a labour “crisis” in the growing industry, meaning food was being ploughed back into land on farms across the country.
She said: “It’s a growing problem. I know glasshouses where tomatoes remain unpicked, we know there was a big crop of lettuces that was ploughed back in last week.
“Growers are extremely reluctant to put their name to this because it will massively compromise their business with their contractual relationship going forwards. So there is a real nervousness about speaking out on food waste on farms but it is happening at scale.”
She added: “We have food banks at full stretch, and yet we are wasting fantastic quality nutritious products on farms.”
During his visit to the Cornish farm Mr Johnson spoke to workers, drove a tractor, sorted broccoli in a packaging plant and was shown a modern vegetable planting machine.
The PA news agency reported that after asking where the workers came from, the Prime Minister was told many were from Lithuania and Ukraine, with more due to arrive from the war-torn country.
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