Why do we need this conversation now?
The scientific evidence for the climate, nature and health crises facing the UK is clear. Yet the role that food and food production plays is often overlooked.
Diagnoses of diabetes have doubled over the past 15 years, and there are currently almost 4.1 million people in the UK who have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Around 90% have type 2, of which key risk factors are obesity and high blood pressure. Diabetes UK forecasts that this number could rise to 5.5 million (or 1 in 10 adults) by 2030 if current trends continue and warned of a “public health emergency” (BMJ, 2021)
Poor health is the now the biggest threat to UK GDP: Diabetes is estimated to cost the NHS over £1.5m per HOUR (Diabetes UK, 2019)
The UK food industry is worth £151 billion and the global food industry £8 trillion (Statista, 2023; Statista, 2023)
The average farmer earns less than £20,000 a year (Defra, 2023)
In January, 9.3 million adults (17.7% of households) were so poor they couldn’t afford enough to eat (Food Foundation, 2023)
In January, 3.2 million adults (6.1% of households) reported not eating for a whole day because they couldn't afford or access food (Food Foundation, 2023)
Despite recent food price rises, we have one of the cheapest baskets of food of all rich economies (Our World in Data, 2021)