Celebrating those at the heart of feeding the nation

This week we’ve celebrated #BackBritishFarming Day, an opportunity to promote the values that define British food production and highlight the role poultry meat plays in both local communities and society at large. Between the content filling up my social media feed and the formation of the APPG for UK Food Security, supported by BPC, BEIC, NFU and NPA colleagues, it’s days like these that serve as a reminder that now is the time to develop a new context for British food to thrive.

Poultry makes up half the meat the nation eats every year so BPC member businesses have a unique connection to our food system. Representing 80% of UK poultry meat production, our members play a vital role in feeding people quality and affordable food and fostering communities, while reducing inputs to promote a liveable climate for all. Our purpose as food producers is clear.

#BackBritishFarming Day is a celebration of those who are at the heart of feeding the nation. It reminds us that supporting British food and farming means supporting the sustainability of our food system, supporting the standards that define British production. But there are no easy wins or small bills to be had. As the UK continues to face an array of challenges, the role of safe, affordable, and nutritious food (and the people who produce it) has never been more important. 

Where the challenges provide an opportunity, I think, is tackling the inequalities that define them – and days like #BackBritishFarming Day reinforce the leverage BPC members hold in this space, emphasising their critical role in ensuring our national food security, sustainability, and resilience in the face of adversity. It also highlights the importance of this new cross-party group for UK Food Security, functioning as an essential link between producers and parliamentarians.

My biggest hesitation publishing our “2024 and Beyond” report last December was whether we were positing massive, if not unanswerable, questions. Now, looking back, I think quite the opposite. We're about to enter a particularly transformative period in food and farming. If anything, the content I’ve seen this #BackBritishFarming Day has reinforced the questions in “2024 and Beyond” all the more. How do the challenges and obstacles define what we value in British food production? What do they mean for our sense of delivery going forward?

By no means can these questions be answered in a single column, but we can’t put them off forever. The longer we avoid asking ourselves these kinds of questions the more limits we are going to impose on our ability to create meaningful change; the kind of change that defines our responsibilities and contributions to a fairer, more equitable and sustainable food system.