DAUK has signed an open letter to the Government calling for health and the environment to be placed at the heart of the UK’s food strategy.
The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has joined healthcare professionals and environmental experts in raising concerns about the make up of the National Food Strategy Advisory Board.
The letter says the board is ‘heavily weighted’ with representatives from food and agribusiness industries.
It says the board ‘lacks sufficient voices from public health, nutrition, climate, environment science, and resource management communities’.
UK Food Strategy
The letter has been sent to Daniel Zeichner, MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
It asks that ‘immediate steps’ are taken to ‘ensure that health and environmental considerations are placed at the heart of the UK’s National Food Strategy’.
Read the letter in full below.
Dear Mr Daniel Zeichner, MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Subject: Concerns Regarding Representation on the National Food Strategy Advisory Board
As healthcare professionals and environmental experts committed to the well-being of the public and the sustainability of our planet, we feel compelled to express our deep concern regarding the recent announcement of the new National Food Strategy Advisory Board.
While we acknowledge the importance of involving a range of stakeholders in shaping the UK’s food policy, it is profoundly troubling to see that the composition of the board is heavily weighted with representatives from the food and agribusiness industries, while lacking sufficient voices from public health, nutrition, climate and environmental science and resource management communities.
Of the panel’s 11 independent members (i.e. excluding the minister and officials), eight are from the food industry. Just one farmer is included – an intensive pig farmer -, and one expert in nutrition (Prof Susan Jebb). Among the food industry figures are Tim Smith, chairman of Cranswick, a company whose controversial plans for a factory farm in Norfolk housing 14,000 pigs and 700,000 chickens are expected to be rejected by the local council. More than 12,000 objections and a 43,000-signature petition have been submitted in opposition to the plan.
The decisions made by this board will have far-reaching consequences—not only for the food system itself but for the health of the nation and the future of our environment. Diet-related diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, continue to place an enormous burden on our healthcare system and economy. At the same time, the food system is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, with significant implications for planetary health and future generations.
A National Food Strategy must reflect these realities. Without strong, independent expertise there is a significant risk that the strategy will prioritise short-term industry interests over long-term public health and environmental sustainability, negatively impacting food security and resilience and continuing to widen the inequity in access and affordability of healthy, nutritious food.
We urge DEFRA to:
- Reconsider the current makeup of the National Food Strategy Advisory Board.
- Ensure balanced representation by including independent public health experts, dietitians, healthcare professionals, environmental scientists, farmers and climate policy specialists.
- Commit to transparency in how board members are selected and how decisions are made.
As healthcare professionals and environmental experts, we stand ready to contribute constructively to this process. We respectfully ask that you take immediate steps to address this imbalance and ensure that health and environmental considerations are placed at the heart of the UK’s National Food Strategy.
Yours sincerely,
UK Health Alliance on Climate Change,
Greener Practice,
Doctors Association UK (DAUK),
Plant-Based Health Professionals UK,
Medact,
Parents for Future,
The Climate Psychology Alliance,
British Society of Haematology,
British Society of Lifestyle Medicine,
XR Psychologists,
Health for Extinction Rebellion,
Scientists for Extinction Rebellion,
Extinction Rebellion Educators
Feedback Global,
Psychiatry Declares,
The Climate and Health Scorecard Initiative,
Pharmacy Declares.
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