Her speech echoed the Soil Association’s new report calling for ‘a reimagining of politics, so it is fit to deliver the transformation that this critical moment demands’.
Lucas said: “Getting food politics right is the political challenge. The Climate Change Committee has played a critical role in driving action on global heating – we now need an equivalent statutory committee, reporting to parliament, to advise the Government of the day on what must be done to build the resilience of our food and agriculture system to the shocks to come.”
The Soil Association launched its new ‘The Time is Now’ report – its vision for the decade ahead, calling for a better approach to policymaking. The report calls for new alliances, new forms of citizen engagement, a new spirit of pragmatism and courage in political decision-making.
The charity is calling for:
- An emphasis on ‘preparedness’ in food systems, understanding that chronic destabilisation is now the norm and set to intensify
- A cross-Government approach to food policy that delivers transformative change across multiple agendas, including health, climate, nature and animal welfare
- A vision for farming with agroecology at its heart, and a UK-wide land use framework that aligns food production with nature recovery
- An organic action plan that sets targets for growing organic production and consumption, with action across the supply chain to make organic available to everyone
- A ‘just transition’ for farmers away from intensive livestock and into mixed, agroecological production, with immediate action to reign in the harmful industrial poultry industry