Business
A Good Food Bill
Over 100 retailers, businesses, investors, NGOs and academics call for new ‘Good Food Bill’ as failing food system threatens national security and public health.
25 February 2026
Proposed changes to planning policy for England could make the country more vulnerable to supply chain disruption and global instability, according to a leading academic.
In an open letter revealed in The Grocer and published on Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming’s website, Professor Paul Behrens said plans – which could make it easier to expand industrial animal production – place the UK at risk of supply disruption as well as increased pollution and economic harm.
Professor Behrens, a British Academy Global Professor who has over 20 years’ experience in environmental science, warned that it was ‘dangerous to assume that import-dependent production systems will feed us reliably in the future’.
He said: ‘Food security is not simply about producing more calories or more commodities in the short term, it is about the long-term ability of a country to have access to healthy food, through diverse systems that can withstand climate shocks, market volatility and geopolitical disruption’.
In January, a government security report warned that wholesale changes in the food grown and eaten in the UK is necessary to avoid increased hunger, conflict and military escalation.
Factors that make the UK particularly at risk include that the country is ‘unable to be food self-sufficient at present, based on current diets and prices’.
More specifically, ‘the UK does not have enough land to feed both people and livestock…the UK is heavily reliant on imports for fresh fruit, vegetables and sugar. Animal farming at current levels is unsustainable without imports – soy from South America makes up 18% of produced animal feed.’
Professor Behrens said: ‘We already produce more meat and dairy in the UK than is required for a healthy diet. Overconsumption of red and processed meat is a major driver of diet-related disease, contributing to millions of premature deaths globally and costs the NHS billions each year. A food-secure Britain is one that can reliably produce healthy food, not one that oversupplies products we should be reducing in our diets while remaining heavily dependent on imports of fruit, vegetables, pulses and feed’.
He also warns of potential job losses from increased consolidation and automation, saying ‘The UK has already lost around 14,000 jobs as intensive systems have displaced smaller and mixed farms. In contrast, smaller-scale, agroecological and mixed farming systems typically support more jobs per hectare, stronger local supply chains, and more diverse rural economies.’
The letter was welcomed by Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming; ‘Our security experts are clear’, said Vicky Gerrard, research and campaign officer at Sustain. ‘Expanding the kind of farming that is polluting and reliant on imports will make the UK more vulnerable. The changes Professor Paul Behrens and Sustain propose are essential, and will mean more and better jobs in farming, boosting production of healthy, sustainable food and improving domestic self-sufficiency.’
The letter urges the government to refocus planning reform on supporting diverse, resilient food system, including horticulture, local processing and distribution hubs, farm shops and local producer markets.
Professor Behrens is also calling for councils to have the power and clarity to refuse socially and environmentally harmful agriculture developments.
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