Government’s “feeble” food strategy fails to tackle health challenges, say experts

The UK government’s long awaited food strategy is “feeble,” disconnected, and ducks most of the major challenges in tackling obesity and food poverty, say leading experts.

Ministers launched the strategy on 13 June, saying it would boost sustainability and healthier diets, support production by farmers, protect food supply against economic shocks, and create jobs.1

But leading food and health policy campaigners and analysts said the document consisted mainly of uncoordinated aspirations and pledges without detailed, accountable actions and primary legislation that could make a real difference to people’s health.

Tim Lang, emeritus professor of food policy at City University, London, and a former commissioner on the UK government’s Sustainable Development Commission (2006-11) which reviewed progress on food sustainability, told The BMJ, “It’s terrible. There are no commitments, no targets, and only tiny little bits of money. It’s classic Johnsonism: it ducks and …