In the UK more than seven million adults cannot afford enough nutritious food, including fruit and veg. Britain’s food insecure is more than the population of Ireland or Denmark. And in recent years, literally millions of people have joined these ranks. It doesn’t help that food costs, fuelled by inflation, have risen by 32% since 2021, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Food insecurity is closely linked to poverty, particularly in deprived areas of the UK. This is where food deserts, as well as poor physical health, including obesity are more prevalent. 40% of children attending obesity clinics now live in the country’s most deprived neighbourhoods. In these areas, only 22% of adults meet their ‘5 a day’ fruit and veg target. It’s a stark picture – if not a perfect storm – of food poverty-exacerbating health inequalities.
There are now calls for intervention from Westminster especially since many of the key indicators aren’t going down. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has recently intervened, with over £2 billion to try and improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities in deprived areas – it’s a shame this isn’t focused on improving access to healthier food.
Hopes are now set on the government’s new and upcoming National Food Strategy, and what it can deliver. There’s certainly pressure on improving access and affordability to more nourishing food, particularly fruit and veg, for those on the lowest incomes.
“The overall narrative from Defra (the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) is dramatically different right now. What they are saying is that this food strategy should be about health at its heart. They are talking much more about food inequality than they ever have before,” says Anna Taylor, the executive director of the Food Foundation.
Poor food masks poor people
It was James Rebanks, Cumbrian farmer and writer who said earlier this year that we rely on cheap food to mask the prevalence of poverty in Britain. Not just cheap food, but ultra-processed food (UPFs). In fact UPFs make up 57% of people’s diet in the UK, and up to 80% when it comes to lower-income households.
“We know that in less affluent areas there are more outlets selling ultra-processed foods. A cultural shift is required to make healthy foods the easy go-to option across peoples’ life course – from primary school education to end-of-life care, but it will take time to turn the tanker,” says Professor Pat Hoddinott, chair in primary care at the University of Stirling.
“There isn’t a magic bullet. It’s a societal problem and a whole societal approach is required. Addressing health inequalities for those less advantaged is a priority in my opinion.”
Ministers may unduly fear nanny statism, which has a constraining effect on government action and interfering in peoples’ lives. However, the most recent poll commissioned by the Health Foundation shows that 62% of the British public really do support a tax on companies that produce unhealthy food. The majority also support some of the revenue used from such a tax to fund fresh fruit and vegetables for low income families.
“We must redesign the food system to put health first, and we certainly need population measures like encouraging companies to put healthier, affordable products on our supermarket shelves,” states Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance.
She adds: “Councils need to make high streets healthier by using the planning tools they have available. And the national government needs to step up and empower them to do so, particularly by protecting them from legal threats by multinational corporations. Government must also step in and make the healthy choice, the easy choice for everyone.”
Radical solutions needed to stem the tide
Solutions do exist, for instance, NESTA, the UK social innovation agency, has suggested that we need a business rate relief of 75% for new or expanding businesses that sell fresh fruit and vegetables in deprived areas, where there are fewer supermarkets.
When a basket of healthy food is more than double that of processed products, the poor finances of delivering fresh produce also requires scrutiny. It is why the Alexandra Rose Charity is calling on the upcoming National Food Strategy to pilot and scale up financial incentive projects that will change this situation.
The charity already issues Rose Vouchers, which involves social prescribing of fruit and veg. These can only be redeemed at local greengrocers including market stalls, thus supporting the local economy, food hubs and supply chains for healthy produce.
“The burden of food related health inequalities predominantly rests on the shoulders of the poor. We can either continue to rely on the supermarket sector to solve this problem, or we have to look at innovative ways of stimulating a different form of retail. Why should you pay business rates on opening a new greengrocer? You’re doing a public service. There’s a real role for planning here,” explains Jonathan Pauling, the chief executive of the Alexandra Rose Charity.
The issue is that fresh produce with a short shelf life has higher fixed costs associated with its production and distribution. Processed food with a long shelf life does not, it can therefore be sold at close to marginal cost; such a price distortion can be as much as 40%, according to research by the University of Warwick.
“There is something wrong with the market… the effect of that is that the prices are too high, and consumption too low. What is worse: the effect is stronger when demand is low. And demand happens to be low where people are poor. So this market failure not only makes us all unhealthier, but it increases health inequality as well,” states Professor Thijs van Rens from the university’s Department of Economics.
This study calls on a government subsidy on fruit and veg by as much as 25% to boost consumption and make diets healthier. Researchers estimate it could cost the government £2.5 billion a year. Ironically this is a similar price tag to Wes Streeting’s health inequality funding.
Time for a national food fund
There are other proposals, aside from government money for local food hubs, or boosting the remit of food banks to deliver healthier food in deprived areas – the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission has proposed a so-called “beetroot bond.”
This is a universal community food bond where every UK citizen gets a monthly dividend. Money is loaded onto a card and can only be spent on fresh, healthy, locally produced food. This bond could be funded through taxes on unhealthy food products.
France and Belgium have already proposed something similar. They have looked at a social security system for food where everyone gets a monthly food card with 100 euros. Like healthcare, this could be financed through contributions from each citizen and would be proportional to peoples’ income. In Bulgaria, the parliament has even backed the creation of a state-owned chain of grocery stores to combat the rising cost of food.
Advocacy groups in European countries also talk of a national fund for food. Maybe in the UK, the national wealth fund could be a force for good, investing in healthy food infrastructure. Something radical needs to happen if Britain is to turn the tide of unhealthy eating, obesity and food poverty.
A new National Food Strategy cannot come soon enough.
Maybe we also need to provide people with ideas on how to prepare fresh food, ways of cooking it that don’t cost too much –
too often it’s less expensive to pop ready meals in the microwave than to cook from fresh. Particularly when you don’t have the kitchen, or maybe requisite equipment (like knives, cooker, pans, etc.)
But yes, Serious Thinking on the part of Those in Charge, uninfluenced by Big Business, is definitely called for. & Joined-Up thinking at that