This report from the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics argues that while UK supermarkets are making progress in their responsible antibiotic use policies, they should expand them to cover all animal products that they sell. While all the leading supermarkets have antibiotic policies in place already, they usually only cover own-brand animal products.

Plating Up Progress, a project run by the UK charity The Food Foundation, has published its 2021 report, which analyses how various UK food sectors are performing on health, environmental and social inclusion issues. 

This book - which has been revised and updated since its first publication in 2016 - explores how large firms exert control over the food system, how initiatives such as microbreweries and seed saving networks are opposing these power dynamics, and how Big Data and automation might shape the food system.

This paper explores the links between market power - i.e. the influence that a firm or group of firms has over customers or suppliers - and the resilience of food supply chains to shocks, focusing on the UK as an example. It finds that market power can produce both positive and negative effects on resilience. 

Ian Wright of the UK’s Food & Drink Federation, which represents food manufacturers, has warned that the just-in-time system on which the UK’s supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants have relied is “no longer working” and may not work again. In his view, the UK could face “permanent shortages” in the sense of not all products being available all the time.

A pilot of environmental labelling on selected food products is launching in the UK in September 2021. The aim of the pilot is to test consumer responses ahead of a roll-out across the UK and European Union in 2022. The scheme is run by UK non-profit Foundation Earth and supported by supermarkets and food brands including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Co-op Food, Nestlé and Tyson Foods. 

Industrial-scale supply chains in the fresh produce sector are forcing farmers to adopt environmentally damaging practices, argues this Food Research Collaboration blog post by Rebecca Laughton of the UK’s Landworkers’ Alliance. Laughton suggests that local or decentralised supply chains are a better option for farmers, for example vegetable box schemes that connect agroecological farms to consumers.

This paper uses interviews with senior representatives of the UK food retail sector to explore how retailers view sustainable diets and the extent to which “less and better” meat and dairy plays a part in these understandings. It finds that retailers have diverse understandings of sustainable diets, and that these seldom include “less and better” meat and dairy. While retailers are implementing strategies to improve the sustainability of their meat and dairy supply chains, none of the retailers studied are actively trying to reduce the amount of meat they sell. 

This briefing paper from UK food waste NGO Feedback argues that supermarkets’ strong influence on the food system means they must act urgently if the UK is to significantly reduce meat and dairy consumption - and associated greenhouse gas emissions - over the next decade.