In this report the Food Ethics Council asked experts to look at the UK’s position on a number of issues in the Food Sustainability Index (created by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition Foundation) and to state how, in their view, the country could do better.

Areas in which the UK performed well are:

  • Quality of R&D and innovation
  • Quality of animal welfare regulation
  • Policies to address food losses,
  • Initiatives to recycle water for agricultural use
  • The degree of property rights protection
  • Prevalence of undernourishment
  • Relatively low rates of micronutrient deficiency (vitamin A)

Areas in which they were outperformed by other countries are:

  • Childhood obesity (the UK ranks 20th out of 25 in terms of prevalence of overweight in
    2-18 year olds.)
  • Participation of youth in farming (the UK comes bottom of the table, 25th out of 25)
  • Serious issues around biodiversity loss driven by the UK population’s eating habits
  • Lack of diversity in the UK’s food system in terms of food and farming business types and sizes

To read more and to download the report, see this webpage. 

TABLE
PUBLISHED
13 Jul 2017
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