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Just and Sustainable? Examining the Rhetoric and Potential Realities of UK Food Security

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Abstract

The dominant discourse in 20th century UK food and agricultural policies of a liberal, free trade agenda was modified at the turn of the 21st to embrace ecological sustainability and “food security.” The latter term has a long international history; the relationship between issues of technical production and equality of distributional access are also much debated. The paper examines shifts in UK policy discourse in the context of international research, policy, and initiatives to promote food security, and highlights the implications for social justice in and through the food system.

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Notes

  1. see Defra Departmental Report 2008 and 2009: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/about/reports/documents/2008-deptreport.pdf.

  2. Welsh Assembly Government set up a group in March 2009 to advise on how agriculture can meet the challenge of food security while reducing greenhouse gas emissions: http://wales.gov.uk/news/topic/environment/2009/2896254/?lang=en.

  3. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmenvfru/546/546ii.pdf. p. 77.

  4. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmenvfru/546/546ii.pdf. pp. 3, 203.

  5. For attribution to global food prices see http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/strategy/assets/food/food_matters1.pdf, p. 8; for evidence of concern http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publicattitudestofood.pdf, p. 3.

  6. Defra launched an online discussion on “Food 2030” from 10th August to16th October 2009, inviting discussion of challenges affecting the food system: “rising population, diminishing natural resources and climate change […], diet-related ill health,” and “to discuss the shape of the future food system [to be] better for the economy, for our environment and for our health and wellbeing.”

  7. Defra 2006, “evidence and analysis paper” separates “individual and household food security” (p. 6) https://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/reports/foodsecurity/foodsecurity.pdf.

  8. Both as leader of the Food Security Unit at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and head of the Overseas Development Institute, London.

  9. See for instance, FAO Special Programme for Food Security at http://www.fao.org/spfs/en/.

  10. www.fomezero.gov.br/download/Security%20Policy%20OK.pdf (accessed Oct 2010).

  11. 27 January 2009 Speech by Ivan Lewis, DfID Parliamentary Under-Secretary, at Madrid Conference on Food Security, http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Speeches-and-articles/2009/Food-security/ access 27th Aug 2009.

  12. see also the Research Councils UK food security webpage http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/.

  13. http://blogs.odi.org.uk/blogs/main/archive/2009/07/14/agriculture_food_funding_g8_white_paper.aspx.

  14. http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/foodclimate/HLCdocs/declaration-E.pdf 3rd Sept 2009.

  15. http://www.fao.org/spfs/national-programmes-spfs/how-works-npfs/en/ 3rd Sept 2009.

  16. http://fsa.wfp.org/special_documents/FSA_Factsheet_EN.pdf 14th Sept 2009.

  17. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/measurement.htm and http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/history.htm.

  18. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0291e/i0291e00.pdf.

  19. http://www.fao.org/sd/wpdirect/WPre0125.htm.

  20. http://www.fao.org/righttofood/index_en.htm 14th Sept 2009.

  21. e.g., regular surveys of consumer confidence by the UK Food Standards Agency http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2009/oct/tracker.

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  1. Food Ethics Council, 39-41 Surrey Street, Brighton, BN1 3PB, UK

    Tom MacMillan

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Elizabeth Dowler

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  1. Tom MacMillan
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Correspondence to Tom MacMillan.

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MacMillan, T., Dowler, E. Just and Sustainable? Examining the Rhetoric and Potential Realities of UK Food Security. J Agric Environ Ethics 25, 181–204 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-011-9304-8

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