Long list from which the above are drawn (by theme)

Antibiotics
(Drawing on policy asks from the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics)

• A legally binding timetable to phase out routine prophylactic use of antibiotics. The use of antibiotics in hatcheries (in ovo and on day-old chicks) is clearly routine prophylactic use, and a ban on it should be imposed without delay.
• All veterinary antibiotics should be classified as first, second and third choice, according to their importance for treating antibiotic-resistant infections in humans and animals. Restrictions on the use of second and third choice antibiotics should be introduced, as has been done in the Netherlands.
• A ban on the use of modern cephalosporins in pigs and for dry-cow therapy.
• A ban on all off-label farm use of modern cephalosporins. A number of highly important human medicines, such as carbapenems, tigeclycline, daptomycin, oxazolidones, mupirocin and vancomycin should be banned from all veterinary off-label use, whether in farm animals or companion animals. 
• A ban on the use of fluoroquinolones in poultry. 
• New legislation as part of an EU-wide antimicrobials strategy aimed at improving animal health and welfare and ensuring that farm animals are kept in less-intensive conditions with, wherever possible, access to the outdoors. 
• Improved surveillance of antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. Prescription data should be collected so that statistics can be published on use in each animal species and so that high users and prescribers can be identified. Mandatory surveillance for livestock MRSA should be introduced.

 

Farming
(Drawing on policy asks from Sustain members working on farming, including the RSPB. See also sectino on organic further below)

• Change the subsidy system, provided through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) so public money is used to deliver specific public goods – such as protecting, restoring and enhancing nature and providing diverse and sustainable farming systems, rather than subsidising companies producing less healthy commodities such as sugar. 
• Strengthen planning policies that protect the natural environment and contribute to sustainable climate change adaptation, including a continuing presumption against inappropriate development of agricultural land, taking account of economic, environmental and other benefits.
• Promote good food and farming jobs as a core part of the green jobs agenda. This should include creating a strategy to support the growth of the sustainable food and farming sector, accompanied with targets for improving employment standards in this sector.
• Commit to deliver the maximum allowable transfer of CAP funds to supporting Rural Development at the first opportunity, in order to strengthen policies to deliver public benefit and promote resilience in the food and farming system. 
• Ensure strong domestic support (finance, research and advice) is available for farmers in adapting to climate change through investing in more diverse, lower input systems which reduce soil run off and enhance ecosystems stability.
• Strengthen implementation of existing legislation on food safety, farming standards, water and environmental protection through an effective programme of inspections.
• Commit Defra and Office of National Statistics to commission an independent inquiry into where money goes within the food system, including the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and how this could better support healthy and sustainable food consumption and production.
• Prioritise building a strong and connected ecological network to restore biodiversity across the landscape; maintain water quality; manage flooding and coastal erosion; improve air quality; aid the natural world’s adaptation to climate change; and protect and enhance carbon storage. 
• Invest in high quality, transparent public research which reflects the need to deliver environmental sustainability, and focuses on the public (rather than commercial) interest, including ring fencing a proportion of spending for research into lower input farming such as agri-ecological and organic farming systems.
• Publicly reaffirm commitment to the Biodiversity 2020 targets and the need for concerted cross-Government support to honour these commitments.

Fishing
(Drawing on policy asks from Sustainable Fish Cities, Marine Conservation Society and the Marine Stewardship Council)

• Designate and rigorously protect the 127 UK Marine Conservation Zones proposed by the Marine Conservation Society’s Marine Charter to allow fish stocks and marine ecosystems to flourish and replenish.
• Support sustainable fishing by ensuring that all fish purchased through central government procurement (including prisons and defence catering), schools and hospitals is demonstrably sustainable, using the definition in the Sustainable Fish Cities pledge.
• Support all UK inshore fisheries towards full Marine Stewardship Council certification, with urgent fishery improvement plans for those not yet ready to undergo cerification. And support more UK fish farms to achieve Aquaculture Stewardship Council, organic and Freedom Food status.

 

Organic
(Drawing on policy asks from the Soil Association and Organic Trade Board)

• CAP - The new Common Agricultural Policy must give British organic farmers a fair economic deal, with similar payments for the social and environmental benefits of organic farming as the majority of organic farmers in the rest of the European Union.
• Positive Promotion of Organic - Actively support Promotion programmes 50% funded by the EU and 50% funded by industry. The current campaign run by the Organic Trade Board is a great example of how industry can grow the market but greater government support would be extremely helpful. 
• Innovation - At least 25% of public funding for agricultural research should focus on improving organic systems, as organic farming pioneers and tests integrated approaches that are crucial to the future of all of farming.
• Creating a new Organic Action Plan committing to the above as part of a coherent plan. 

 

Bread
(Drawing on policy asks from the Real Bread Campaign)

To protect the rights of shoppers to be able to make fully-informed choices, our Real Bread Campaign calls for an Honest Crust Act that will require:

 

• All bakers and retailers to print full lists of ingredients (plus any processing aids or other artificial additives used) for all loaves on their wrappers. In the case of unwrapped loaves, this information can be displayed at the point of sale instead - eg using shelf labelling.
• A legal requirement to declare all additives in flour: currently the four 'token nutrients' added to most UK milled bread flour do not have to be shown on the label, and extra powdered dried gluten could be creeping in unannounced, too.
• Meaningful, legal definitions for the terms 'fresh' and 'freshly baked' when used in the marketing of loaves - not to be used for 'bake-off' products.
• Meaningful, legal definitions for the words (and related terms) 'sourdough', 'artisan', 'wholegrain' and 'craft.'
• Section six of the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 to be tightened and fully enforced to ensure the likes of dried gluten and soya flour do not make their way into loaves sold as wholemeal.
• A ban on below-cost selling (other than to reduce the discarding of short-date items) of loaves by multiple retailers, a practice we believe leads to an artificial misperception of the baseline price of this 'Known Value Item'.

 

Meat and dairy consumption
(Drawing on policy asks from the Eating Better alliance)

• Publish and promote new official guidelines on healthy eating and environmental behaviour to include the benefits of eating less and better meat. This would require updating of the Eatwell Plate to provide businesses, health professionals, educators and the public with integrated advice on healthy, sustainable diets – with clear guidance for different nutritional requirements and budgets. Cross-departmental working is vital as the objectives cannot be met by one department alone.
• Introduce clear and mandatory procurement standards for caterers to ensure that meals paid for by taxpayers in schools, hospitals, prisons, care homes and all government departments reflect environmental (eg carbon reduction commitments) and health factors, to include less and better, including higher welfare meat. The current review of Government Buying Standards provides an opportunity to ensure public food procurement supports healthy sustainable food consumption and production.
• Support and encourage farming that produces meat in ways that benefit the environment, health and animal welfare and provides a fair return for farmers. This includes helping people reconnect with where their food comes from and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to support humane and sustainable farming.
• We urge UK Governments, agencies and devolved administrations to engage effectively with EU policy processes, including to:

 

• Work with EU institutions and Member States to develop EU-wide integrated strategies to promote increased consumption of plant-based foods and less and better meat consumption including within the European Commission’s Communication on the Sustainability of the European Food System and its delivery.
• Work to ensure next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform delivers a European Healthy Sustainable Food and Farming Policy which ensures a transition to more sustainable levels of supply and demand at a European level.

Hospital Food
(Drawing on policy asks from the Campaign for Better Hospital Food)

• Strengthen the proposed hospital food standards so that they invest public money in healthier, popular and sustainable food, and invests in wider social, environmental and economic benefits as a result, such as enhancing local well-being or creating jobs in better British farming.
• Hand responsibility for the monitoring of hospital food standards and the quality of patient meals to an independent body, such as the Care Quality Commission (currently responsibility lies with the hospitals themselves).
• Put hospital food standards into primary legislation so that they are protected by members of publicly accountable members of Parliament for generations to come, rather than being at the mercy of unnamed officials in government.

 

Children’s Food
(Drawing on policy asks from the Children’s Food Campaign)

• Make High Streets Healthier. The voluntary measures of the Department of Health’s Responsibility Deal are not producing the wholesale or sustained reformulation of products, or delivering the changes to retailer and food outlet labelling, promotions and marketing activities that are required. A level playing field is needed, with all companies forced to engage, quantifiable targets re-introduced and proper policy ‘sticks’/sanctions. The government should also adopt a stronger stance in EU and global negotiations on marketing and public health – copying the lead it is currently setting in defending the of traffic light labelling scheme from EU Commission opposition.
• Close the marketing loopholes. There needs to be strict rules, effectively enforced, and consistent across all forms of media. This includes a 9pm watershed for junk food ads on television, tightening of promotion to children online and via social media, around areas where children meet and stronger definitions of what counts as marketing targeted at under-16s.
• Introduce a sugary drinks duty. Tackle a major source of added sugar in children and young people’s diets by introducing a 20p per litre sugary drinks duty. The duty would reduce consumption, have a positive health impact and save the NHS money. The revenue raised could go into a Children’s Health Fund to pay for programmes to improve children’s health and the environment they grow up in.
• Continue strengthening the school food environment. Build on the positive changes brought in through the School Food Plan, by passing legislation to ensure all academies and free schools have to meet the new school food standards; by extending eligibility of free school meals to all primary school pupils and to any secondary/FE pupil whose family live in poverty; and by enacting the recommendations of the Food Growing in Schools Taskforce.                                                                                                                     See also the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health's manifesto and policy asks            

Food Poverty
(Drawing on policy asks from the London Food Poverty Campaign and Sustainable Food Cities)

• For government to agree a definition of food poverty in order to run an annual national monitoring of how many households are having difficulty meeting food needs.
• Make Local Discretionary Social Fund (local welfare fund) statutory responsibility with national funding (if current judicial review is not accepted)
• Mandatory for businesses over certain turnover/profit to pay living wage to all staff.
• Sectoral targets for living wage in hospitality and food sectors, with longer term aim for increasing minimum wage to living wage.
• All secondary schools encouraged to have closed site policy thus ensuring provision of school meals for all children up to 16. This will improve uptake of free school meals and ensure all children have access to healthy food. Has to be matched with money (from sugary drinks duty) for infrastructure.
• Commit to maintaining the Healthy Start programme and increase promotion of fruit and vegetables and retailers accepting vouchers through the scheme.
• Introduce free, healthy lunches for the most disadvantaged pre-school children as part of their existing free childcare entitlement from the age of two.
• Roll out of Universal Free School Meals to all primary age students and free school meal eligibility criteria extended to all children living in poverty regardless of age.
• Improve planning policy to ensure all new developments provide access to land for community food growing, no new housing, schools or hospitals are built without kitchens, and retail outlets selling healthy fresh foods such as fruit and vegetables, no more than 500m from any residential property.
• Commit to community meal provision being mandatory.
• Back calls for an end to speculation in grain on the world market, to reduce food price volatility, particularly for poorer nations.

 

Community and local-scale food
(Drawing on policy asks from Growing Health)

• Promote community food projects as part of health and social care provision. NICE should investigate the health and wellbeing benefits of involvement in community food work to enable commissioning  of community food work for services to improve people’s physical and mental health.
• Protect the ring-fenced local public health budget.
• Incentivise GPs to commission and prescribe healthy living and outdoor activities including food growing and cooking.
• Introduce all GPs to the benefits of food growing and healthy eating during their training, particularly to help them understand the proven benefits for physical well-being and mental health.
• Facilitate connections between GPs and public health service providers with the local groups that run healthy eating and food growing projects. And provide grants for community groups to be well prepared to provide such services to people with health needs. 

 

Food Waste
(Drawing on policy asks from FoodSave and Feedback)

• Push for an investigation at the EU level into the costs and benefits of lifting the ban on feeding certain animal by-products (including catering waste) to pigs and chickens
• Explore the possibility of introducing tax breaks for companies that donate edible surplus food to charity, as already happens very successfully in the US
• Follow Scotland’s lead by requiring food businesses to separate food waste for recycling
• Extend domestic food waste collection.