The Health Select Committee’s Inquiry on childhood obesity took evidence from several government ministers yesterday. During proceedings, Public Health Minister Steve Brine commented that Brexit was an opportunity ‘to take back control’ of our food labelling.

Former Chancellor and now Harvard research fellow Ed Balls has published a research paper (co-written with fellow researcher Peter Sands) on the latest thinking of senior trade negotiation officials in the US and UK. You can read the full paper here.

Currently, half of the UK’s food is imported, 30% of it comes from the EU. Being part of the EU customs union has meant that food from the EU can enter the UK easily with no tariffs.

Sustain has made it’s submission to the Defra Health and Harmony future farm policy consultation, drawing on the expertise of our strong and growing alliance. The moment feels historic.

The loss of Geographical Indication (GI) after leaving the EU could cost the UK food industry billions of pounds.

Liam Fox is due to give a speech today in which he will reportedly say that it is 'anti-trade' and a 'myth' to point out that future trade deals we sign after Brexit could result in a 'degradation of food and environmental standards'. He says this is a false claim and even says it is a 'deception'. 

New research has shown that over 75% of pig farmers and agricultural professionals support overturning the current ban on feeding leftovers to pigs.

A national tour is asking the public about what matters to them about food, farming and countryside, as the UK negotiates its exit from the EU. 

The president of the American National Farmer’s Union says chlorine-washed chicken and hormone injected beef is “perfectly safe” and there has been a lot of “fear-mongering.”

Sustain provided written and oral evidence to the MP's Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committeei Inquiry into the Government’s consultation: ‘Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit.’  At the oral evidence session on 25 April 2018 Vicki Hird spoke of the need to address public health as a public good alongside social, ethical and environmental goods, and to take account of farm diversity and farmworker's needs. She highlighted public procurement as an opportunity, the need to maintain high standards in any trade deal  and for greater regulation to ensure fair play in the supply chain.

New analysis, reported in the Guardian today, has found that both the UK fishing industry and consumers would be financially worse off from a hard Brexit.

A parliamentary report into the impact of Brexit on the processed food and drink sector has found that a no EU deal scenario would be disastrous for UK exports and should be avoided.

The UK pork industry is currently unsustainable both in economic and environmental terms. To create a sustainable UK livestock industry that can thrive, we need to return to the practice of feeding food waste to pigs says Christina O'Sullivan of Feedback: The environmental organisation campaigning to change the food system.

The absence of serious consideration of food flows into, out of and through Northern Ireland is a significant policy omission in the ongoing Brexit negotiations, argue Professor Tim Lang and authors from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is concerned the EU Withdrawal Bill will not provide any effective protection for workers’ rights. Instead it would provide UK Ministers “with wide-ranging powers to repeal, dilute or limit hard-won employment rights”.
 

The Faculty of Public Health and a coalition of public health groups, including Sustain, are supporting a Lords amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, called the ‘Do No Harm’ amendment, and tabled by Crossbench Peer Lord Warner.

The Institute for Government has published a report on Devolution after Brexit, 'Managing the environment, agriculture and fisheries', recommending changes to the way the governments of the four UK nations interact and make decisions.

Friends of the Earth is warning of risks to fish and the environment from a not-so-green Brexit, following an analysis of likely scenarios by Sheffield University.

A labour body has introduced a £200 fee for finding people who speak good English as competition for seasonal agricultural workers grows.

At the consultation event co-hosted with Sustain and DEFRA on 10 April 2018, Michael Gove, Defra Secretary of State urged people to take advantage of the Defra consultation on Future Farming to 'make it clear what you want’ saying “I want a food and farming policy that reflects what the people in the country want – higher standards and better outcomes.” and noted the need to “stop it being shaped by vested interests to imprint their agenda.”

Join Hungry City author Carolyn Steel, Guardian journalist Felicity Lawrence, RSPB biodiversity specialist Lucy Bjorck and Kath Dalmeny of Sustain for an evening of debate on the future of our food system, post-Brexit.

Book your ticket now for the Future of Farming conference, run by the Sustainable Food Trust and featuring talks by Secretary of State for Defra Michael Gove and NFU President Minette Batters, among many others.

Australia is reportedly set to demand that Britain imports hormone-treated beef under a post-Brexit trade deal. Hormone-treated beef has been banned for years from all EU countries on safety grounds.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is setting up a new think tank to consider the enormous implications of Brexit on trading standards

The Greener UK coalition has issued a warning that we need to act now for nature’s recovery and a healthy environment.

New trade routes formed after UK leaves the EU could leave Britain inundated with invasive species. According to Wildlife and Countryside Link last year invasive species cost Britain over £2billion.

A group of farming, conservation and environmental groups (1) are releasing today (21 March 2018) a statement calling for the protection and enhancement of farm diversity as a core purpose of the new agriculture bill (2). The measures they are calling for will help deliver the food we need whilst creating a resilient and dynamic farming industry, which works for the wider community as well as for the environment.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has issued a new report today which shows that if we choose to abolish all tariffs on products, inlcuding food, entering the UK when we exit the EU this “would have only a limited impact on the cost of living of the average household.”

Children’s health experts fear a future trade deal with the US could undermine UK efforts to reduce sugar consumption and import American levels of diet-related diseases alongside their produce.

Fresh analysis from Sustain, the food and farming alliance, suggests that Britain’s domestic regulators are hopelessly ill equipped for the extra work load that leaving the EU will entail.

Hotels, pubs, bars and restaurants are on a hiring spree - despite a consumer downturn - because they fear a shortage of migrant workers when Britain leaves the EU.

GM Freeze call for compulsory GM labelling and strict regulation on growing and importing GM crops.

The Organic Research Centre is awarded government funding for two major research projects on organic farming.

The Sustainable Soils Alliance has welcomed the government's recognition in its 25 Year Environment Plan that soil is a pillar of natural capital alongside air and water, and that all three are fundamental for our country’s long-term economic growth and productivity.

Wildlife and Countryside Link have published a detailed analysis of animal welfare standards post-Brexit. The report is supported by more than 40 organisations and a number of MPs and Peers.

An influential UK free-trade think tank has identified eating American beef as a ‘gain’ for British consumers from post-Brexit trade deals, whilst claiming food safety and health concerns about US food standards are ‘myths’.

A parliamentary committee has told the government’s Brexit and trade negotiators that they must not sacrifice Britain’s high food standards in order to secure trade deals.

The Government has today failed to protect British and overseas farmers from unfair trading practices by refusing to extend the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to include primary producers.

Sustain's chief executive Kath Dalmeny welcomes Labour's proposals for a raft of new animal welfare measures, published in today's Guardian newspaper.

New data revealed by the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics has revealed that livestock raised for food in the US are dosed with five times as much antibiotic medicine as farm animals in the UK.

The Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics warn post-Brexit deal-makers not to lower UK farm standards to match US - where antibiotic use is five times higher than in the UK

Last week Sustain submitted evidence to the Trade Bill Committee in Parliament. In it we argued that cheap food imports are a risk to our health and to 3.9m jobs in the UK's food and farming industries.

Today, Farmer's Guardian posted a story in which Andrew Percy MP was quoted as saying comments against American chlorinated  chicken feed 'anti-American bigotry'. 

During December 2017 and January 2018, the UK Labour Party consulted on their policies for coastal communities, in particular fishing and the fishing industry.

Read on for Sustainable Fish Cities' response to this consultation.

Many are now deeply concerned that in the race to secure international trade deals, the UK may come under severe pressure to compromise our food standards – a damaging race to the bottom. Sustain's Kath Dalmeny sets out how trade deals must now be used to promote a beneficial race to the top.

A conference on the Implications of Brexit for Rural Land Management and Fisheries in Wales will take place on Tuesday 13th February 2018, 11am-4pm a the Medrus Centre, Aberystwyth University. Speakers are from the Wales Centre for Public Policy and Sustain alliance member New Economics Foundation.

If we are going to make the most of Brexit for food, farming and our countryside, we would do well to reflect on what opportunities are presented by this moment in history. So says Kath Dalmeny of Sustain, newly appointed as a commissioner to the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission launched in November by the RSA.

The Soil Association release 10 food safety concerns with a transatlantic trade deal. The list includes ractopamine in pork, flame retardant in citrus drinks and chicken litter being used as animal feed.

The Government is told to take action on cruel puppy trade, live farm animal exports, foie gras and fur imports to ensure UK can maintain its role as pioneer for animals.

Sustain has been delighted to read the poems of Adam Horowitz following his launch at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in January 2018. The Soil Never Sleeps is the second full collection of poetry by Adam Horovitz, published by Palewell Press in January 2018.