A Food Brexit: time to get real. A Brexit Briefing

Further information
The report examines available industry and government data, policies and literature on a wide range of issues including production, farming, employment, quality, safety standards and the environment. It highlights 16 key issues that must be addressed by the Government in its negotiations with the EU.

Among the 16 issues which the paper urges Ministers to address are needs for:

+ An urgent need for a clear integrated plan for UK food – the UK government currently has no UK food policy
+ Clarification on food crossing borders, particularly from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland
+ New legislation to replace 4,000 pieces of EU law relating to food
+ Scientific and regulatory infrastructure, replacing at least 30 EU-based bodies
+ Farm viability and subsidies to replace the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
+ Fishing policies that are more than rejecting the 1964 pre-EU London Convention
+ Food labour – 35 per cent of food manufacturing labour is from the EU; more in parts of catering and horticulture
+ Some idea of from where UK food will come – as only around 54-61 per cent is currently UK-sourced
+ Tariffs – retail industry says tariffs could raise imported food prices by 22 per cent post-Brexit
+ Prices, which are already rising and likely to rise more, will become more volatile, especially harming poor consumers
+ Quality standards throughout supply chains, which are currently set by the EU, may well decline, and may do so abruptly.

The report draws on more than 200 sources, including many interviews with senior figures across the food chain, as well as official, industry and scientific documents and statistics.

It warns that a 'Food Brexit' is of unprecedented importance and is happening at a time when the UK food system is already vulnerable, with self-sufficiency also in decline.

Professors Millstone, Lang and Marsden say their report is a wake-up call to the public and a Government that has little experience of food negotiations and has failed to warn consumers of the disruptions ahead.

The report makes detailed recommendations for each of the 16 key issues explored. They call on the public, civil society and academics to put pressure on Government and MPs to:

+ Publish policy commitment to a low-impact, health-oriented UK food system
+ Create a new statutory framework for UK food, which authors term 'One Nation Food'
+ Commit to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement in any new food framework
+ Establish a new National Commission on Food and Agriculture to provide oversight and review, and to be a source of advice trusted by the British public.The United Kingdom is unprepared for the most complex ever change to its food system, which will be required before Brexit, according to a new briefing paper published by SPRU in July 2017, titled 'A Food Brexit: time to get real'.

The report, by leading food policy specialists Professor Erik Millstone (University of Sussex), Professor Tim Lang (City, University of London) and Professor Terry Marsden (Cardiff University), concludes that leaving the European Union poses serious risks to consumer interests, public health, businesses and workers in the food sector.

Its authors claim that this is because there is no Government vision for UK food or agriculture, yet prices, quality, supply and the environment will all be adversely affected even with a ‘soft’ Brexit. They warn that British consumers have not been informed about the 'enormous' implications for their food, a third of which comes from within the European Union.

The 88-page report is the first major review of the ways leaving the EU will have an impact on UK food and farming.

See also a separate July 2017 report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) called The exposure of households’ food spending to tariff changes and exchange rate movements (accessible via one of the related url hyperlinks).

Brexit has the potential to have a substantial impact on the prices households pay for food. Currently around 30% of the value of food purchased by households in the UK is imported, and the major source of food imports is the EU. In comparison, only 17% of overall consumer spending is on imported goods. This means that changes in the costs of imports – for example, through changes to tariffs or movements in exchange rates – are likely to have a particularly big impact on food prices.

This briefing note discusses how changes in prices of imported food – for example, as a result of changes to tariffs and movements in exchange rates – might affect the prices that different households pay for their overall food baskets.

ESO: Background information: Brexit: agriculture (United Kingdom: House of Lords: Select Committee on the European Union: 20th Report (2016-17)HL169) http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-agriculture/

ESO: Background information: Brexit: A vortex for UK food and farming http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-a-vortex-for-uk-food-and-farming/

ESO: In Focus: Brexit - The United Kingdom and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union/

The Conversation, 19.07.17: Brexit and food: there is no plan, so what is the UK going to put on the table? https://theconversation.com/brexit-and-food-there-is-no-plan-so-what-is-the-uk-going-to-put-on-the-table-81210

University of Sussex: SPRU: A Food Brexit: time to get real, July 2017 http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/newsandevents/2017/publications/food-brexit

Blog: UK in a Changing Europe, 28.07.17: How might Brexit affect food prices? http://ukandeu.ac.uk/how-might-brexit-affect-food-prices/

IFS: Briefing Note (BN213), July 2017: The exposure of households’ food spending to tariff changes and exchange rate movements https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/9563

Blog: Welsh Brexit, 27.11.17: Mind the Gap(s): Food Brexit, regulatory divergences and the need for a new UK agri-food framework http://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/brexit/2017/11/27/mind-the-gaps-food-brexit-regulatory-divergences-and-the-need-for-a-new-uk-agri-food-framework/

---