Can we fix the food system? A systems approach to food justice: Part 1

I recently attended the first Scottish Pantry Network Conference which brought together a wide range of interesting and passionate people from different backgrounds and sectors, with a shared desire to reduce food insecurity and increase food justice in Scotland. The term ‘food justice’ describes a movement that seeks to move beyond food banks and food redistribution to address the root causes of unequal access to adequate nutrition. Abi Mordin, one of the people involved in developing the Glasgow City Food Plan, gave a presentation that resonated widely, and, with her permission, we have published an adapted version.

Our food system is broken. Or is it? It seems to be working perfectly well for those who control it – hint, that’s not most of us… Ninety-six per cent of all food sold to consumers in the UK is purchased through nine major retailers. Sixty-five per cent of the world’s agricultural land is controlled by 1% of farms. Four companies account for 70% of global trade in agricultural commodities.[i]^;[ii]

Who does this food system serve? Mainly shareholders, most of whom are large investment companies. For example, Tesco’s biggest shareholders are investment management companies based in London and the US. The supermarket giant is worth around £21bn[iii], reporting a pre-tax profit of just under £2.3bn in the year ending February 2024[iv]. PepsiCo, one of the world’s largest food manufacturers owning 23 brands, reported an annual gross profit in 2023 of $49.59bn, up 8.24% on 2022[v]. The vast majority of PepsiCo’s shareholders are institutional investors.

Our food system is complex: it’s more than production, retail and export. Our food system has multiple dimensions – political, social, environmental, economic and health. The profits of global food companies hide the externalities and negative impacts (on the environment and on public health, for example) behind the GDP (gross domestic product) and growth mantra.

Our food system is broken. It’s broken for farmers: low farm gate prices are propped up by subsidies – a system created after the second world war to make sure no one went hungry again. An admirable aim, but it’s resulted in a farming system that prioritises production and high yield over nature and nutrition, and a food system that undervalues the work of farmers and food producers. To illustrate this, Unpicking Food Prices by Sustain[vi] reported that, for a 480g pack of cheddar purchased in a supermarket, the dairy farmer has production costs of £1.48 yet receives 0.02% in profit (much less than a penny) of the selling price of £2.50.

This system has also created compartmentalised and segregated production. Scotland produces lots of beef, lamb, dairy, salmon and whisky, but is worryingly short on other core products. Arable farming (crop production) accounts for only 10% of Scottish agriculture[vii], of which most is barley, grown for alcohol production, and wheat and maize, grown largely for animal feed[viii]. Fruit and vegetable production accounts for a tiny proportion.

The food system is broken for consumers: food prices have increased dramatically in recent years, largely due to a combination of Brexit, climate change and the impact of international conflicts and resulting rises in energy costs. For example, the price of six eggs (medium, free range) increased by 54% from 95p in April 2022 to £1.50 in March 2024[ix]. A 400g tin of baked beans has increased by 70.5% since 2019, from an average price of £0.61 to £1.04 in 2024[x]. Cooking oil production, whether Spanish olive oil or British vegetable oil, is being affected by climate extremes causing huge price increases for consumers. It has been estimated that climate change has added £361 to food bills in the past couple of years[xi].

We have a public health crisis: despite huge efforts Scotland still has high levels of diet-related ill health. The proportion of children at risk of overweight and obesity in Scotland in 2022 was 33%, the highest figure recorded in the Scottish Health Survey since 2011. The figure is higher in areas of deprivation. Achieving Scottish Government’s ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030 will be difficult[xii].

We all know that too many people in Scotland face food inequalities, by which I mean issues around accessibility, affordability and availability of good food and healthier options compared to foods with high levels of fat, salt and sugar. Most people know what they should be eating[xiii], but the food environments we live in and the food that is available and within our budgets, not to mention the countless other pressures on household incomes, all have a massive impact on what ends up on our plates.

The food system is broken for workers: a report last year from Landworkers Alliance shines a light on the exploitation in the UK immigration system with regard to seasonal fruit and veg pickers[xiv]. ‘Zero hours’ contracts are still common across the food sector resulting in unstable and unsustainable employment, fluctuating incomes and pressure on people to work even when sick, or cancelling shifts at no notice.

The food system is broken for smaller independent food enterprises: they face the same issues as consumers around availability and price of produce and key ingredients, plus increased energy costs, staffing costs and other overheads. We’ve all seen cafes and small independent shops come and go over the last few years.

The food system is broken for nature: high yield-focused production has resulted in widespread biodiversity loss and pollution caused by the use of chemical herbicides to kill unwanted plants, pesticides to kill unwanted bugs (both of which also kill useful plants and bugs), and fertilisers to replace natural fertility lost from the soils through ploughing and use of chemicals[xv]^;[xvi].

Surplus food is a symptom of a broken food system: feeding people who are food insecure with surplus food is a sticking plaster, not a long-term solution[xvii]. Surplus food results from supply-side dynamics including incentives for food producers and supermarkets to divert food from waste management systems. As many charities in receipt of surplus food will know, you don’t get much choice with food redistributed from supermarkets and supply chains. Produce is often at its use by date and frequently higher in fat, sugar and salt.

Despite attempts to redistribute food, much of it still goes to waste. It is estimated that food waste in the UK was 10.7 million tonnes in 2021 (a quarter of all food purchased)[xviii]. Around 70% of all wasted food is edible (rather than inedible scraps). The top five wasted foods in the UK are bread, potatoes, milk, bananas and fruit and vegetables.

Reflecting on the profits of global food businesses in the context of all of these issues makes you wonder, again – who is this food system working for?

Part 2 of this blog looks at system change levers that would be helpful in supporting effective delivery of the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022. Read it here.

Adapted from a presentation by Abi Mordin, given at the Scottish Pantry Network Conference 2024. Abi Mordin is a founder member of Propagate and the Glasgow Community Food Network, and is a seasoned food activist. She has been working across community and local food projects since the mid-90s, and is passionate about food sovereignty and resilience. An experienced grower, educator and researcher, Abi takes an inclusive and collaborative approach to her work. She lives in Dumfries and Galloway.

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[i] Shining a Spotlight: A critical assessment of food and beverage companies' delivery of sustainability commitments - Oxfam Policy & Practice

[ii] agrifoodatlas2017_facts-and-figures-about-the-corporations-that-control-what-we-eat.pdf

[iii] Tesco PLC (LON: TSCO) Statistics & Valuation Metrics - Stock Analysis

[iv] Tesco Annual Report 2024 (tescoplc.com)

[v] Pepsico Stock Ownership - Who Owns Pepsico in 2024? | WallStreetZen

[vi] Unpicking food prices: Where does your food pound go, and why do farmers get so little? | Sustain (sustainweb.org)

[vii] A New Blueprint For Scotlands Arable Sector (www.gov.scot)

[viii] A New Blueprint For Scotlands Arable Sector (www.gov.scot)

[ix] Food Prices Tracker: April 2024 | Food Foundation

[x] How the price of food will change in the next six years | Chard & Ilminster News

[xi] food-prices-nov-2023-ECIU.pdf (edcdn.com)

[xii] obesity-prevalence-factsheet-2022-23-data.pdf (obesityactionscotland.org)

[xiii] Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Consumer Poll | Food Standards Agency

[xiv] NEW LWA REPORT DIGS INTO EXPLOITATION OF MIGRANT WORKERS IN UK HORTICULTURE - Landworkers Alliance

[xv] Agrochemicals, Environment, and Human Health | Annual Reviews

[xvi] Evidence review on the influence of agriculture and land use change on lowland biodiversity in Northern Ireland (theoep.org.uk)

[xvii] Surplus Food and the Rise of Charitable Food Provision | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Food Studies

[xviii] Food Surplus and Waste in the UK Key Facts - updated November 2023 | WRAP