Boris Johnson’s shambolic food strategy has rightly been attacked from all sides

The government is plotting a course to environmental and social disaster as it fails to take responsibility for dysfunctional food system, writes Harry Cockburn

The new food strategy has been declared unfit for purpose by the government’s own lead advisior (PA)

Under pressure to redirect the narrative from the repeated law-breaking during Covid-19 lockdowns, Boris Johnson’s government administration has turned in a rapidly-assembled policy package in the shape of its so-called "food strategy".

Just as the government’s recent energy strategy lacked the vision to secure affordable clean energy for the UK now or in the future, the food strategy is threatening more of the same lack of coherence, with a similar focus on prioritising big business interests.

It should be a landmark piece of legislation, securing food supplies, helping farmers care for the land, boosting biodiversity and tackling the obesity epidemic. However, the proposals have instead been declared unfit for purpose by the government’s own lead advisor.