'Beetroot bond': Give everyone in UK a monthly dividend to spend on healthy, local food, says report

Food system requires radical overhaul to stem climate catastrophe and soaring obesity levels, research finds

Alongside the bond, which would be government-funded, people would also become “shareholders” in their local food system (Julia Platt Leonard)

Every person in the UK could be given a monthly dividend to spend on fresh, healthy, locally produced food as part of radical proposals to reform the farming system and avert the twin crises of climate change and deteriorating public health.

A “beetroot bond” would nudge people to buy healthy food and shift local communities away from unsustainable large-scale agricultural practices that produce large amounts of unhealthy food and contribute to environmental degradation, according to a report from a commission set up by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

Alongside the bond, which would be government-funded, people would also become “shareholders” in their local food system with the ability to influence decisions on which types of produce will effectively be subsidised, such as local and seasonal, organic or other high-welfare, plastic-free or fairly traded.

It is one of the more eye-catching ideas among plans laid out by the RSA’s Farming & Countryside Commission, which argues the UK farming and food system must be urgently and radically reformed if we are to stem rising temperatures and rates of obesity and diabetes.

The research involved farmers and supermarkets as well as health and environmental groups and thousands of conversations with rural residents.

It concluded that, while agricultural and economic policy has focused for the past 70 years on producing more food more cheaply, this has come with unintended consequences that have moved many of the costs elsewhere.

“More intensive farming practices are not necessarily more productive or more profitable,” the repost states.

Even though Britain has some of the lowest food prices in Europe, it has the highest rate of food poverty. The poorest 10 per cent of households need to spend 74 percent of their disposable income after housing costs on food to meet the Eatwell Guide, a policy tool used by government to define a healthy diet.

Type 2 diabetes, which is associated with a high-sugar and high-carbohydrate diet, now eats up 10 per cent of the NHS budget, a figure that is expected to rise to 17 per cent by 2035.

Meanwhile, farming accounts for 83 per cent of global ammonia emissions that contribute to air pollution and 11 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Time is now running out. The actions that we take in the next 10 years are critical: to recover and regenerate nature and to restore health and wellbeing to both people and planet,” the report states.

The commission recommends the government implements a “polluter pays” principle so that the true costs of food production, including on the environment and public health, are borne by the businesses that benefit.

To accomplish this requires a “strong and escalating” regulations that put pressure on businesses to end practices that deplete public value.

Another key pillar of the proposals is to simplify the “jungle of labels” that consumers face when trying to decide on healthy and environmentally friendly food, and to provide better, simpler and clearer information.

Other ideas floated in the Our Future in the Land report include ramping up production of healthy British food such as fruit, vegetables, nuts and pulses, with the help of a national agro-ecology development bank that it is hoped would attract long-term investors to fund a transition to sustainable farming.

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Michael Gove said: “This report raises issues that are hugely important for changing the way we produce food in this country when we are outside of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.”

Mr Gove has previously said the UK would have more freedom to pursue a greener farming policy after Brexit.