The value of food

Is the price of food too cheap? Or too expensive? 

Even with the cost of living crisis and rises in food prices of the past year, we still spend wildly less on food (and more on housing) than our grandparents did.

Who can afford a decent meal?

As reported in the recent Reality of Food Poverty in Lincoln, referrals to Lincoln’s foodbanks and community larders have doubled in the past two years, and donations are not keeping up with the rising need for emergency food support.

Fareshare has now made the hard decision to close the Lincoln food hub to consolidate its operations in the Midlands: it will close at the end of June.

We all need to eat. We all need a nutritious, varied diet to have healthy bodies and minds.

But a worrying number of Lincoln residents cannot afford to put food on the table after paying rent and bills. 

So most food is too expensive?

The real cost of good food

At another end of the food spectrum, the Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership includes farmers and producers who are finding experimental and innovative ways to produce food in a way that replenishes nature, sequesters carbon and rebuilds depleted soils.

In some cases the real costs of producing food in a climate and nature friendly way are simply higher; tight margins force farmers into choices that are detrimental to the environment.

In other cases, it is more about marketing: “local” “artisanal” “organic” foods (all excellent qualities) rather too often become synonymous with “premium products” for “high end” markets.

But we need to stop treating climate and nature friendly foods as a luxury. It is now urgent that ALL food is produced in a sustainable and regenerative manner. 

So most food is too cheap?

Bridging the Gap

Over the past few months, I have been working with Sustain on their Bridging the Gap project – the gap is between affordable food and nature & climate friendly food.

It is possible to produce enough nature and climate friendly food for everyone, and there are various models to indicate how that could be achieved, all of which involve dietary change to a greater or lesser extent.

Practical interventions could involve public procurement, expanding free school meals provision, levies to discourage harmful practices and subsidies to make good practices more affordable – not to mention policies that tackle rising inequality head on! 

Be the change

As always, we can be a part of the solution as individuals and communitie.

That might be through – for example –

• engaging in a bit of organic grow-your-own;
• learning (or passing on) scratch cooking skills,
• supporting the local good food economy,
• dietary change, e.g. more fruit & vegetables, especially beans & legumes; greater diversity of grains, less meat and eating nose-to-tail. 

It could also be about the way of thinking about good food – as a sensory pleasure; as a connection with land and nature; as nourishment for our bodies; as a social facilitator.

But let’s ditch the notion of good food as a luxury.

This blog was published in the Lincoln Independent, June 2023