Charity Commissioner to head up UK Council of Food

The Council of Food Policy Advisers has been set up to look at food policy across every sector of the food system – from production to retail, and from regulation and distribution to consumption – and advise the Government on the security of supply and the environmental impact of food production, as well as food affordability.

Leather is chair of the Charity Commission and has taken up the new unpaid role while still retaining her post at the regulator of charities in England and Wales. A former chair of the School Food Trust and first deputy chair of the Food Standards Agency, she has a recognised experience and interest in food policy.

“I am pleased to accept this role on the new Food Policy Council. Advising Government on the core task - making our food system fit for the planet and for our own health - is profoundly important,” said Leather on accepting her new position.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is now looking for other persons with similar interest and experience to join the Council. It has launched an appointment process and selection criteria for members of the Council on its website.

“We are looking for people who have a real interest in food and public policy, and who can offer knowledge, expertise or experience of farming and the food chain, the role of science, or of the impacts of food consumption and production on health, the environment or the economy,” said Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn.

The Council of Food Policy Advisers, which was set up last month, is the first such high level body to created by the UK Government since the Second World War. It follows research by the Food Climate Research Network, which warns that people will need to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change.

One of its first tasks is to contribute to the policy for food security and supply, which is expected to be published later this year.

 “I am setting up the Council for two years, with a review after 18 months to see if a more permanent body is needed,” said Benn. “I want it to focus on the practical policies needed to maintain UK and global food security and the long term sustainability of the food chain, following on from the recommendations on food made by the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit Report.”