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Launching the RSA Food, Farming and Countryside Commission's Progress Report
Join us for the launch of The RSA Food, Farming and Countryside Commission’s progress report, as we reach this half-way point in our work.
As the UK government makes preparations to leave the European Union, this independent Commission, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, is a unique and important opportunity to involve citizens, communities, businesses, academics and advocates in helping to shape the direction of food, farming and countryside futures.
This evening is an opportunity to hear from Commissioners and the team, and for you to tell us what you think. There will be space to contribute your views on the interim findings – what have we got right, what’s missing and how you can help us develop these ideas.
Since the Commission launched last autumn, we’ve reviewed 1000 policy proposals, and hosted roundtables and discussions to explore the current policy domain. We’ve cycled right round the UK to meet people in their communities and workplaces, and set up separate long-term inquiries in the devolved nations and in three English counties to help us test ideas and understand more about what will work in practice. At this interim stage of our inquiry, we will be outlining some draft proposals which we believe provide radical and practical ways to address the challenges we’ve heard across the country.
The event will be followed by a drinks reception where you will be able to find out more about the work of the Commission and have an opportunity for networking.
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Kenny, thank you for your reply. It does not address my issue at all.
Let me state clearly the science.
The PHE Eatwell plate is pure propaganda and has been shown to have no scientific basis at all. It is the cause of the diabetes and other long term conditions that it purports to address.
If you bothered to speak to the GPs in this country who have reversed the obesity and diabetes of the great majority of their patients, they will tell you that it happens by the virtual elimination of carbohydrates from their diets and the avoidance of seed oils in favour of saturated fats. Their businesses pay a financial penalty for improving the health of their patients. My own diet is mainly fatty cuts of meat and offal with butter, cream, cheese and eggs. There is no doubt about the thrust of the science and it results in a complete inversion of the Eatwell plate advice. The opposite.
This is why you project has been flawed by not understanding the science. What people need to be eating has been totally misadvised. For instance you talk about growing some more fruit: most fruit is too sweet for diabetics to eat. I stick to a few berries.
I suspect from you lack of appreciation of just how wrong the establishment is, that you grasp of the relationship between soil and climate, between the water cycle and the carbon cycle is similarly shallow.
Let me repeat: such a shame and a waste.
It is such a shame that this commission is so fundamentally flawed. They have not managed to do the research on the controversial issues despite much prompting. The main flaw is that the dietary advice from PH England is corrupt and wrong. The national diet needs to move away from grains and starches that are so heavily promoted. The diabetes that the commission mention as a long term condition connected to health needs to be addressed by excluding carbohydrates (that are not tolerated) from the diet altogether. Needless to say that insight needs to connect to a move in agriculture away from grains and oil seeds to grass-fed meat production. The second and interestingly connected flaw is that if we want agriculture to contribute to dealing with climate change, it needs to move away from ploughing which destroys the micro-rhizal fungi that build up soil carbon and limit the need for chemical fertilisers.
What a massive missed opportunity to confront the establishment with some science!
I'm sorry to hear you feel that way William. In this progress report, we have outlined our early thinking on a number of cross cutting themes to try make connections between different policy spaces to achieve better outcomes for citizens. The official advice may very well be flawed as you say, we reference it in the eat well plate data visualisation to highlight the difference between government dietary advice, the foods we subsidise and what we produce - intending to highlight some of the disconnects between public health advice and practices in agriculture and food processing.
In our recommendation - incentivise farming for public health in our chapter good food for health communities. You will find that we advocate for agroforestry and growing more fruit and vegetables. Soil health is a key focus of our work, in Lincolnshire, known for intensive, industrial practices that have had a detrimental impact on soil and water quality and other environmental boundaries, we are working directly with farmers and growers to explore how they can be encouraged and enabled to consider new and emerging science for more sustainable agriculture, and to identify the practices which can support the behaviour and practical changes needed.
In our recommendation - commit to a transition plan for sustainable agriculture which meets UK commitments to the SDGs, we outline a number of aims for agriculture including: increasing the production of fruit, vegtables and nuts, especially where this can be integrated into rotations on livestock and mixed farms, to maintain soil carbon; reduce livestock levels and prioritise 'pasture fed' systems.
I hope you'll find in the detail of the recommendations that the Commissions view isn't so far from your own. We are certainly keen to build on the science in our recommendations to deliver the best outcomes for citizens and will be looking to develop our ideas in much more depth as we move into the next phase of our work through research and engagement work.
Thanks, Kenny.