Low Income Families Losing Out To Food System
17 Mar 2015 --- The Fabian Commission on Food and Poverty has gathered evidence on how the UK’s food system serves those on low incomes, and to what extent it contributes to poverty in the UK. This interim report shows clearly that those on the lowest incomes are the ones losing out from our food system.
Food price rises have disproportionately hit low-income households since 2013 and now those on lower incomes spend a greater proportion of their budget – between 16 per cent and 35 per cent – on food. Combined with increases in housing and energy costs, those on the lowest incomes are moving closer to crisis.
And while the proliferation of supermarkets and the rise of the discount retailers like Aldi and Lidl has held food prices down for consumers, it has come at the cost of huge pressure on the food supply chain. Low pay and zero hour contracts are rife in the food workforce and the search for ever-cheaper ingredients led to the 2013 horsemeat scandal.
The commission will present its final report later this year and make recommendations on what politicians can do to fix Britain’s unequal and unsustainable food system.
Summary This interim report from the Fabian Commission on Food and Poverty shows that overall advances in access to affordable food and health outcomes have left low-income households behind. The evidence also suggests that unsustainable pressures within the food supply chain and environmental damage will cause food retail prices to rise further in future years.
Without radical change to the UK food system, millions more people will struggle to access affordable, nutritious food. The scope and shape of such a change will be the main focus of the commission’s final report.
Food price volatility, food bank use, food supply chain fraud and exploitation, Britain’s obesity problem, and the effects of climate change are more likely to affect those on the lowest incomes than any other group.
Food prices fell consistently from the 1970s, but a rise in prices from 2006 has combined with rising housing and energy costs to push many low-income households closer to crisis.
A squeeze on incomes and a rising cost of living mean that those on low-incomes are ‘trading down’ towards less nutritious diets that are higher in fat, salt and sugar. The report finds that progress made in access to food, health, and better diets in the UK over recent decades has left those on lower incomes behind.
While most of the people in the UK are spending less than ever on food as a proportion of their household budget, some low income families are spending over a third of their budget on food.
The UK appears to be beginning to get to grips with its child obesity problem on the whole, but incidence of obesity is rising for children in the lowest income households. Incidence of child obesity in low-income households is now higher than it was in 2006, when Jamie Oliver’s school food documentary sparked a call for action on children’s diets. Some of the longterm effects of this are that those on lower incomes are one and a half times more likely to get diabetes than those on higher incomes.
The proliferation of supermarkets has meant most people have more access to nutritious food, but many low-income areas suffer from a lack of access to nutritious, affordable food. Current strategies have not worked.
The top seven food brands spend a combined ten times more on marketing than the entire budget of the government’s leading healthy eating campaign, while often targeting unhealthy products a recipe for inequality.
Evidence suggests the pressure for ever cheaper food is unsustainable. The commission believes that because of pressures on the food supply chain and external costs that aren’t yet accounted for in the market price of food, prices are set to rise further in the future. Unless action is taken, food banks could be a sign of things to come for many more families finding themselves in crisis. The commission is calling for further evidence on solutions to these problems.
