Led by Dr Mehroosh Tak, Senior Lecturer in Agribusiness at the RVC, this policy research project aims to analyse the reactions and uptake of the National Food Strategy (NFS) recommendations through a framing analysis of media and press coverage since its release in July 2021.

Challenge       

High levels of child obesity alongside rising stunting and the absence of a coherent food policy has deemed UK’s food system to be broken. The project examines the media response to the National Food Strategy (NFS) published in 2021 to showcase how the media in the UK uses established framing devices to depict issues of food systems as those of free choice and individual responsibility rather than structural challenges that require government interventions.

Key take aways of the project

• UK’s food system seen as broken due to high child obesity, rising stunting and lack of coherent policy.
• The National Food Strategy is an independent review, commissioned by the government, that offers 14 recommendations to reform the UK’s food system.
• This mixed-methods study analyses traditional media framing and sentiment on Twitter regarding the National Food Strategy.
• Negative media framing, especially around proposals like sugar and salt taxes, allowed the government to delay and respond weakly to NFS recommendations.
• Industry depicted as capable of self-intervention while framing dietary recommendations as detrimental to the poor, omitting their voices in traditional media.
• Media's alignment with free market thinking impedes government action on food system reform, emphasising individual responsibility over systemic change.
• Study emphasises the need for structural solutions in food system transformation rather than focusing solely on consumer-based fixes.
• Study highlights media's role in shaping public policy acceptance and urges media to prioritise diverse perspectives over polarising narratives.
• Study highlights the current Conservative government reluctance to intervene in food policy, also echoed by the opposition Labour party, presenting a concerning lack of commitment to address critical food system issues ahead of the upcoming elections.

Impact      

There has been extensive media attention on food poverty and farming policies since Brexit and the cost of living crises. Yet the UK has no clear national food policy to tackle the crisis of child obesity and diet-related diseases. The media has the capability to shape both public opinions and policy direction through the use of framing devices, constructing a narrative that encourages a particular interpretation of an issue. The study provides evidence that the media coverage of the NFS often utilised the tropes of “culture wars” shaping the debate of who is responsible to fix the food system- the government, the public or the industry. The British media’s alignment with free market economic thinking has implications for food systems reform, as it deters the government from acting and relies on the invisible hand of the market to fix the system in a continued age of austerity. The paper stresses that media firms should move beyond tropes of culture wars to discuss interventions that reform the structural causes of the UK’s broken food systems to shift the onus for dietary change from consumers to the government and the industry.

The British media can support progressive food systems transformation by centring the voices of people and holding the government accountable by critically analysing the causes of their policy inertia. With the 2024 general elections looming in the UK and the roll-out of post-Brexit policies such as Environmental Land Management Scheme and Sustainable farming Incentive, the media should play the important role of showcasing a diversity of views instead of playing the click bate game that polarises public opinions on food systems reform.

Partners      

Kirsty Blair
Gabriel Oliveira Marques