With a new era of Labour governance in full swing, it’s time to remove barriers to innovation in the UK food industry. In Chamber UK’s latest journal Rich Dillon, CEO of Ivy Farm Technologies argues that by investing in infrastructure, streamlining regulation, and updating food strategy, the UK can lead in food tech, driving sustainability and long-term food security.
Rich Dillon
CEO Ivy Farms TechnologiesThe beginning of this Labour Government marks a pivotal moment to reassess and reshape the trajectory of several critical sectors. Already, significant efforts are being made to restore the UK’s position as a leader in innovation and sustainability within the energy industry, and this attention and leadership for change must now be placed on other critical industries, like food.
Advancements like cultivated meat – which produces nutritious, antibiotic-free meat via fermenters – offer a promising path toward sustainability, economic growth, and long-term food security. However, the UK risks missing out in the race to lead on food innovation if it doesn’t act quickly and make the right decisions across areas such as infrastructure, investment, and policy.
The Need for Infrastructure
Comprehensive biomanufacturing infrastructure is essential if the UK wants to support its budding food tech sector. The UK has supported small-scale and pilot facilities through initiatives like Innovate UK, but there are currently no suitable facilities for the next stage to help these early-stage companies successfully bridge the valley of death – from pilot to manufacturing scale – by proving the technology that can scale-up and lower costs.
Without these facilities, cultivated meat companies such as Ivy Farm Technologies are being forced to look abroad to competing foreign governments who are increasing investment into building these critical biomanufacturing facilities.
The UK is falling behind these governments, and without a commitment to support the construction of mid and large manufacturing facilities, we will not only see a brain drain of innovative companies and professionals looking to scale abroad, but the UK will also miss an opportunity to boost food security, feed the population and reduce the reliance on low-quality and environmentally costly food imports.
Without this infrastructure, the UK will always be seen as a place to invent small-scale food technology, but not to commercialise it – meaning most of the value will leave UK shores. To solve this, the UK must stick to the previous Government’s pledge of £2 billion in funding to the biotechnology industries, and allocate a portion of this funding towards underwriting and building new bio-manufacturing facilities.
Streamlining Regulation to Unlock the Cultivated Meat Opportunity
The next important area of influence lies in regulation. It’s here that the UK is in the driving seat in Europe, with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) free to operate independently post-Brexit. The FSA has been open to collaboration and discussions with start-ups like Ivy Farm, while it works quickly to streamline its novel food regulatory processes to support the safe introduction of cultivated meat to consumers in the UK.
If the FSA’s great work continues on its trajectory – they have been working hard to advocate for the resources in order to achieve their goals – then the benefits will be the UK’s to own in Europe. An Oxford Economics report highlights that establishing a cultivated meat industry in the UK could contribute £2.1 billion to the economy, creating over 16,500 jobs – including 8,300 highly skilled roles – by 2030.
A UK-based cultivated meat sector can also work with and support the traditional farming industry, helping to release the pressure on farmers who don’t want to intensify production in the face of increasing demand for cheaper meat, just to survive. Cultivated meat can replace this industrially farmed meat, mitigating the need for unethical practices inherent in factory farming to achieve such low costs.
A Needed Food Strategy Review
As it stands, the UK’s latest food strategy was devised during the Johnson Government of 2019–2020, a period marked by significant challenges – including COVID-19, the Ukraine conflict, and the eventual turbulent end of that administration.
Since then, the world has continued to change, with pressures from climate events and further instability in food supply chains warranting a fresh take on the food strategy in this country and a renewed focus on innovation that takes pressure off importing. As the Ukraine conflict has shown, such dependence on a global food system can have a devastating effect on domestic food prices.
Conversations around the reinstatement and implementation of the ambitious Food Strategy Review, spearheaded by Henry Dimbleby, are growing. This strategy underscores the fundamental potential of cultivated meat and alternative proteins in establishing a healthier, more sustainable food system that benefits the environment, economy, and food security.
Final Thoughts
The question of who will govern the UK in the foreseeable future has been answered. Now, we turn to what sort of legacy the Labour Party intends to leave as it speaks of change, and what kind of growth it can facilitate to make that happen.
The UK possesses the technology and talent necessary to revolutionise and transform its food systems – it could be a global leader. This new Government must change its approach to supporting innovation in food, through policy and infrastructure that can help to grow the economy. We cannot shy away from difficult conversations on our food strategy, and cultivated meat needs to be a vital part of that dialogue.
The challenges ahead may seem difficult, but the reward for tackling them could not be greater.
This article appears in the new edition of the Chamber UK Journal, click here to sign up to our newsletter to read the full edition online!
