15 May 2025

🍔🍟 Corporate lobbying exposed as councils shelve plans to ban junk food advertising

Two powerful investigations have found the influence of junk food and drink companies has led to councils shelving healthy food policies, including banning junk food advertising. Advertising companies and their representatives are warning local authorities in financial crisis that advertising revenues will plummet if they restrict the promotion of HFSS products. This has led some local authorities in England to shelve their plans despite the potential benefits to public health, an investigation by medical journal The BMJ discovered. Meanwhile, the Food Foundation has published a new briefing on corporate influence on food policy, including analysis that found that, during the last term of government, Defra ministers met with food businesses and their trade associations 1,408 times – 40 times more than with food NGOs and ministers. Read The BMJ and The Food Foundation briefing.

🏙️⚖️ Local and regional governance is crucial to ensure food security and sustainability

That was the headline from the 2024 City Food Policy Symposium, which has just been written up and is available to read here. It found regional authorities are better placed to understand and meet highly varied local conditions and social demographics, and highlighted the importance of diversifying supply chains, multi-stakeholder collaborations, and enhancing community-based food networks. Robust local and regional governance is needed, says the report, to build equitable food systems resilient to external shocks. Ten actions for local government are set out.

📝​​​​​​​🐄 Report by farm vet finds animal health benefits to regenerative farming 

While plenty is written about the environmental benefits of regenerative systems, the impact on animal welfare is less evidenced. Nuffield scholar and farm vet Claire Whittle’s report has found regenerative techniques and outputs, such as landscape design and animal movement, have close links to positive health outcomes for livestock. As well as improving the health of individual animals, a regenerative system can help improve the health of an entire ecosystem. Enjoy her full write up here. If you’re interested in this topic, we’re hosting a webinar this week – sign up!

🥜​​​​​​​🧆 A new briefing on alternative proteins leaves questions unanswered

A government briefing that celebrated the UK as first to approve cultivated meat and outlined its benefits, including lower land use, nevertheless failed to answer how the alternative protein sector will work alongside farming. Questions also remain around whether cultivated meat can ever achieve the production volumes needed to make a meaningful impact. Read the LinkedIn summary post from AFN policy champion, Ali Morpeth.

🌳​​​​​​​🏡 Land use should not be a competition between people, farms, forests and nature

That’s a key message from the Landworkers’ Alliance new report ‘Share the Land’, which models a shared vision for the land ahead of the upcoming and anticipated government land use framework, due for publication later this year. Read here.

🦔​​​​​​​💷 Green Alliance publications consider nature markets and how to sell nature policies to Labour government

Following on from the influential Dasgupta Review into the value of nature, think tank Green Alliance has put forward “actionable proposals” that build on those findings. Read that here. Meanwhile, with insider intel, former advisor to Labour and the National Trust, Adam Dyster, writes why this government should take nature seriously, in this straight-talking essay.

🥧​​​​​​​🧇​​​​​​​ Regulating UPFs would have marginal gain and may distract from effective regulation of HFSS foods 

Analysis from social foundation, Nesta, found almost two-thirds of UPF calories come from HFSS products, and that the overlap means pushing for UPF regulation would have limited gain and detract from other policy efforts. Commenting on the findings, AFN policy champion, Ali Morpeth, said she supports the use of nutrient profile models as a foundation for effective health policy. “Nutrient profile models offer a clear, evidence-based way to assess the nutritional quality of foods and guide regulation, reformulation, and marketing information, to support strategies that improve population health.” Read the Nesta press release and accompanying blog post.

This Digest was written by freelance writer, Nina Pullman, and collated and edited by AFN Knowledge Exchange Fellow, Jez Fredenburgh.