Does the government have the guts to drive the diet change we need?
Claire Ogley, Head of Campaigns, Policy and Research
| The Vegan Society
The Government must plan to support the increased production and consumption of plant-based foods in its food strategy next year, like Denmark has done. But is the political will there?
Last Friday saw publication of the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission report, the most authoritative and important scientific and policy study on food ever undertaken. Leading experts from 35 countries were explicit about what supports health and planet: “a plant-rich diet, with optional, moderate amounts of animal-source foods”.
No surprise. Environmental and health authorities have been recommending we eat much more plants and fewer animals for decades, as well as bemoaning the lack of government action to bring that about. According to the latest National Diet and Nutrition Survey, just 17% of adults in the UK — and fewer than one in ten children — meet the five-a-day fruit and vegetable target. Only 4% of children aged 11–18 consume enough fibre. And the figures have worsened since the last survey.
Food policy in the UK is at a crossroads. In July, the Government published the Good Food Cycle, the framework for the cross-government food strategy announced last year. Its emphasis on incentivising industry to invest in nutritious, affordable food and its acknowledgment of the interconnectedness between public health, environmental impact, and economic productivity marked a thoughtful start. But its ultimate success will depend on the policy detail and targets that are expected to follow.
The Vegan Society is one of 48 organisations getting behind a set of policy proposals — the Ten-Point Plan — aimed at making healthy plant-based foods more attractive, affordable, and accessible. The plan includes vital support for UK farmers, especially in protein diversification and for the besieged horticulture sector, alongside leveraging public procurement, improving training for health and catering professionals and public health campaigns.
These are not radical ideas. Many are already being implemented in other countries like Denmark, which launched its own plant-based action plan in 2023. The question is not whether the solutions exist, but whether the political will is there to implement them.
The cross-sector support is. The Ten-Point Plan has been endorsed by leading organisations across food, farming, health, sustainability, and animal welfare, including the Food Foundation, British Growers Association and Doctors’ Association UK. Survation polling commissioned by The Vegan Society found that 69% of people want to eat more fruit, vegetables, and plant-based foods than they currently do and the same number believe the government should do more to help them.
September’s reshuffle, however, saw the sponsors of the food strategy, Daniel Zeichner and Steve Reed, leave Defra. We need new ministers, Emma Reynolds and Angela Eagle, to bring their long experience to bear in tackling the challenge of reforming the food system, if we are to reap the rewards of plant-rich diets. Their key stakeholder body, the Food Strategy Advisory Board, is overwhelmingly composed of food industry figures rather than the environmental and health experts of the EAT-Lancet Commission, which could distract from the long-term fundamental change needed. Plant-rich diets offer a route to all the Government’s goals – food security, healthy and affordable food, lower environmental impact and sustainable economic growth - but need politicians with the vision and drive to embrace the opportunity.
