Want to pass Brexit withdrawal agreement and exit by end of January 2020.

Legally binding target for farmers to enhance food security feeding into a Land Use Framework. 

A new UK-wide £20 million Farming Innovation Fund.

Fast-track permissions for farming infrastructure such as glasshouses, slurry and grain stores, and small-scale reservoirs.

Prioritise cutting-edge technology in areas such as fertilisers and vertical farming.

“Standing up for farmers” in new trade deals: All food and drink products imported into the UK, must comply with the UK’s high standards.  

Want to Remain; believe EU can lead fight against climate change. Want the EU to: reform the Common Agricultural Policy and farm payments; link up national Green New Deals; pool renewable energy resources; harmonise environmental standards; end factory farming and reduce animal transportation times; halt all live animal exports from the UK; support an EU-wide carbon tariff.

Introduce a land-use framework and make ELMs work for farmers and nature. 

Improve animal welfare.

Want to renegotiate with the EU and put a fresh deal to a referendum. Want a customs union and close alignment with the Single Market, with 'dynamic aligment' for environmental standards with the EU's. Want continued participation in EU agencies on issues like environment.

An extra £1 billion for Environmental Land Management (ELMs) schemes.

Strengthen the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA).

Ensure farmers receive proper advice on transitioning to new environment farm payment schemes.

Match the EU's stricter rules on preventative use of antibiotics.

Introduce a Land and Sea Use Framework. 

Reward farmers to reduce the use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides.

Campaign to Remain.

Almost triple support to farmers over the next 5-year parliament to support the transition to nature-friendly farming.

Will push for an end to factory farming, enforce maximum stocking densities and prohibit the routine use of antibiotics in farm animals.

Encourage a move to mixed farming along with a reduction in meat and dairy production and implement new horticulture support for fruit and vegetable production.

Link farm payments to a reduction in the use of pesticides and other agro-chemicals.

Increase domestic food production and expanding local horticulture.

Rebalance power between big food companies and local alternatives such as local food networks, community-supported agriculture and other co-operatives.

Strengthen the power of the Grocery Code Adjudicator and the Food Standards Agency.

Regulate for fairness in negotiation and new legally binding codes of practice.

Introduce a Fairer Farming Charter championing smaller family farms.

Bring horticulture back into our urban fringe.

Campaign to Remain. Want to remain in the customs union and single market.

Increase the farming budget to £3bn.

Introduce a target for 70% of the food we consume in the UK to be UK produced.

Stop supermarket price fixing, granting powers to the Competition and Markets Authority to ensure fair pricing.

Change planning laws to support farm shops with zero business rates.

Boost smaller food processors and abattoirs through tax breaks and other incentives.

Offer subsidised courses at Agricultural Colleges and apprenticeships to help young people learn farming ‘craft’ and business management.

[Note: We gave a score for alignment of these policies with Sustain’s Manifesto. We have high concerns about the over-arching plans to scrap climate-related farm subsidies and environmental policies, and no support for restoration of nature.]

Want to remain in the EU.

Provide sustainable funding for farming. 

Increase funding for farming to at least pre-Brexit levels.

Improve transparency within the supply chain and strengthen the Groceries Code Adjudicator to tackle unfair practice.

Build local food infrastructure such as processing capacity.

Give Wales a veto over future trade deals that undermine Welsh farmers.

Demand more flexibility with the Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) on tree cover demands.

Move away from the ‘costs incurred/income foregone’ funding model.

Use procurement policy to shorten supply chains, cut food miles and create local jobs.  

Farm subsidies based on 'public money for public goods' in environment and animal welfare. Guarantee the current annual budget for farm subsidies until 2024.

At least 50% of public sector food expenditure on food produced locally or to higher environmental production standards.   

Reform the Climate Change Committee, giving it a mandate to consider cost.   

Abolish ‘nutrient neutrality’ rules.   

New laws to curb 'disruptive protests'. [Which could affect farmers, communities and organisations in our movement]

[We gave a score for alignment of these policies with Sustain’s Manifesto. We have concerns about the slowing down of net zero committments given the urgency of addressing the climate and nature emergency.]”

Subsidies for sustainable farming, including organic, agroforestry and mixed farms; Grants for new low carbon machinery; Grants for transitioning to agroecological farming; subsidies for restoring hedgerows; Greater security of farm tenure and encouraging new entrants; Encourage shift away from intensive farming and invest in smaller-scale, more people-focussed food production and land management that respects nature. They also want to prohibit the routine use of antibiotics for farm animals.

50% local or high environmental standard public sector food procurement target.

Improve access to nature, promote biodiversity, and protect our landscapes and wildlife.

Meet Environment Act targets.

Reduce waste by moving to a circular economy.

Aim to be climate leaders at home to restore the strong global leadership needed to tackle the climate crisis.

Farming subsidies to support environmental land management and sustainable food production, invest in county farms and increase access for new farming entrants.

Use public procurement to champion food produced to high environmental standards.   

Cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net zero by 2045, and by at least 68% by 2030.  

More powers and resources to local councils for local net zero strategies.  

A duty to protect the environment for big companies, and to become nature positive across supply chains.  

Research and Innovation Fund to support technologies including alternative proteins.  

Binding targets to stop the decline of our natural environment and ‘double nature’ by 2050, including a nature-related financial disclosure requirements for large businesses.  

Strengthen the Office for Environmental Protection and more funding to the Environment Agency and Natural England.

A ‘blue corridor’ programme for rivers, streams and lakes to ensure clean and healthy water and new ‘blue flag’ standards  

More regular and robust testing of water quality. [Which could pick up pollution from industrial animal farming units.]

Support for farmers to reduce the pollution of rivers, streams and lakes.  

Introduce a Nature Act with an £18bn fund over 5 years and targets for improving water, air, soil and biodiversity. Support the 'public money for public goods' approach, including restoring nature and protecting the countryside, preventing flooding and combating climate change.

Encourage a move to mixed farming along with a reduction in meat and dairy production and link farm payments to reducing pesticide use.

Free school meals based on local and organic or sustainable produce.

Policies that ensure good quality surplus food is not wasted.

A carbon tax to incentivise businesses to decarbonise supply chains and to help raise the money needed to shift to a net-zero economy. 

A new Rights of Nature Act giving legal personhood to nature, including requiring a move towards regenerative farming methods.

A separate Climate and Nature Act. This will address the full extent of the climate and nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science.

Restore rivers and increase budget for enforcement agencies, to end the flow of pollution into rivers and the sea from fertilisers, agriculutral waste and sewage, through effective monitoring and enforcement. 

Implement new horticulture support for fruit and vegetable production. 

Ensure that trade deals meet UK animal protection and environmental standards.

Reintroduce nature into our urban environments, with investment in schemes such as street planting of native trees, compulsory hedgehog holes in all new fencing, swift bricks and bee corridors.  

Support greater transition to organic and other sustainable farming systems.

Taxpayer funded organisations should source 75% of their food from the UK [but no mention of nutrition, environment, ethical or welfare standards]

Abandon all existing carbon emissions targets.

Scrap net zero and renewable energy subsidies, fast-track new oil and gas.

Scrap climate-related farming subsidies, e.g. for solar farms or rewilding.

Reduce Natural England powers.

[We gave a score for alignment of these policies with Sustain’s Manifesto. We have high concerns about the over-arching plans to scrap climate-related farm subsidies and environmental policies, and no support for restoration of nature.]

Want to extend the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to root out unfair treatment of farmers.

Call on Westminster to ensure fair funding flows to devolved nations to enable climate ambition given that for the whole of the UK to reach net zero by 2050, Scotland must do so by 2045.

Establish a Four Nations Climate Response Group to agree climate plans across the UK that deliver on our net-zero targets.

Commit to reach net zero targets in Wales by 2035 and reversing biodiversity decline.

Use procurement policy to shorten supply chains, cut food miles and create local jobs.

Work towards a target of 75% of Welsh public sector spend being with companies located in Wales (no specific mention of food).

Introduce biodiversity targets. 

Think beyond economic growth in terms of GDP and urge the government to consider other ways of measuring the economy.  

Ensure the school curriculum equips young people with understanding of climate challenges.  

A new independent Office For Environmental Protection with targets, including for air quality. A £640 million new Nature for Climate (Net Zero) fund. An additional 75,000 acres of trees a year by the end of the next Parliament, as well as restoring our peatland. New National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, ban the export of plastic waste to non-OECD countries, new levy to increase the proportion of recyclable plastics in packaging.

Says: "Free school meals have been extended to more groups of children than under any other government over the past half a century" and commits to: "Protecting day-to-day schools spending in real terms per pupil".

£100bn Green New Deal to reduce the UK's carbon emissions to net zero by 2030, replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, plant 700 million trees, with focus on those that can produce food. Change planning to encourage 'rewilding' of spaces for wildlife. Moratorium on GM foods, including food from animals fed on GM feed. Encourage new green spaces. Tax on meat and dairy products, reduce the 5% of the UK's carbon emissions that come from livestock, help farmers transition to sustainable farming. Initiatives to reduce food waste, and allow food waste to be used to feed pigs and chickens. Better flood management measures, a public information campaign on biodiversity loss and Climate Emergency. Reduce pesticide and fungicide use by at least 50% by 2022. Protect communities from pesticide spraying; apply the precautionary principle to pesticides.

Fund free breakfast clubs in every primary school, accessible to all children. Breakfast clubs will support parents through the cost-of-living crisis. 

Green New Deal to reduce 'majority' of emissions by 2030. £250bn Green Transformation Fund dedicated to renewable and low-carbon energy and transport, biodiversity and environmental restoration; want to stop off shoring emissions, a Climate Apprenticeship programme, a Clean Air act, targets for restoration of species and habitats, tree planting programme and funding for environment regulators. net-zero-carbon food production in Britain by 2040.

Extend free school meals to all children in poverty, with an ambition to extend them to all primary school children when the public finances allow. 

Pass a Clean Air Act enforced by a new Air Quality Agency, coordinate the planting of 60 million trees a year and requrire greater use of sustainably harvested wood in construction. Invest in large scale restoration of peatlands, heathland, wetlands etc , Significantly increase the amount of accessible green space, completing the coastal path, exploring a 'right to roam' for waterways and creating a new designation of National Nature Parks. Give the Local Green Space designation the force of law. Require all UK companies to set Paris Agreement targets and establish a general corporate duty of care for the environment. Establish UK and local Citizens' Climate Assemblies and make all local authorities produce a Zero Carbon Strategy. Guarantee an independent Office of Environmental Protection with powers and targets. Increase government expenditure on climate and create a new Green Investment Bank and increasing funding for innovation and technology centres on farming and land use and on carbon dioxide removal. End fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, and provide funding for areas and communities negatively affected by the transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

All children to have a daily free school meal, made from nutritious ingredients and based on local and organic or sustainable produce and free breakfast clubs for children to Year 6.

Schools to involve children in growing, preparing and cooking food, as part of the core curriculum, so that they recognise and understand how to use basic fresh produce. 

A Green New Deal – combating climate change by becoming 100% self-sufficient in renewable electricity by 2035. Legislation to tackle the extinction crisis, placing a legal obligation on this and future governments to act for the recovery of nature.

Want the UK to accelerate its action to meet Scotland’s climate change targets of a 75% reduction in emissions by 2035, net zero carbon emissions no later than 2040 and net zero of all emissions by 2045.

With school food being a devolved matter, the party's 2021 election manifesto pledged free school lunches for all primary school children. This manifesto mentions their record on extending free school meal provision so far. 

Plaid Cymru agreement with Welsh Labour helped secure universal primary school meals. Plaid Cymru will continue to campaign for universal meals and expand the scheme to years 7-11. 

Leave the Common Fisheries Policy, maintain funding for fisheries across the UK, support the regeneration of coastal communities. A legal commitment to fish sustainably and a legal requirement for a plan to achieve maximum sustainable yield for each stock.

Legislate to restrict the advertising of products high in fat, salt and sugar.

Tackle childhood and adult obesity.

Deliver a family hub in every local authority in England.

Publish and implement a Major Conditions Strategy. [we assume this would cover diet-related conditions such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers]. 

Gather new evidence on the impact of ultra-processed food. 

Review the Common Fisheries Policy to improve sustainability. Commit to making at least 30% of UK domestic waters into fully protected marine protected areas by 2030 and increase the 'blue belt' protecting British Overseas Territories' waters from commercial extraction.

Ban advertising unhealthy food to children.

Ban the sale of energy drinks to under-16s.

Take preventative public health measures to tackle the biggest killers. [we assume this would cover diet-related conditions such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers].

Tackle health inequalities and tackle social determinants of health.

Create a legacy from international sporting events by promoting exercise and healthy living. 

Set maximum sustainable yields for all shared fish stocks, redistribute fish quotas along social and environmental criteria and (if people vote to leave the EU) require the majority of fish caught under a UK quota to be landed in UK ports.

Extend the soft drinks levy to juice-based and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar.

Protect children from exposure to junk food by supporting local authorities to restrict outdoor advertising and restricting TV advertising to post watershed.

Establish a ‘Health Creation Unit’ in the Cabinet Office and introduce a Cabinet minister for children and young people.

Introduce supervised toothbrushing training for children in nurseries and schools.

Challenge 'damaging stigma about weight'.

Establish a 'blue belt' of marine protected areas covering at least 50 per cent of UK waters by 2030. Introduce sustainable fisheries policy, rebuild depleted fish stocks and have a decentralised and regionalised fisheries management system. Flexible immigration policy to ensure catching and processing sectors have access to labour.

Reducing cancer cases through investment in public health measures, such as interventions on food, alcohol and tobacco.

Public health to be a cross-government priority.  

Restore public health budgets to 2015/16 levels with an immediate annual increase of £1.5bn. 

Plaid Cymru supports a strong UN Global Ocean Treaty capable of creating a network of ocean sanctuaries covering at least 30% of oceans by 2030. This should involve an immediate moratorium on deep sea mining.

Want to help the Scottish fishing industry 'grow sustainably'.

A preventative public health strategy that rebalances resources to prevent people becoming ill.

A review of the financing model for Wales should better consider the determinants of healthcare to meet our needs.

Increase the annual quota for the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme from 2,500 to 10,000.

Public procurement commitment to sustainable and/or local and ‘prioritising SMEs where practical’.

Pledges around planning permission for tree planting and 15-minute walk access to nature [but not specifically to do with food or farming].

Localise food systems and put control over the resources to produce, distribute and access food in the hands of communities and workers. Encourage urban food growing, including new community farms and allotments, through the planning system, and matching garden owners with those who want to grow for communal benefit.

Deepen devolution settlements for existing Combined Authorities.

Local areas given more power over planning.

Move healthcare into local communities.

Release of lower quality ‘grey belt’ land for development. 

Support local food networks, expand access to farm holdings and re-establish an Agricultural Wages Board in England.

More powers and resources to local councils for local net zero strategies. 

A food partnership in every area, and for a Local Food Enterprise Fund to be set up. 

Specify more pro-active public procurement policies to support local producers.

Existing Good Food Nation Act and commitment to incorporate Rights of the Child into policy offer a helpful framework.

Demand the devolution of new borrowing powers to invest in a just transition and deliver a fair and managed transition to net zero.
 

Develop Welsh supply chains and retain value within the Welsh economy [which we assume could include food].  

Increase income “for the average worker on £35,000” by £1,350.

Legislate for a right to food, and create new providers to supply this food at an affordable price to schools.

'Good work’ approach to tackling poverty and inequality.

Committed to reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty.  

Want to end “mass dependence on emergency food parcels”. 

Develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty.

Introduce free breakfast clubs for children.  

Introduce a 'Right to Food', halve food bank usage within a year and remove the need for them in three years. Review the Allotments Act. Make food security a reason to intervene in the economy and work with local councils to minimise food waste. Introduce free school meals for all primary school children.

Introduce a holistic and comprehensive National Food Strategy to ensure food security, tackle rising food prices, end food poverty and improve health and nutrition. 

Establish a Right to Food.

Everyone to have sufficient income to make healthy sustainable food choices.  

Commit to lifting 50k children out of poverty.

Make work pay: Lift the income tax start point to £20,000 per year.

They will press for a new right to food for all SNP and want the UK gov to introduce a benefit that will reduce child poverty, re-establish UK-wide child poverty targets and establish a Poverty and Inequality Commission.

Legislate for an essentials guarantee ensuring that everyone can afford basic necessities like food and utilities.

Continue to call for the full devolution of social security powers.

Mentions Scottish Child Payment now sitting at £26.70 per child a week.

Scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Urge the UK Government to grant asylum seekers the right to work [no specific mention of food, but a committment to improving the conditions for asylum seekers, including the ability to buy food].

Increase Child Benefit by £20 per week.

Scrap the policy of the two-child limit on Universal Credit payments and end the benefit cap that stops families from claiming the full amount.

Maintain their commitment to free school meals.

Promote children's access to healthy food and tackle childhood obesity, including updating the School Food Standards and renaming 'Free School Meals' the 'School Meals Allowance' to tackle stigma.

Introduce free school meals for all primary school children. Want to extend the sugar tax to milk drinks, ban fast-food restaurants near schools and enforce stricter rules around the advertising of junk food and levels of salt in food. Invest £1 bn in public health and recruit 4,500 more health visitors and school nurses.

Develop a strategy to tackle childhood obesity including restricting the marketing of junk food to children, Close loopholes in the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, extending it to juice- and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar. Extend free school meals to all primary children and to all secondary children whose families receive UC, as well as promoting school breakfast clubs.

Want to 'improve' hospital food and want to encourage the public sector to 'Buy British' to support farmers and reduce environmental costs. Maintain their commitment to free school meals.

Commitment to update the School Food Standards. Update the School Food Standards and rename 'Free School Meals' the 'School Meals Allowance' to tackle stigma.

Free school meals for all primary school children.

Introduce a holistic and comprehensive National Food Strategy to ensure food security, tackle rising food prices, end food poverty and improve health and nutrition.   

The national food strategy should include the use of public procurement policy, to promote the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable and affordable food and cut down on food waste.

Tackling the unfairness in the system through revitalising the abandoned National Food Strategy.  

Specify more pro-active public procurement policies to support local producers.

Will press for all relevant UK gov departments and agencies to achieve the Food for Life catering award and to purchase more Scottish food produced to current farm assurance standards.

The SNP's Good Food Nation Act aims to make Scotland a 'Good Food Nation' and pulls together the different pieces of food policy to ensure they align and work together. 

Say British farmers and fishermen should be able to profit by producing high quality and high production standard food and fish and say they will 'not compromise' UK's environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards in trade negotiations.

Promote the benefits of healthy diets, based on locally and sustainably produced food, and 'less but better' meat and dairy, including clear labelling to indicate carbon emissions, high animal welfare and intensive production methods. Complete ban on cages, close confinement and deliberate mutilation of farm animals.

Require labelling for food products and publication of information on calorie, fat, sugar and salt content in restaurants and takeaways. Restrict how products high in fat, salt and sugar are marketed and advertised by multiple retailers. Improve standards of animal health and welfare in agriculture, including a ban on caged hens, and promote the responsible use of antimicrobials.

Want future trade policy to uphold environmental protections and want deals that will not weaken standards and rules on food safety. They want full powers over food labelling. They want to secure geographical indications for key Welsh food in future trade deals.

Will support Scottish government in maintaining EU regulations on animal and plant health and environmental and food safety.

Commitment to their National Food Strategy.

A new Food and Agriculture Research Council to research sustainable and health-promoting methods of food production and distribution. Research the reduction of livestock methane and soil conservation.

Want a National Food Commission.

Introduce a National Food Strategy, broaden the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and increase the budget for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, ensuring that agencies such as Natural England and the Environment Agency are properly funded. Establish a Department for Climate Change and Natural Resources.

Want to create a "stronger" domestic food market, with more processing, supported by public procurement policies.