Most of the campaigns that I have supported have fallen at their early stages. Many have turned out to be sound-bite issues: a lot of coverage in the socials and then they go silent. What is going wrong?
At the end of 2023, I signed up to the campaign Get Fair About Farming. Its aim was to ensure supermarkets buy the UK fruit and vegetables that they were committed to, payed on time, confirmed long-term agreements, defined fair specifications, and honoured agreed prices. It was an important issue because around 49% of UK fruit and vegetable growers feared collapse within the year. A petition with 113,000+ signatures was collected and it was supported by public figures such as Dragon’s Den star Deborah Meaden, chef Rick Stein and wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham. The target of the campaign was to strengthen the Groceries Code Adjudicator who is responsible for regulating the relationships between the UK’s largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers.
I followed the debate held in Parliament during the early part of 2024. Then it went silent. I contacted a few MPs and the originator of the campaign to find out what was happening but the silence continued. I eventually found out, through web searches, that Minister Mark Spencer, the then Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs acknowledged the debate but indicated no intention to change the Grocery Supply Code of Practice. Instead, he stated the government’s plans to introduce statutory supply chain codes under the Agriculture Act, but without clear timelines.
It is important to put the Get Fair About Farming campaign in context. The UK imports approximately 54% of the fresh vegetables that it consumes, and around 84% of fruit comes from overseas. Tariffs on imported fruit and vegetables vary by product, typically 6–16%, but many are zero under trade deals. The ability to import fruit and vegetables with minimal import tariffs puts the supermarkets in a powerful buying position with little or no economic incentive to buy UK products.
The fundamental problem for farmers is selling enough produce at a price that sustains their business into the future and at the same time improving the environment. With over 100,000 signatures gathered by the the Get Fair About Farming campaign, the organisers should have used the support to apply pressure on the government after the Parliamentary debate and the Minister’s decision. With about 30% of the UK population meeting the recommended 5+ portions daily they could have joined in the wider movement to get more fruit and vegetables on people’s plates and combined forces with campaigns such as Peas Please, Eat Then To Defeat Them or supported the NHS’s trialFruit & vegetable on Prescription. The campaign could have shone a light on the problems that they were experiencing with the supermarkets which are undermining the aims of the wider health initiatives, and campaigned for the government to ‘level up the playing field’ with imported fruit & vegetable through adjusting import tariffs.
I have signed up to a range of campaigns over the years, whether improving the health of rivers to reducing poverty. So far, they have all ground to a near standstill. Campaigns need to identify the key issue that they are addressing and be prepared to maintain its momentum with ongoing public engagement. Next time you are asked to sign up, or contribute either time or money, to a campaign ask your self if they are targeting the underlying issues or is it another sound-bite campaign.