Brexit has left the government learning a hard lesson over food production

MPs have warned the government that Britain is becoming more – not less dependent – on food imports since Brexit and that the consequences cannot be ignored.

The reason? Much food picked in the UK actually relied on seasonal workers from the European Union to be harvested.

The cross-party Environment and Food Committee said labour shortages, if unfixed, would lead to “food production being exported and increased imports” meaning that the UK food production industry would “permanently” shrink unless the problems were dealt with.

The scenario has been compounded by Covid-19 – but MPs are clear that European workers are simply no longer showing up. “We found clear evidence that labour shortages have badly affected the food and farming industry — threatening food security, the welfare of animals and the mental health of those working in the sector,” the inquiry report said.

The picture painted by the MPs is stark, and at odds with the one some Brexiteers painted before Britain’s departure from EU.

Liz Truss, now foreign secretary but for years in charge of Brexit’s supposed trade opportunities, famously said it was a “disgrace” that Britain imported so much cheese, apples and pears.

And while he was in the cabinet, Chris Grayling argued that a hard Brexit could lead to more British produce being sourced locally.

Instead, food is rotting in the fields, going unpicked. The report says vacancies in the food production sector were estimated to be 500,000 out of 4.1 million roles as of August 2021, the most recent harvest season.

Britain is already very heavily reliant on food imports, with 48 per cent of nosh coming from abroad. It’s a road the UK has been travelling down for some time. The same committee behind this latest report also found in January that “blind optimism” shown by ministers about their plan for post-Brexit farming subsidies could drive UK farms out of business and also increase reliance on food imports.

Does it matter if more food is imported? Perhaps not most of the time – though price fluctuations in certain commodities caused by the war in Ukraine illustrate some of the possible pitfalls. But any transition to an economy based even more heavily on imported food would be economically difficult, with farmers – already struggling – having to scale down production even further and perhaps go out of business.

MPs have called on ministers to “radically shift” their attitudes, having failed to demonstrate a “strong understanding” of the issues and had even sought in some instances “pass the blame onto the sector on the basis of incorrect information about its own immigration system”. Whatever the outcome, the episode is a good illustration of how the world economy is not a binary choice between self-sufficiency and inter-connectedness.

Policies that are framed as having their roots in “going it alone” and returning power to the nation state can actually make a country more reliant on others. And likewise, international cooperation can also help a country stand on its own two feet. This is one big lesson the UK is learning the hard way.