Zack Polanski will use a Monday speech to tell the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union that Britain’s food system is “close to collapse” and press for tougher action to back farmers and the people who keep the sector running. The Green Party co-leader will say food workers are too often “sneered at,” while growers are left without a fair deal from supermarkets.
He is speaking now because the warning is tied to the weather already hitting the country. Polanski says the UK had received 23% less rain than average by the beginning of May and that, just a couple of weeks ago, the hottest May day ever recorded in the UK was seen. He will argue that a warming climate is no longer a distant threat, but something already shaping how food is grown, moved and sold.
In remarks set to be delivered on Monday, Polanski will say the strain is being felt by workers as well as farmers. He plans to tell the union that people in the food system are working longer hours, often in hotter or wetter conditions, and on precarious contracts that make it harder to take sick leave or a day off. “That doesn’t just mean more people getting sick from extreme heat, or more pressure on infrastructure that just isn’t built for these temperatures. As many of you in this room well know, it has terrifying implications for the most fundamental need we all have – food,” he is expected to say.
The Green leader will also call for robust regulation of supermarkets so growers receive a fair deal for their produce, and he is expected to demand that the government present a “real plan” to bolster the struggling agricultural sector. The wider Green package reaches beyond farming: the party wants free school meals extended to all primary and secondary pupils, a £1,000-a-month basic income for some agricultural workers paid for through a levy on the wealthiest landowners, and a universal £15-an-hour minimum wage, with small businesses shielded through cuts to National Insurance contributions.
Labour, though, says the Greens are ignoring what is already under way. A party spokesperson said the government is investing £200 million to help farming adapt to a changing climate, has committed to maintaining domestic food production levels and is bringing forward protections for farmers in the supply chain. That leaves Polanski with the harder task on Monday: explaining not just why the system is under strain, but how his party would pay for and deliver the overhaul it is demanding.
He is set to invoke the Climate Change Committee’s warning that temperatures above 40C could be seen within 25 years, a line designed to turn the debate from weather statistics into a question of national resilience. Whether that lands with farmers, food workers and voters will depend on the next step he has not yet been forced to spell out — how a more regulated food market, higher wages and new support for workers would be implemented in practice.
