Food Focus

From farm to fork, food is critical to achieving Wales’ well-being goals for the health of our people and our planet.

Carbon emissions from agriculture are projected to increase, while the food system is a contributor to nature loss and global deforestation. We waste food at an unsustainable rate and rising food costs and escalating levels of diet-related illness, including obesity, along with climate change and insecure global food supply chains, pose huge long-term challenges to Wales’ well-being and our ability to feed current and future generations.

The fact that Wales’ food security is heavily reliant on the UK and global food systems should not prevent us from taking action where we can. Wales needs a resilient, long-term plan that shifts agricultural impact towards having a positive outcome on climate and nature restoration, ensuring safe, affordable, healthy diets for people, especially children.

Rural and farming communities are a big part of the solution – they are integral to feeding Wales, protecting nature and are part of our vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language.

Public services must use their levers for change, for example, doing more to facilitate community growing and sustainable land use, considering the wider implications of planning decisions on communities and nature, providing the framework of farming subsidies and grants and understanding the local and global impact of food spending.

Future Generations Report 2025: Recommendations

1. The next Welsh Government should develop a national food resilience plan to ensure equal access to local, affordable, healthy, and sustainable diets. Food and diets should be integrated into the duties, goals, and indicators of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
2. Welsh Government should expand Free School Meals to all children up to age 16, ensuring every child in Wales, including children from households with no recourse to public funds, have access to healthy and sustainable food at school.
3. Welsh Government should scale up the Nutrition Skills for Life programme across all schools in Wales, ensuring that every child leaves school food literate, with the skills and knowledge to maintain a healthy and sustainable diet.
4. Each Local Authority should develop a local food resilience plan in collaboration with Local Food Partnerships and Public Services Boards. Welsh Government should ensure that the proposed Community Food Strategy provides long-term support to develop these plans.
5. Welsh Government and Local Authorities should ensure all free school meals contain at least two portions of locally and sustainably produced seasonal vegetables. Local Authorities should join the Welsh Veg in Schools programme to build resilient local horticulture supply chains.
6. All public bodies should reduce or eliminate the provision of food groups which can be categorised as both 1) Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF) and also 2) high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) from their premises, such as schools, hospitals, leisure centres and care homes. Public bodies should ban the advertising and promotion of these food groups from all publicly owned advertising and marketing spaces.
7. Welsh Government, Local Authorities and Health Boards should collaborate to introduce a Welsh fresh fruit and vegetable voucher scheme for low-income households, helping families afford nutritious food while supporting local food growers.