The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales has published important new guidance – Food for Our Future – setting out how local authorities can help create fairer, healthier and more resilient food systems. Its message is clear: Wales cannot achieve its well-being goals without urgent action to improve access to local, healthy and sustainable food.
The guidance highlights the scale of the challenge. One in three children in Wales start school above a healthy weight, 30% of households have recently experienced food insecurity, and only 6% of vegetables served in Welsh primary schools come from Wales. At the same time, climate change and global instability are putting pressure on the food supply chain.
But it also points to the progress already being made. Every local authority in Wales now has a Local Food Partnership – including here in Neath Port Talbot – and Welsh Government has committed to strengthening local food systems through its Community Food Strategy, Healthy Weight Healthy Wales, and support for Welsh Veg in Schools.
What the guidance calls for
The Commissioner sets out a series of practical steps local authorities can take, including:
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Developing a local food resilience strategy, shaped by communities, growers, businesses and partners.
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Using planning policies to increase access to land for food growing and support healthier food environments.
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Strengthening procurement to bring more local and sustainable food onto the public plate, especially in schools.
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Embedding food access and “cash-first” approaches within wider anti-poverty work.
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Supporting healthier, more sustainable food environments across leisure centres, festivals and public spaces.
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Reducing food waste through better monitoring, community composting and behaviour-change campaigns.
The guidance emphasises the value of partnership working, the importance of long-term thinking under the Well-being of Future Generations Act, and the growing movement across Wales to make good food a defining feature of local places.
What it means for Neath Port Talbot
For the NPT Food Partnership, this publication reinforces the work already underway: building stronger local supply chains, supporting community food initiatives, working with schools and communities, and bringing partners together to take a more strategic, joined-up approach to food.
We welcome this guidance and the national recognition of the role that local food partnerships play. Over the coming months, we’ll be working closely with Neath Port Talbot Council, local growers, health partners and our community organisations to explore how the recommendations can shape our own priorities and help strengthen the local food system for the long term.
A resilient food system is essential to community wellbeing, local prosperity and the health of future generations — and this guidance provides a strong foundation for action.
Click here to read the full PDF report from the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.