Agriculture Act 2020

24 Meaning of “agri-food supply chain”

(1) This section has effect for the purposes of this Chapter.

(2) An “agri-food supply chain” is a supply chain for providing individuals with items of food or drink for personal consumption where the items consist of or include, or have been produced using (directly or indirectly, and whether or not exclusively), the whole or part of—

(a) anything grown or otherwise produced in carrying on agriculture,

(b) any creature kept in carrying on agriculture, or

(c) any creature or other thing taken from the wild.

(3) The persons in an agri-food supply chain are—

(a) those individuals (“the ultimate consumers”),

(b) the persons carrying on the agriculture or (as the case may be) taking things from the wild, and

(c) anybody in the supply chain between those persons and the ultimate consumers.

(4) The persons “closely connected” with an agri-food supply chain are—

(a) anybody supplying seeds, stock, equipment, feed, fertiliser, pesticides, medicines or similar items to the persons within subsection (3)(b) for use in the agriculture or taking,

(b) anybody providing, to persons within subsection (3)(b) or (c), services related to—

(i) the health of creatures, or plants, involved in the supply chain, or

(ii) the safety or quality of the food or drink to be provided to the ultimate consumers,

(c) any person carrying on activities capable of affecting a matter mentioned in sub-paragraph (i) or (ii) of paragraph (b), and

(d) bodies representing persons within any of paragraphs (b) and (c) of subsection (3) and paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of this subsection.

(5) Activities of the kind mentioned in subsection (4)(c) are to be treated for the purposes of section 23(1) and (2) as connected with the supply chain, but this is not to be read as limiting the generality of “connected” in section 23(1) and (2).

(6) In this section—

• “agriculture” includes any growing of plants, and any keeping of creatures, for the production of food or drink;

• “plants” includes fungi;

• “seeds” includes bulbs and other things from which plants grow.