How can we help build the UK’s readiness to avert a food crisis, and what would it actually take?

A new study, involving 31 food system experts from across academia, government, industry and civil society, maps out how a serious food crisis could unfold in the UK, and what can be done to prevent it. It identifies the chronic vulnerabilities already present in our food system, the triggers most likely to ignite them, and crucially, the interventions most likely to work. 

We found that technical fixes were clearly not enough. What the experts consistently prioritised was longer-term policy planning, genuine cross-government coordination, and bringing affected communities into preparedness work. 

This raises urgent questions. Given that the governance mechanisms we’d need to respond effectively are the same ones that recent crises have exposed as under-resourced, how do we build genuine resilience? What should government, business and communities be doing now? And how can we elevate the issue of food security so that it’s taken as seriously as energy security?

This is the second in AFN’s webinar series on food system resilience. Our first session with IGD asked what climate change, geopolitics and the current economic system could cost the food supply chain. This one turns to the bigger picture: how do those risks combine with existing vulnerabilities, and what does that mean for policy, investment and preparedness?

About Aled: 

Aled Jones is Inaugural Director of the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University, where his research focuses on risks and opportunities in the geopolitics of global resource trends, including food, energy, and biodiversity, and how the finance sector and government will need to respond. He was an invited author on the international dimensions of risk chapter for the UK Government’s third Climate Change Risk Assessment, and has served on the UK-US Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food Resilience and as a member of the Science Advisory Group for the UK Global Food Security programme. 

About Sarah:

Sarah Bridle is a Director of the AFN Network+ and Professor of Food, Climate and Society in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York. Sarah researches both the environmental impact of food and the vulnerability of the UK food system. Her science book, Food and Climate Change – Without the Hot Air, investigates the climate impacts of different dietary choices.