Food Security and Climate Change: information and resources

According to Abraham Mazlow’s Hirearchy of Needs (see Wikipedia), the need for food is equal alongside those of water, warmth and the ability to rest as the fundamental requirements for the well-being of a human being. Food security is about us having the knowledge and assurance that our basic needs around food will be met; food insecurity is when we don’t. Our food should not only be available to us without the need for excessive physical effort, but also ideally be nutritious to eat, safe to eat, and thus meet our basic dietary requirements.

Regrettably, Climate Change can negatively affect all areas of food security, including the availability of, access to, and utilisation of food, as well as the stability of its supply. As climate tipping points become more likely, the undertaking of proactive measures to ensure our food security are essential to our understanding of the increasing risks as well as how to safeguard our food systems.

It is essential that food systems provide dependable and available nutrition while also being economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. With the current cost of living in the UK and the steady increases in food prices, food insecurity currently affects one in five UK households.

According to the UK Food Security Index, published July 2024, the UK relies on imports for roughly 40% of its food, citing that strong production mitigates international risks to supply and strong trade mitigates national risks to supply.

The aforementioned UK Food Security Index, published by the UK Government, showed that it considers the industry broadly stable, but highlighted risks in the areas of agricultural productivity, and fertiliser and energy prices.

What is being done about it in the UK?

The last Conservative Government under Rishi Sunak published a plan of action to tackle the problem in their Blueprint to grow the UK fruit and vegetable sector and prior to that, the Johnson Government published a Food Strategy. Some pundits and tax experts say that, with the recent changes to Inheritance Tax under the Starmer government and their potential effect on small independent farms (also this BBC article), it feels at present like things might be going in the wrong direction! Farmer’s Weekly is particularly critical of the government (note this, like many of the articles linked here, are opinion pieces).

That said, Sir Kier did remark on the launch of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024 that the UK Government is delivering practical support to keep food on the tables of communities as well as to help build climate resilience and protect harvests in countries across Africa and Asia. The Government has yet to make clear its policy on how it will implement these desires, both abroad or in the UK.

But what can we do?

Whilst we wait for the slow wheels of government to turn and this to become clearer, let’s see what we can do in our communities to help meet our needs. We can think global about the problem of Climate Change, but we are best empowered to do something about it when we act in our local communities.

Reduce Food Waste

Some seven million tonnes of food is estimated to be wasted every year in the UK. The World Food Programme estimates that about one fifth of all food produced worldwide is wasted. That’s estimated to be around 1,000 million meals per day. The House of Lords reported in detail on food waste in 2021.

The British Heart Foundation publish a great summary of 10 ways we can reduce our food waste and the Keep Britain Tidy campaign has similar ideas to help us reduce food waste.

Wrap, who cite themselves as being a global environmental action NGO transforming our broken product and food systems to create Circular Living for the benefit of climate, nature and people, have published a Food Waste Reduction Roadmap primarily aimed at businesses, but there is lots of interesting content that can help us as consumers and advocates for the reduction of food waste.

Campaigning with local shops to collect and redistribute food, not just supermarkets but local shops also. Supporting and donating to food banks. Encouraging food banks to distribute healthy and nutritious food that are not proven to be causes of illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, and food that supports healthy brain development.

Community Growing and Sustainable Food Production

According to the UK Food Security Index, the UK produces most of the cereals, meat, dairy, and eggs that it consumes, but we only produce 55% of our vegetables, and a mere 17% of the fruit due to climate, seasonality and consumer and producer choices. We can make deliberate consumer choices here: to reduce our expectation for and consumption of exotic fruit and veg, as well as by sticking more closely to the seasonality of what we are able to produce in the UK. There are plenty of benefits to community growing, including improvements in community relations and personal health and mental well-being, increased biodiversity, better soil and water system management, as well as a reduction in food waste.

The Right to Grow movement focusses on repurposing under-utilised publicly-owned land for the growing of food. Founded in Todmorden in 2008, Incredible Edible have long advocated for both food security and the right to grow. In 2023, Hull became the first local authority to allow community growing on public land. And advocacy and campaigning for the repurposing of land is happening up and down the country, even in densely populated cities like London. Use this on-line directory to find your local Incredible Edible group or associate group, or consider starting your own Right to Grow group if there isn’t one already.

As well as the newer Right to Grow movement, there are the venerable allotment associations all over the country. These are enshrined in law, and local authorities are obliged to provide plots to citizens should there be enough demand. For more information, check out the National Allotment Society, and for a great example of local allotment associations, check out those of the City of Oxford, where veteran green campaigner and writer, George Monbiot, has his own plot. The Royal Horticultural Society has information about the basics of allotmenting.

The SG project is aimed at establishing the Right to Grow in boroughs in London and then replicate the process throughout the UK initially in areas where there is an established CEC

The Good to Grow Network supports getting people involved in local community gardening around the UK and have a tool to find your local community garden.

Food co-ops

Food co-ops are local buying collectives that aim to buy largely sustainable and ethical food in bulk so as to make it affordable for the members of the group. Common suppliers include ethical whole-food providers Essential Trading and Suma Wholefoods themselves organised as non-hierarchical cooperatives. Sustain have a great toolkit portal page on the topic that has lots of information and links.

Some more links on the topic:

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/news/how-pioneering-place-based-interventions-are-creating-more-resilient-food-systems
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9209/

Education and Advocacy

The Sustainable Food Trust has a great article on their website regarding what initiatives are required in order to allow small-scale growers to be successful. This includes

?? Perhaps something in this section regarding resources to help people with:

learning more about food production
campaigning with local authorities
consuming nutritious and affordable food