Peers briefed on UK food and national security risks

Yesterday in the House of Lords, we hosted a private briefing with Lieutenant General Richard Nugee and Professor Timothy Lang on UK food security.

We heard how the UK's food system, built for efficiency and just-in-time management, currently relies on imports for around 40% of the food we consume, including 85% of our fruit and 50% of our vegetables.

In an increasingly unstable global context, with climate impacts disrupting agricultural production and geopolitical instability exposing vulnerabilities in global fertiliser and food supply chains, important questions need to be asked about the resilience of our food system and our preparedness for future shortages and price shocks.

The discussion made one point clear: climate change, geopolitical instability, fragile supply chains and declining soil health are converging to make food system resilience a national security priority.

The challenge now is to move beyond recognising these risks and towards building a food system that is both more resilient and better able to harness the benefits of sustainable and regenerative farming practices.

We also need greater public awareness of the food security challenges we face, alongside stronger community engagement and policy solutions such as local "right to grow" initiatives.

As our speakers argued, resilience and sustainability are not competing objectives - they are inseparable.

Many thanks to Richard and Tim and everyone who joined such a thought-provoking discussion. It certainly reinforced the need to place UK food security much higher on the public and political agenda.