Featured as part of our Food for Thought unit with Year 7.
The Food Foundation has released a new research report exploring the resilience of the UK to keep providing our ‘five a day’ given the heatwaves we have had this summer - not just in the UK but across Europe - and severe weather in other parts of the world.
The UK's plan seems to be that we just buy food from other countries rather than grow it ourself. Assuming that: a) the price doesn't go up massively and b) they are happy to keep sending us food rather than using it to feed their own populations.
Long term, that doesn't seem like a good idea... and not overly resilient.
Food security is national security.
Five of the UK’s nine most-purchased fruits can be grown domestically – including apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and pears – but the UK grows less than 40% of domestic consumption for four of those.
For vegetables, only carrots reach a high level of self-sufficiency (94%), while the UK could grow more of the vegetables most popular with British consumers, including tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, cucumbers, onions, broccoli and green beans, where only about half are produced domestically.
We currently import 80% of our fruit and 47% of our veg and the worsening climate and nature crisis globally means this reliance on imports poses a growing threat to our food and nutrition security.
