British government ‘complacent about food as a national security matter’

Britain does not have a plan for how to feed people in a crisis and is unprepared for potential future food shortages, according to a warning from more than 150 experts delivered to Andy Burnham.

The climate crisis, geopolitical shocks, cyber-attacks and energy outages are among the threats to food chain security, according to the open letter, which claims the government is “complacent about food as a national security matter”.

Academics, business leaders, community groups and food partnerships are urging the new government to treat food as a national security issue and work to make the UK’s food system more resilient, in a era when food supplies “can be weaponised”, they caution.

The signatories warn that the “just-in-time” delivery system built up over recent decades “is not fit for today’s or tomorrow’s challenges”, as little stock is held along the food supply chain and the UK does not have any national food storage. Ministers wound up the strategic food stockpile that had been in place since the second world war in the 1990s.

“The food system is exposed to shocks and threats from geopolitics, climate heating, ransomware, energy outages, software malfunction and disinformation,” according to the letter.

The experts go on to warn: “These shocks will fall upon a system that is highly wasteful, import-dependent, environmentally unsustainable, and driven by the pursuit of private profit rather than resilience, with millions of people unable to afford a decent, healthy diet.”

The letter calls on ministers to do the following.

• Establish a new system of local food resilience committees under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

• Audit the UK’s reliance on a few very large food companies and food imports.

• Realign national food production around nutritional needs.

• Create national, regional, local and community food storage schemes.

• Support the decentralisation of the UK’s food supply.

The warning comes weeks after the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, issued a rebuke to ministers, accusing them of failing to do enough to help households and businesses plan for possible emergencies.

The government’s own research has shown Britons are less prepared for potential future catastrophic events than citizens of several other European countries, while the UK is more reliant on food imports than some of its neighbours.

The environment secretary, Angela Eagle, recently recommended that UK households build up stores of enough food and water to survive a few days without power or water, amid warnings that the El Niño weather phenomenon could bring a wet, stormy winter to the UK.

The letter claims the government is not paying enough attention to what such a store should look like, and is failing to consider that many lower-income households may not be able to afford to build up a stockpile.

One of the signatories, Prof Tim Lang of the Centre for Food Policy, City St George’s, University of London, said: “We need a system shift: grow more food; more regionalism, diversity and storage at multiple levels, not just households; and public engagement in civil food defence. Central government must provide more strategic leadership while encouraging actions at different levels. Communities and households cannot resolve faultlines in the UK’s food system.”

Prof Paul Behrens of the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, who also signed the letter, said: “Food resilience, healthy diet and environmental benefits all point in the same direction: grow more of the vegetables, fruit and pulses people actually need, closer to home.”

The Cabinet Office is to launch a campaign telling households to stock up on tinned foods alongside preparations for future emergencies.

The government’s Prepare website outlines steps it says people should take, which include assembling items at home that could include tinned meat, fruit or vegetables that do not need cooking.

Eagle has said she would oversee farming improvements and a reservoir-building programme that should help Britain face extreme weather.