UK Found Languishing in Food Insecurity: Experts Warn Nation “Criminally” Unprepared for Crisis

Britain remains perilously unprepared to sustain itself in the event of a major crisis, with experts warning that food security has not improved since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tom Bradshaw, head of the National Farmers Union (NFU), described the UK's reliance on foreign sources for essential food as "criminal" and cautioned that "if Britain continues down this road for another decade, it will be too late to 'turn the tap back on.'"

“We’re living in probably some of the most volatile geopolitical times we’ve known,” Bradshaw said to Sky News, urging that, “if we are worried enough… to be investing more in defence, we should be having the same conversation about food security.”

Professor Tim Benton, former UK food security ambassador and distinguished fellow at Chatham House, emphasised the increasing likelihood of a major, prolonged crisis. “At some stage, the brown stuff will hit the fan and government will have to decide that it will need to invest in new ways to make sure that this works,” he said.

Recent figures from DEFRA show the UK produced 65% of the food it required in the previous year, with 9% of that exported and the rest imported—down from a high of 78% in 1984.

Benton criticised the shift towards “just-in-time supply chains” and consumer habits of daily supermarket trips instead of building larders. He recalled warning Theresa May’s government of such vulnerabilities in 2017, only to be dismissed: “We don’t need to worry about food security because the market will sort it out.”

A DEFRA official later acknowledged, “You were right to be worried,” and as of 2021, signalled that “there is a lot of thinking going on in DEFRA,” though he admitted the UK “is not far enough along that road.”

Consumer Expectations vs. Growing Realities

Bradshaw noted: “We’ve got used to more exotic diets… We expect strawberries on the shelves 365 days a year,” despite a growing season of just eight months. He further noted that UK sweetcorn can only be grown for six to eight weeks annually, onions for 42 weeks, and broccoli between May and October.

John Walgate, CEO of the British Growers Association, observed: “Bananas are a staple fruit—they're not going to grow in the UK any time soon.”

Rob James, technical director at Thanet Earth, lauded the enterprise’s scale but acknowledged the risks of farming: “Growing—it’s one of the riskiest businesses you can do… As growers, you can have a good year if the weather’s good or you have a bad year if weather’s bad.”

Thanet Earth produces 300 million tomatoes, 33 million cucumbers, and 20 million peppers annually. Its seventh greenhouse under construction will cost £20 million, and its site is 70% water-self-sufficient through clever technology.

Bradshaw highlighted the larger challenge: 61% of English farms failed to cover input costs such as fertiliser, labour, and medicine in 2023–24. “Everyone wants everything, don’t they?... Somebody, somewhere has to be willing to pay.”

DEFRA’s spokesperson responded that farming profits increased by a quarter last year, and that a former NFU president, Baroness Minette Batters, has been appointed to recommend profitability reforms.

Import Dependencies and Global Vulnerabilities

The UK relies heavily on imports—28% from Europe and 14% from Africa, Asia, and the Americas—with the Netherlands, France, and Ireland as its top suppliers. Tobi warned that many key supplier nations are themselves vulnerable to climate change and water scarcity, and 54% of the UK’s fruit and vegetable imports in 2013 came from countries likely to face severe water shortages by 2040.

Bradshaw added: “When you look at climate change modelling over the next 20, 30, 40 years, it’s very, very questionable whether those places will still be producing food.”

Benton urged a shift in strategy: “Trade is part of self-sufficiency… you have markets that you're trading with… to help fill the shortages.” He also warned of increased susceptibility to weather shocks and described the UK’s model as having “eggs in two baskets”—livestock in the West, arable in the East—making the system fragile.

John Walgate noted that aligning national diets with government recommendations—an extra 1.5 million tonnes of fresh produce annually—could be grown domestically and “turn the dial hugely in favour of food security.” Tobi added that consuming less meat and dairy would free up land for horticulture.

Bradshaw called for policy reform: “Whether that be slurry stores on dairy farms, new poultry buildings, reservoirs for horticulture, the system is broken… Tax incentives and favourable, government-underwritten loans should also be introduced…”

The government plans to expand Environmental Land Management Scheme funding from £800 million to £2 billion by 2028–29 and has allocated £110 million for technology and innovation trials.

Benton cautioned that merely growing more traditional crops like wheat or beef does not align with future needs. “We could go weeks or months without eating beef… it's not critical… the same way as having access to fruit and vegetables.”

He warmly welcomed the parliamentary debate on precision breeding of drought-resistant and shelf-stable crops. “Looking ahead over the next 10 or 20 years, I think food security is only going to become more important as a principle of national security,” Benton said. “It’s going to cost money… intervening in the markets… in a way that will actually pass costs on to consumers.”

Freshtalk Daily will continue to monitor developments as food security takes centre stage in national strategy.

Source: Sky News