Food securityGrowing challenges to global food security

A new report highlights issues surrounding global food systems and the importation of food into the United Kingdom. Partners in the Global Food Security (GFS) Research Partnership came together with thought-leaders, scientists, and experts in the field to contribute to the report via a Public Policy Seminar on Global Food Systems and UK Food Imports.

The seminar provided an opportunity for scientists and non-scientists to discuss the broad range of factors which affect the stability and resilience of food supply chains in the United Kingdom. Participants considered challenges which range from those with a local or U.K. national focus to more wide-ranging European and global issues.

A Global Food Security release notes that the resulting report, produced by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the Global Food Security Program, outlines key issues, such as:

• the need for a better functioning supply chain
• reducing food waste
• securing safer foods
• tackling food fraud

Professor Tim Benton said: “Global food security, and ensuring food is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable, is perhaps the most important societal issue we face. Disruptions to food supply has serious knock-on effects; economically, socially and to the health and well-being of the population.”

“This report highlights some of the key challenges we face in food security, such as declining self-sufficiency, food fraud and a need to reduce the vast amount of food that is wasted.”

“The research activities of our partners in the Global Food Security program aim to help food producers and processors, retailers, consumers and civil society respond to and manage these challenges.”

The report highlights potential research priorities that could help to provide answers, including: a social science perspective on the complexity of food security; understanding the impact of the changed world; changing global diets; issues underpinning food waste; food security and ecosystem sustainability; resilience of the global food system to shocks; global markets; and new technologies.

The release notes that a public exhibition by the Global Food Security Program is touring the United Kingdom this year in a bid discuss these issues with the general public, and to present some of the ways scientific research is helping to address the problem.

The report outlined key issues raised by those in attendance, including:

• A global view is required
  • Disruptions to the global food system are expected to increase, how resilient will the price, choice and availability of U.K. food supplies be?
• A growing demand for food
  • Demand for meat and dairy products is growing whilst the world’s most productive land is already in use.
• Declining self-sufficiency in food
  • The United Kingdom is approximately 60 per cent self-sufficient in food supply and this has declines in the past few decades, from almost 80 per cent.
• Narrow sources for food imports
  • The United Kingdom is heavily reliant on a relatively small number of countries for its food imports.
• Food price volatility
  • United Kingdom consumers are increasingly vulnerable to price rises because stocks of food are no longer held — overall reserves within the UK run to just a few days.
• A better functioning supply chain
  • To date, much attention has focused on the resilience of agricultural production. Greater attention should now be placed on complex and diverse supply chains.
• Food choices
  • As well as food production and supply, greater attention should be paid to understanding people’s food choices. U.K. consumers have access to 450 different varieties of fruit and vegetables. Could choice editing (i.e. controlling or limiting the choices available to consumers) become an issue in future?
• Food waste
  • Reducing food waste in the United Kingdom would have a significant positive impact on food security. Why is wasting food culturally acceptable in the United Kingdom? How can people be incentivized to eat well and not waste food while maintaining safety?
• Securing safer foods
  • Ensuring that imported food is safe to eat is growing challenge. Can more be done to identify risks further upstream in the supply chain, that is, closer to the producer rather than the consumer?
• Tackling food fraud
  • The problem of food fraud may increase as food prices rise.
• Agro-terrorist threats
  • How safe is the U.K. food supply chain from existing and potential malicious threats to food security such as cyberthreats.

— Read more in Global Food Systems and U.K. Food Imports: Resilience, Safety and Security (Global Food Security, March 2013)