Tim Lang Warns Britain Faces Food Crisis Without Action
Tim Lang and eight other food experts warned ministers this week that Britain is “sleepwalking into a food crisis” unless the government updates its food strategy. The letter called for urgent action on food security as farmers face heatwave strain after a dry spring.
The group said ministers should focus on resilient domestic production of healthier food, better preparation for supply chain shocks, and access for all to safe, affordable and healthy food. Lang, a professor emeritus of food policy at City St George’s, University of London, said the current approach amounted to “business as usual”.
Lang and Nugee
Lang said the government has received serious scientific, intelligence and policy advice that it should take significant action on food security, but that warnings were not being heeded. He said: “This government has received serious scientific, intelligence and policy advice that it should take significant action on food security, but it keeps signalling all is OK. It’s not”
He also said: “Volatility is the new normal. We are in escalating trouble from climate heating, geopolitics, [the cost of] living squeeze and more” and added: “I find the public ready and willing but need leadership and support.”
Richard Nugee, a retired general and one of the nine signatories, said food security should be treated as a top-level national security concern. He said: “There’s the potential for food to be reduced in quantity through heat domes over grain baskets [in Europe and around the world]. The food chain is also being more damaged by war and the inability of people to export to us and us to import food. Farmers in the UK are also struggling really hard”
Heat, inflation and prices
The experts said the current heatwave is already adding to pressure on farmers after a dry spring. They said many crops are likely to yield less as temperatures rise beyond their tolerance, while livestock are suffering heat stress and wildfire risk is rising.
They also said economic losses are likely to be measured in the hundreds of millions of pounds. Food prices were already on track to be 50% higher this November than they were five years ago, and the current weather is adding to inflationary pressure.
Reeves and staple foods
Last week, Rachel Reeves floated the idea of voluntary price caps on staple foods. Supermarkets and opposition parties knocked back the idea, leaving the experts’ warning aimed instead at the government’s wider food policy.
The letter was signed by nine people, including Mike Barry, Anna Taylor and Lee Stiles, and said ministers should update the national food strategy to reflect higher temperatures and more severe weather. Fuel and fertiliser prices, the group said, will stay high until the supply crunch through the strait of Hormuz can be eased.
For shoppers, the immediate issue is not a single shortage but a widening squeeze across production, transport and retail. The experts’ warning leaves ministers facing a direct policy choice: keep the present strategy, or rewrite it around resilience before hotter weather and geopolitical pressure tighten the system further.
