Renowned food systems thinker and scholar, Prof Tim Lang, has spent the last two years researching the UK food system’s preparedness for shocks. In this webinar he draws on his soon-to-be-published report for the National Preparedness Commission which addresses the state of civil (ie the public’s) food resilience.

About this topic, Tim writes;

“How can the notion of resilience (the capacity to bounce back from shock) be applied to the UK food system? The word is used endlessly but thinly. UK governments have assured us the UK’s food security is robust. The National Risk Register 2023 gives only one food risk of 89 facing the country. Many food analysts disagree, pointing to a polycrisis of climate change, geopolitics, prices, food ‘weaponisation’ (Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza) and the fragilities of Just-in-Time logistics on which almost all food supply depends.

“The UK has form in complacency about food, a policy legacy of Empire and EU membership. So far policy advice on resilience-proofing focuses on individual corporate actions. The public has barely featured despite the public being said to be in charge of supply!

“This lecture will sketch the current national resilience framework, pointing to a gap between official resilience planning and food system realities. I draw on a not-yet-published report for the National Preparedness Commission which addresses the state of civil (ie the public’s) food resilience. This highlights the need for community over individualism. Delivering civil food resilience requires a radical but reasonable shift in public policy and more public engagement. Benign ignorance is rarely a good policy.”

About Tim:

Tim Lang is Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City St George’s, University of London’s Centre for Food Policy, which he founded in 1994 and directed until 2016. For four decades he has researched, written, advised and lectured on the food system at international, national and local levels, particularly in relation to health, environment, social justice, the political economy and consumer culture. He previously spent seven years as a hill farmer, an experience which shaped his work ever since.

He is co-author of many articles, reports and books such as Sustainable Diets (2017), Food Wars (2015), Unmanageable Consumer (2015), Ecological Public Health (2012) and Food Policy (2009).

He was policy lead on the influential EAT-Lancet Commission modelling the planetary diet to show it is possible to feed the world ahead without destroying ecosystems (The Lancet, 16 Jan, 2019). His Feeding Britain (Pelican, March 2020) explored the UK as a case study of fault-lines in a rich country’s food system.

He has spent his working life analysing the affluent world’s food system dynamics and building arguments and data on how to improve them. He has been advisor to many bodies at global (WHO, FAO, UNEP), European (EC, EESC), UK (Scottish & Wales Govts, Sustainable Development Commission, 4 select committees, and the Council of Food Policy Advisors 2008-10) and local levels. He’s currently a member of the London Food Board advising the Mayor. He has a lifelong commitment to work with civil society on food system improvement. Since late 2022, he’s been working on how to improve civil food resilience in and after food shocks for a report to the UK National Preparedness Commission.

About the webinar series:

This webinar is part of a monthly series run by AFN Network+ which explores net zero in the UK agri-food system with leading movers and shakers. Expect deep and varied insight from across the sector, including farmers, scientists, policy analysts, community leaders, retailers, politicians, businesses and health professionals. The series is organised by Jez Fredenburgh our Knowledge Exchange Fellow, and Prof Neil Ward, AFN Co-lead and Professor of rural geography. Jez and Neil are based in the School of Environmental Sciences, and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at the University of East Anglia.