The UK government has just released details of the much-publicised Yellowhammer contingency plan for a no-deal Brexit. Amongst the warnings contained in it, Yellowhammer paints a stark picture of how the supply of fresh food could be affected amidst the political uncertainty the UK is facing.

Events like this are what we call food system shocks – something that causes sudden disruption to the food system. These mean that production or access to food are interrupted, which often coincides with price rises. Sharp increases in the price of fresh food is likely to disproportionately affect vulnerable people and effectively price out those less able to afford these costs, heightening the inequalities in access to food.

Seeing as the UK imports about 50 % of its food, we’re pretty vulnerable to shocks like this. It’s something that’s been a key research topic for a while – how do we make sure the UK food system is more resilient? This is a question some of the team travelled to discuss at the Global Food Security (GFS) Food System Resilience Stakeholder Event in Edinburgh on the 4^th and 5^th September 2019.

The two-day event was a chance for members of GFS research projects and stakeholders to come together to discuss food strategy and resilience. Through a series of talks, interactive workshops and a public debate we delved into questions such as what resilience means to us, to consumers and to industry, and how to manage that in these ever-changing times.

Sitting around tables with agri-technologists, policy makers, business owners, bakers, academic researchers, food scientists and more, in the beautiful setting of Scotland has taught us a few things:

1. Food and drink are key to Scotland’s economy. James Withers from Scotland Food & Drink told us that Scotland receives over 15 million overnight visits per year, and all those people need to eat! Scotland’s sustainable farming and export practices are growing and resilience – ensuring secure food supply chains – is key to this.
2. We’re not going to get anywhere by working in silo. One of the key themes that came up again and again was the need for collaboration across the food system. Transformation of food systems isn’t going to be achieved by one single thing, it’s going to take a joined-up approach to make this happen. We need to work together to answer questions like how can agri-technology help to make farming practices more sustainable? And how can local government food growing initiatives have an impact on health-promoting dietary changes?
3. The food supply chain employs about 4 million people in the UK – but that workforce is changing. As the types and amounts of food in demand change, so do our production and processing systems. Technology is helping us to keep p with this demand, but as we become more reliant on it to supply our food we’re creating new jobs, such as specialist engineers to maintain that equipment. But is there a cost to this? Are we at risk of losing the food skills and knowledge from previous generations as practices evolve?

Rurban Revolution is exploring the potential of urban food growing to improve food system resilience and access to healthy, nutritious food. With the potential worst-case scenarios that are set out in the Yellowhammer plans, it’s an ideal time for us to be thinking about what it would take to upscale urban growing, and what the impact of that would be.

During the GFS Stakeholder event Charlotte Hardman delivered an interactive workshop called “Changing diets in changing times”. This got us all thinking about how changes in climate and the food system mean we should consider changes to our diet, like using more urban-grown food, and what could help or hinder us doing this.

Charlotte’s workshop was a perfect example of why we need to diversify our approach to food system transformation and work together. We might have some suggestions ourselves but business owners, agri-technologists, policy specialists and supply chain experts came up with different perspectives based on their own expertise. For example, although local authorities have their own food growing strategies, there’s a gap in facilitation from central government that needs to be addressed to support these. Producing urban food also requires growing skills and knowledge, but how will we overcome a skills gap in communities where only certain people may have this experience? How do we pass that on? Hearing from stakeholders and colleagues has given us plenty of new ideas for Rurban Revolution. We’ve come away with a better understanding of what resilience means to others throughout the food system, and how our work with Rurban Revolution will inform this and make a difference.

The Yellowhammer documents, although only a worst-case scenario, highlight just how important it is to improve our food system’s resilience. And as for the key thing we’ve learned about how to do this? We need to work together to get there.

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