Meeting the challenge of food security

The government has published a new report on what is needed to meet the growing list of challenges to the cost and security of our food supplies in the years ahead. The era of cheap food seems to be over and agflation - high food price inflation - is something that has hit the pockets of millions of families in virtually every country over recent years. This Independent article flags up some of the key policy issues regarding food supply in the UK - a country whose self-sufficiency is under threat as forty per cent of the food we eat is now sourced from overseas.

“In a list of challenges to UK food security are the changing climate, floods, drought, soil erosion, water scarcities and the breakdown of ecosystems. Global temperatures may rise two to three degrees in the next 50 years, threatening large-scale crop failure in Africa….......British households still spend on average less than 10 per cent of their income on food, compared with 70 per cent in many developing countries.”

BBC news video on this topic