President’s bulletin: the UK civil food resilience gap

Food is essential to our health and survival. A new report by CIEH Vice President, Professor Tim Lang, sets out next steps for creating a model to protect the UK public from potential shocks to the food system. I recently attended the launch event for this report, commissioned by the National Preparedness Commission, and in my March bulletin I’m keen to share its crucial messages.

I was in slight shock recently. I was staying in a house with no hot water, no heating, no Internet connectivity and a very poor mobile phone signal. This was not in deepest darkest alluring Wales but in the Home Counties. Buckinghamshire to be precise. Internet connectivity has now become a critical need, if not quite a life and death human necessity, however it is indeed instrumental in causing unrest and tribulations. It is now considered an essential service along with those that are necessary for everyday human existence, such as electricity, water and gas. I relieved my stress by picking up and reading the latest copy of Private Eye.

When Abraham Maslow proposed his hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation” there was no Internet. I do muse whether if the Internet existed then if it would have been included as a psychological need along with physiological needs of food, water, warmth and rest.

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) advises the Government on resilience from future challenges of essential infrastructure services such as energy, digital and water. There seems to be an omission of a commodity we cannot survive without and that is an adequate and nutritious food supply, a physiological need as defined by Maslow.

New report: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap

This omission has been corrected in a report published by the National Preparedness Commission (NPC). The NPC is an independent and non-political body, whose fundamental objective is to promote policies and actions to help the UK be significantly better prepared to avoid, mitigate, respond to, and recover from major shocks, threats and challenges.

The report can be accessed here – Just in case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap. I was very pleased to represent CIEH and members at the recent breakfast launch of this decisive document by the author Tim Lang, a CIEH Vice President and Professor of Food Policy, Centre for Food Policy, University of London.

What were the important points and crucial messages?

Food resilience must be “critical national infrastructure” and not a just-in-time food supply chain with food provision delivered by the supermarkets. An example of what can go wrong with this was seen in the Covid pandemic and the “panic” buying that ensued, emptying shelves very quickly. Panic is a term to be avoided as it becomes self-fulfilling.

Food policy is very difficult politically and crosses all disciplines. Food is not on the list of possible and probable “shocks”. Food provision and supply is very complex. Food shocks are sudden disruptions in the food supply chain that lead to shortages, price spikes, or accessibility issues. These shocks can be caused by various factors.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report (January 2025) has the top five risks identified by the Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) for each country. The UK has no mention of food shortages, however, it is in fourth place for the USA.

The National Risk Register mentions food but there is no attention given to food shocks. EHPs are involved in Local Resilience Forums (LRF) and these were approached as part of the study but LRFs also have not considered food shocks.

The new report commissioned by the NPC calls for new food security and resilience legislation to drive clarity and unification of all interested parties involved to enable a satisfactory state of preparedness. We do have plenty of Commissions but not one exclusively to deal with all food issues, such as safety, standards and food shocks.

The report states: “there is no specific food resilience or food defence movement focussed on potential shocks to the food system and impacts on the public. If from anywhere, the interest might come from established professions such as public health (the Faculty of Public Health, Royal Society for Public Health) and environmental health (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) with long histories of championing the infrastructure for better conditions of living.”

Next steps and the role of environmental health

I am encouraging everyone to peruse this very important report (there is an executive summary), consider the recommendations and critically to provide co-produced sustainable outcomes for food resilience. These will be at national, regional and local levels. An example are Food Audits of community food assets at a local level by environmental health. As Professor Lang says, environmental health has a track record of stepping up and delivering where and when required. Do we want to be at the table or on the menu here?

Please do contact me at [email protected] with comments, concerns, suggestions and hopefully praise on occasion.