Professor Tim Lang – Just in Case: Why Britain Needs Resilience Planning
Professor Tim Lang, as keynote speaker, began by explaining how he was asked by the National Preparedness Committee to write a report looking at the issue of Britain’s preparedness for food shocks, considering all elements of the food chain, from producer to consumer. The report, ‘Just in Case: narrowing the UK civil food resilience gap’, was expected to take a year but actually took 2 ½ years, turning into something of a tome at 383 pages!
His research centred around a set of key questions, which were asked to a wide range of food connected people, in Britain and beyond, all on a non-attributable basis, allowing interviewees to respond openly. Tim pointed out to us the profound importance of areas such as logistics (such as what needs to be where by when) and transport, citing that one in five of the trucks on our roads are carrying food.
There already exists a government resilience framework based on three good principles:
Prevention is better than cure
The necessity to take a whole society view
Share the understanding of the risks
But up to now the government is not following those principles regarding food resilience, demonstrating a benign indifference instead. For example, the National Risk Register includes just one risk relating to food.
Why is there this obvious gap? Tim puts some of it down to our imperialist history and the attitudes it has left us with. Following the repeal of the corn laws Britain began importing food from around the world, such that, by WW1 only 30% of the food consumed here was produced here. In essence, to this day, Britian is using other people’s land to feed itself and assuming that will just continue.
We are living in such an uncertain world. The risks can be slow or fast, acute or chronic, old or new.
As an example, Tim asked us to consider all the people who buy the food they eat by ordering a meal online and having it delivered a short time later to their door. If the internet goes down it will cause a food crisis for those people even if the shops and restaurants are fully stocked! A food crisis could easily be caused by a breakdown in distribution, with the food no longer being in the right place at the right time – it is not just about the production of the food, but every element of our food system has to be resilient.
Initially, after publication, Tim had faced some hostility about what his report was saying, but gradually that is changing, with increasing discussion of civil food defence. Civil food committee partnerships bring together local authorities, food partnerships, community groups, and emergency planners to prepare for food supply shocks and food security emergencies, recognising the need to get down to local levels.
Although we need to have a certain number of farm animals for successful soil management Tim told us that ‘we have got to get meat into its ecological niche’. We simply do not have the luxury of devoted the amount of land we currently do to rearing farm animals and growing the grain that we will feed them. It is a really inefficient use of farmland. Farming needs to revert to something more like what our grandparents would have been used to.
Defra now has a resilience unit, small but growing. We will always need that national lead, but functional resilience needs to be developed at populace level.
We are rapidly moving into unchartered territory, be that due to the super El Niño, political uncertainty, climate change or other factors. We need to all be finding our trusted food sources, involving simpler supply chains and more local production. We need to be able to feed the population well in both normal and abnormal times.
Tim concluded by commenting on how deeply moving he finds it that events such as this food security conference are happening. He urged us to read his report, and if nearly 400 pages is too many for you, then just read chapter 12! Following that, engage with your politicians, and spread the message.