Food Security is one of the key reasons that Foods We Can Trust is here.
Because of what Food Security means to me, what I understand it to really be and most importantly, how important I believe Food Security to be in respect of everyone – and that means us all.
However, like many things about Food today and indeed pretty much every experience that we share with others beyond ourselves and what’s very personal to us alone, Food Security can mean a lot of very different things. And that difference is already doing a lot of harm.
What does Food Security mean to you?
Before we continue, could I ask you to please take a moment to stop and think about what Food Security means to you.
Is it about the Food that UK Farms produce?
Is it about being sure there is always Food available to eat?
Is it knowing that you will always have a choice of Food and whatever you want to eat?
For you, Food Security and what it means to be Food Secure could be any of these. It could be any of these in a manner of speaking. Or what Food Security means to you could be something very different, and ALL of the options could still be correct!
The things that Food Security can and does mean
It is important that we recognise and accept that different perceptions of Food Security not only exist.
To some, their own view, or what someone else like the Government refers to or considers to be ‘Food Security’ is the only thing that it can be.
Unfortunately, having any fixed or accepted meaning for Food Security can be problematic when there is a version of Food Security that everyone accepts as being what Food Security means, and those who are controlling that narrative then abuse the trust that people place in the understanding those people have of that version of Food Security and then manipulate information, statistics and even the truth, so that it can be said that either you or the UK is ‘Food Secure’, even when you are not.
In a moment, I will talk about the version of Food Security which is the establishment’s ‘accepted’ term.
I will then discuss the version of Food Security that UK Farmers and Food Producers generally think of when they talk about it.
We will then move on to discussing what Food Security should really mean, to everyone.
The Establishment view: If people can eat, they have Food Security
The way that the establishment, politicians and government operate today is built around this idea or philosophical standpoint:
If people can eat, they are Food Secure
Yes, I understand that suggesting this will annoy different people and organisations who are doing great things in the Food sphere. Because very few of us actually believe that as long as people have a meal of some kind, that’s all Food Security is about.
However, if you consider what having a meal of some kind can and regrettably does mean for so many different people in so many different ways today, you will then begin to see how those who really have control over Food policy, have come to think about their priorities and obligation to the Public in this perhaps honest, but nonetheless very unhelpful way.
If you aren’t hungry, you don’t have a problem
It sounds brutal I know, and it really is.
But with the issues that Government is really facing today – and that means the things that are really going on, rather than what the media and the narratives would suggest we believe, politicians do genuinely believe that if everyone can eat, they have done their job – no matter where our Food comes from or the Food we are eating really is.
This means that all the initiatives about healthy eating, encouraging us to eat properly and even the talk about how important our Farms and Fishing are, are really just wishful thinking and it doesn’t really matter to whoever is in power if they come to nothing. Because the only problem for them will be if people have nothing to eat and then everything as we know it stops as a result.
Foodbanks are a very uncomfortable truth
What I have just written isn’t easy to read.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes people feel prickly at the thought that so many parts of government, the public sector and all the organisations that are championing positive messages about Food and what we eat, are currently championing a lost cause.
But if you really want to try to get to grips with what the real priority around Food Security for politicians, the government and the establishment really is, then considering Foodbanks and the need for them – which is disputed by many – will soon begin to tell you what that priority is. And it has very little to do with Food and the role that Food does or should play in our lives.
When I was studying at the Royal Agricultural University, I wrote a paper after researching Foodbank use today and compared their role in poverty today in relation to my own experiences of poverty as a child. It’s called ‘Is Poverty Invisible to those who don’t Experience it’, and the full version can be read by following the link immediately below:
The Farmer view: Food Security is about the Food that we Produce in the UK
Whilst Food Security is a much broader set of issues than many realise, the one version of Food Security that is perhaps easiest to understand and relate to is that too much of our Food comes from overseas and outside of the UK.
Please read my last post on Foods We Can Trust ‘Rationing and Health: The Surprising Benefits’, if you would like to explore this view of Food Security and what the risks of being dependent upon Food from Overseas can mean.
The latest figures from The United Kingdom Food Security Report from November 2024 suggest that the amount of Food that the UK produces, that we consume ourselves, is 58%.
However, as you read through the detail of this Government Report, you may note that this figure relates to ‘Food by Value’, which sounds very much like a way of using statistical jargon to make the figure sound higher than it actually is.
Regrettably, this is the kind of language or political double-speak that people in power and authority use, knowing that it is the figure that members of the public will usually note, rather than the words that the figure has been deliberately wrapped with!
During the 2023-24 Academic Year, the figure that I was using for my research, reports and writing was 54%. I found sources that suggested that it was already as low as 52%. I have seen no evidence to suggest that the UK has increased the amount of Food that it produces for our own consumption during that time.
The amount of Food the UK produces and what we would all have available for us to eat in a time of national emergency where the Food Chain was impacted are two VERY different things.
The impact of the Global Food Chain
Because of the way globalism has affected Food Chains and that Food ingredients are sourced and often moved around as they are processed and manufactured to become the Foods that we often eat, it means that very few of the Farms we pass by each day or know of, actually produce Food that we could eat or prepare to eat straight away, if we found ourselves needing to buy from the Farmer direct.
Even if we accept the figure of 58% that the Government has used in its latest Food Security Report, to quantify the amount of Food that the UK produces itself, the actual figure that relates to Food Produced in the UK, that people living in the UK can actually then eat is likely to be much less. Because so much of the Food Produced across the UK goes into Food Supply Chains where it is nowhere near ready for our consumption or is otherwise transported overseas.
The figures being used are therefore an equivalent. Because we have to import the equivalent of the Food that is grown in the UK and then exported or used for other purposes – because that’s how it goes into the Food Chain, and what we actually eat comes back into the UK from overseas.
The reasons that many farms don’t grow or produce Food that is ready for us to eat are many. It may be as simple as the way we eat and prepare Food in the UK means that we don’t like certain cuts of meat. It could be that even though the UK has vastly rich reserves of Fish and Seafood, we don’t actually eat that much of it ourselves and most of it goes to Europe. Or it may be that the wheat and the flour it produces that makes the kind of bread that Supermarkets have made us all believe we all want to see on sale, is most easy to produce when it comes from overseas.
If it sounds confusing, it is. And it helps those who are benefiting from the way that the Food Chain works for it all to be very confusing too!
The bottom line is this:
If we had a crisis tomorrow and the UKs borders were shut down, meaning that no more Food could come in from anywhere overseas, it wouldn’t take long before we all experienced Food Shortages. The Food Producers and Farmers that we have in the UK would have to undergo massive structural and system changes, before they would even be close to being able to meet that need. There is no way that would be possible, overnight.
This is scary stuff I know. But its very real and there are parts of government and other organisations that are researching, studying and thinking about what they call Food Resilience, the whole time.
If you would like to look more closely, here is an interesting link:
Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap – National Preparedness Commission
(Please note that this is not a recommendation or endorsement)
The UKs Food Security is at MASSIVE risk, right now
If you’ve read this far, you may be beginning to see the picture of just how vulnerable the UK Food Chain is, and that within the Food Supply that we are eating from and have available to us, the priorities of those with influence over the Food Chain are not anything like what most of us would think.
We are NOT Food Secure, anywhere in the UK today.
With global uncertainty unfolding in the way that it currently is, we could easily find ourselves experiencing Food Shortages or perhaps even worse, at any time.
Even supporting our Farmers with the Food Production related issues as they see them is not as simple and straightforward as campaigns like that driven by No Farmers No Food and some of the Farming Advocacy Organisations would suggest.
A successful outcome to any of their current aims wouldn’t be as effective for any of us, as they are suggesting the changes in government policy that they want for themselves would be. Simply because with the if the priorities remain the same, many of the Farms affected by the policies which are in the spotlight aren’t producing Food that would be of any immediate use to us to counteract Food Shortages in a crisis, anyway.
So, what does, or rather, what should Food Security really mean?
What Food Security and being ‘Food Secure’ should mean
To be fair, part of the problem, when it comes to the meaning of Food Security and being ‘Food Secure’, is that the whole subject and all of the other subjects and public policies that the issue of Food Security links to, are VERY complicated. And in many respects, deliberately so.
That’s why it’s very easy to be convinced by any soundbite we hear or read that makes some version of Food Security and what being Food Secure means to someone else, easy to get behind.
If we were to distil Food Security and what it means to be Food Secure into the simplest terms possible, it would probably be something as follows.
Namely that we will be Food Secure and have Food Security when:
Everyone can choose to eat enough of the Foods that are Good for them and that will meet their genuine needs at every mealtime, without any experiencing fear of going without or not knowing where the next meal will come from.
However, even this is open to interpretation.
Food Security will regrettably continue to be vulnerable and at risk for as long as what it means to be Food Secure can be interpreted differently by different parties, in ways that are not actually wrong. From a certain point of view.
To overcome this problem, it is likely that we all need to at least review and, in all likelihood, moderate or change the way that we think about Food Security and what it is to be Food Secure.
With this in mind, the key ingredients that together provide Food Security are that the Food Supply is:
- Reliable and NOT under Threat
- Available
- Accessible
- Meets Nutritional Needs and Health Requirements
- Affordable
I will now add a little more detail to each, so that they and how they each interact with each other as part of the Food Security equation will hopefully begin to make more sense.
Reliable and not under Threat
Food Security can and will only be achieved when the supply of Food for everyone is not at risk.
If we are Food Secure as a Country or perhaps at the Macro level, the Food Supply cannot and will not be compromised by anything that we and our own systems of governance cannot independently address.
Today, government figures suggest that we are reliant upon at least 42% of the Food that we consume coming from Overseas. That’s before we consider that of the remaining 58%, only a fraction of that figure represents Food that any of us could eat at any time.
IF there were a national crisis and the borders shut down, this would mean that even if two thirds (66%) of the Food We Need were available to us every day, year round, that would still mean that more than 22 Million People in the UK would have to go hungry, if the rest of the population were to continue eating the same meals as they do, today.
However, we also know that even this isn’t the real figure. Because of the way that the UK Food Chain and Food Production works.
The reality is that if we were to experience a real national crisis where no Food from overseas could be brought in, the UK only has enough food AVAILABLE for everyone for perhaps a few days, before Food Shortages would cut in and people of all kinds would start to go without.
Available
We will only be Food Secure when the Food We Need is always available, to everyone.
Being available to everyone means that there is no reason that the Supply of Food can be obstructed or held up by anything that is outside of the control of the person who needs to eat that Food, or the People around them who they know and can trust.
The factors that can make Food unavailable to some are:
Cost
Food is too expensive for some people to be able to afford to eat properly at every mealtime. And the retail values of all the Food we buy today are continuing to shoot up!
To be Food Secure, the Food We Need MUST be affordable in the sense that the price to buy or exchange something for that Food is realistic and the price has not been overinflated by something like greed, profiteering or another agenda of some kind.
Supply
For most of us, the Food we are able to eat today relates directly to the Food that is supplied to the shops, websites or other sources where we buy it.
If we cannot source the Food We Need, the supply is not functioning as it should, and we are NOT Food Secure.
If the only Food Supply that we can Access will provide us with ‘Food’ that isn’t healthy for us or that we can afford to buy (with the money we have available) then that Supply is also NOT Food Secure.
To be Food Secure, we must ALL be able to Access the Foods We can Trust, without having to choose from Foods that are not good for us, as a substitute.
Religion and Ideology
Regrettably, agendas, ideas and even religion can get in the way of us being able to Access Food that is available. Because ideological restrictions can easily prevent some from accessing that Food, because others have made a ‘conscious’ choice.
This is not a matter of saying that anyone who will not eat certain Foods because of a religious or philosophical viewpoint is wrong.
It is merely a fact that many of those same people then influence the Supply of Food around them, because of the choices that they themselves make.
The agendas of other people are also important to consider. In instances such as the political pursuit of Net Zero, the choices that politicians are making and some of the worlds billionaires are using their financial resources to impose, will lead to the supply of Foods We Need being restricted and potentially stopped, only because of the ideas that they wish to pursue.
We will only be Food Secure when no other person can influence the supply of the Foods We Need, simply because they have the power, influence or financial means to do so.
Greed and Profiteering
In my recent book ‘Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future’, we unpicked the layers of the Food Chain onion to expose just how the Food Chain that brings most of the Food we all eat today, isn’t really about the Food We Eat at all.
The Food Chain today is ultimately all about money, profit and the power and influence that go along with an entire Food System that is being increasingly used as a tool of societal control.
People, Communities and entire Nations can and will only be Food Secure when they have complete control over their Food Chain and Food Destiny.
That means Food being all about the Food and what Food really means to People and Life, rather than the Food Chain being all about money, profit, influence and control, as it is now.
Accessible
We will only be Food Secure when the Food We Need is always Accessible.
Access literally means that we can access the Food We Need for every mealtime and that no matter where we are, what transport we have available, or what physical barriers might be in the way, these factors will never get in the way or stop us from eating as and when we might like or need to.
To put this in context, most of us can access one of the well-known supermarket brands across the UK, either by being able to travel to one of their stores, or by being able to make an online order that will then be delivered to our home or wherever we are, from there.
However, our Food Access is now limited to whatever the stores we are able to access actually sell.
Food Security will not exist until we are able to access the Foods We Need, whenever and wherever we need them to be.
Meets Nutritional Needs and Health Requirements
We will not be Food Secure until the Food that is Available, Accessible and Affordable, also meets all of our Nutritional Needs and Health Requirements – not matter what we may then personally choose to buy, prepare and eat from the Food that is available.
No matter how politically convenient it might be for politicians and the establishment to work on the basis that ‘Food is Food, no matter what the Food really is’ – whether deliberate or not, the truth is that Not all Food is equal in the Food Chain today, and the greater percentage of the Food that is Affordable to everyone, isn’t actually very good for us at all!
Affordable
Whilst we have already talked about Cost and the price of the Food that we buy, there is also a much bigger and perhaps even more alarming dimension to the issue or question of the Food that people can afford to buy. It relates to the issue of the Affordability of Food itself.
If people cannot afford to feed their dependents and themselves for reasons outside of their control that mean they don’t have enough money to buy the Foods they Need, they are NOT Food Secure.
Food Security for them, is unaffordable.
It is very easy for those who can get by each week to look unfavourably upon those who cannot and to assume that anyone who doesn’t have enough money for Food – either for themselves or themselves and their dependents – will have found themselves in difficulty through their own financial mismanagement. Or because they don’t work as much as they should.
Whilst this may of course be true for some, the number which it would be accurate to describe will be significantly smaller than many might imagine.
Indeed, the reason why many people today find themselves short and in need of emergency help like that provided by Foodbanks, is because a significant part of our society does not either earn or receive an income high enough – even for working a full working week – to cover the basic cost of living and to provide themselves with the basic essentials that are necessary today, just to stand still.
In October 2023 I wrote about what it genuinely cost to live as opposed to the rate of the National Minimum Wage and calculated that the difference between what those working a full-time 40hr week on the lowest legal wage and what it would actually cost to live without claiming benefits, help from charities (Foodbanks) or getting into debt, was at least £2.50 per hour or £100.00 per week.
Although the rate of the National Minimum Wage jumped to £12.21 in April of this year, there is no reason to believe that with inflation continuing to push up the cost of living as quickly as it has, that anything is really different for anyone on the lowest wages now.
Just as serious is the reality that life for many today revolves around credit.
Those with monthly payment commitments, including even those earning what many of us would consider to be very good wages, can easily find that a list of monthly outgoings that seemed very affordable at the time the commitments were made, can suddenly become an unaffordable burden. When even the smallest of changes – perhaps to utility bills, fuel or similar takes place, and payments are raised with those higher costs automatically taken from a credit card or bank account.
As food is one of the few things that most of us still pay for, as we go, it is easy to see how the disposable income left for Food and other essentials can very quickly disappear, pretty much as we are all still asleep!
Food Security and Income are inextricably linked
The reality is that Food Security at the personal or perhaps micro level, is inextricably linked with income levels and what it costs to live.
Because government doesn’t priortise the Food Chain and Supply of Food in the way that we all really should, Food has become an afterthought in far too many ways.
No serious steps have been taken to acknowledge and certainly not to make provision for the need for everyone to be able to access and eat enough of the Food We Need, without being dependent upon the help or intervention of others to get by.
Any government that doesn’t recognise and legislate to ensure that everyone who is able to work can earn enough to cover the costs of the basics and essentials they need on a basic wage, without benefits, charity or debt, is not fulfilling its obligations or responsibilities to society at all.
Until the Food We Need is affordable for everyone – no matter how ridiculous in today’s terms that might seem, we will NOT be Food Secure!
Truth vs Truths that serve someone else’s purposes
The Food Security question and getting to grips with Food Security and what being Food Secure really is, demonstrates just how easy it has become for those with platforms and influence to speak about a subject and mean one thing, whilst knowing that to everyone else, what they have said will be heard as something very different.
Both the Establishment (Inc. Government, political, big business in the Food Chain) and the U.K. Farming industry hold positions on Food Security which are arguably right, from a certain point of view or from a manner of speaking.
Both positions on Food Security, either when:
- People have ‘food’ or
- Food should be produced on Farms in the UK
are both correct.
But they are also only partial truths.
Like any good sales tactic, a partial truth – or a sales pitch that contains an element of truth that they know will make the whole narrative, story or line sound like the whole thing is true – and is often enough to make an argument that is otherwise utterly flawed sound compelling, because we have fallen into the trap of assuming the rest!
So yes, it is certainly correct to say that we all need to eat food and if we are fed, we will not be hungry. But if the food itself isn’t good for us, is unaffordable, could potentially do us harm or comes with strings attached, it will not be Foods We Can Trust.
Equally, if only the equivalent of what we all eat is produced or grown on Farms across the UK, but is nonetheless produced with chemicals or processes that cause harm in any way, or the food grown is itself transported overseas and replaced by food that comes from overseas so that the net equation says we are producing what we eat ourselves, that also isn’t Foods We Can Trust.
Where Food Security is concerned, Farmers cannot be victim and saviour at the same time
It is important to add that I am massively pro-UK Farming. I’m just not pro-UK Farming in the sense that the industry typically functions today.
Farming today is actually part of the Food Problem. Because it has become part of the global model that is causing all the problems with Food.
Farmers understandably want help and support from everyone. But what they really want is for the establishment to change its policies so that the way farming works today stays the same, but just works better – more realistically, but also more profitably for them.
What many in the industry have not recognised yet is that UK Farming is no longer seen as being necessary to an establishment that believes it doesn’t have a problem with the Supply of Food, as long as people are being fed – no matter what they are being fed with.
Meanwhile, the people – that’s us – who desperately need UK Farmers to see the bigger picture and step up in a very different way – will lose out twice as badly if UK Farming collapses and the establishment gets its way!
If you’d like to read ‘Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future’, a copy is available online HERE.
If you’d like to understand more about the realities that underpin the differences between what we say deliberately or innocently, and what others hear, a read of the very interesting book ‘Words that Work – It’s not what you say, It’s what people hear’ by American Pollster Dr Frank Lunz may be worth your while.
Going round in circles
You may now feel the need to circle back to the ‘as long as people aren’t hungry’ backstop – which is where without good governance and leadership, the bigger Food picture and the importance of Food and the role it should be playing in our lives usually falls down.
We can accept what others tell us. Or we can be clear that we require Foods We Can Trust to be normal life for all.
Adam Tugwell 
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