Understanding Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK

Have you ever stood in the supermarket and wondered, “Where does my food really come from?” Or maybe you’ve asked yourself, “What would I do if those shelves were suddenly empty?”

If these questions have crossed your mind, you’re in good company. Food security is something we all depend on, but it’s easy to overlook – until a crisis makes us pay attention.

So, what does it actually mean to have food we can trust? How can we make sure our families and communities have access to nourishing, reliable food – no matter what’s happening in the world? And, perhaps most importantly, what role can each of us play in building a stronger, more resilient food system?

That’s why I’m excited to share some insights from my new Kindle book, Understanding Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK, published on December 13, 2025.

This book brings together practical ideas and lessons from the Foods We Can Trust project and the website, www.foodswecantrust.org.

As you read on, I invite you to think about your own relationship with food:

Have you ever tried growing your own vegetables, even just a few herbs on the windowsill?
Do you know what’s actually in the food you eat every day?
Are there ways you could get involved in your local community to support food resilience?

Whether you’re a seasoned gardener, a community organiser, or simply someone who wants to make better choices at the shop, there’s something here for you.

So, let’s explore together how we can all help create a future where everyone has access to food they can trust.

Ready? Let’s dive in.

Introduction: Why Food Security Matters

Food is fundamental to survival, yet recent global events – pandemics, wars, climate extremes, and economic shocks – have exposed the fragility of our food systems.

Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK is a call to action, urging individuals, families, and communities to rethink their relationship with food and reclaim power over what they eat and how it is produced.

The book emphasises that food security is not just a matter of policy or trade, but a deeply personal and urgent issue that affects everyone.

Part 1: What is Food Security?

Multiple Perspectives and Definitions

Food security is a complex concept, shaped by the perspectives of government, farmers, food producers, and the public.

The government often defines food security narrowly – if people can eat, they are food secure – focusing on the mere availability of food, regardless of its quality or origin.

Farmers, meanwhile, stress the importance of producing food within the UK and reducing reliance on imports.

The public’s view is more nuanced, encompassing concerns about nutrition, affordability, and trustworthiness.

Risks and Vulnerabilities

The UK is highly dependent on imported food, with only around 58% of food consumed or rather its equivalent produced domestically (and possibly less, depending on how statistics are calculated).

This reliance on global supply chains makes the UK vulnerable to disruptions, and the actual availability of UK-grown food for immediate consumption is much lower than official figures suggest.

If borders were closed, food shortages would quickly become a reality.

What True Food Security Should Mean

True food security goes beyond mere availability.

It should ensure that everyone can choose to eat enough foods that are good for them, meeting genuine nutritional needs at every mealtime, without fear of going without or uncertainty about the next meal.

Key ingredients of food security include reliability, availability, accessibility, nutrition, and affordability.

Barriers to Food Security

Factors such as cost, supply chain issues, ideological or religious restrictions, greed and profiteering, and insufficient income all contribute to food insecurity.

Many people in the UK do not earn enough to afford a healthy diet without assistance, and foodbanks have become a necessary but uncomfortable reality.

Manipulation and Partial Truths

Both government and farming industry narratives about food security contain elements of truth but are often incomplete or manipulated to serve particular interests.

This can lead to public misunderstanding and ineffective policy, even within the food producing sector itself.

Part 2: What Our Bodies Need Every Day

Nutrition is for Everyone

Understanding nutrition isn’t just for experts. Everyone who eats benefits from knowing the basics of what our bodies require to thrive, not just survive.

Nutrition is built on two main categories: macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibre, and sugars) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals like Vitamin A, B, C, D, calcium, iron, etc.).

Individual Needs Vary

Every person’s body and nutritional requirements are different, influenced by factors such as age, gender, activity level, and health status.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition.

Critical Thinking About Nutrition Advice

Readers are encouraged to approach dietary information with a critical eye – questioning sources, understanding the difference between fact and opinion, and being wary of advice that serves commercial or ideological interests.

Empowerment Through Knowledge

By becoming more conscious of what we eat and understanding our nutritional needs, we can take greater control over our health and wellbeing, making food choices that support a secure and nourishing future.

Part 3: Foods We Can Farm, Catch, Harvest and Grow Locally in and around the UK

Rediscovering Local Abundance

The UK has a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, crops, livestock, fish, and dairy that can be farmed, caught, harvested, or grown locally.

This diversity is often underestimated compared to the convenience and variety of supermarket offerings.

Vulnerability of Global Supply Chains

Reliance on distant supply chains and imported ingredients leaves the UK food system exposed to risks and disruptions.

Local food production is a practical response to these vulnerabilities, offering greater resilience and sustainability.

Practical Lists and Insights

Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK provides tables and lists of UK-grown produce, farmed and wild foods, and ideas for what can be cultivated in gardens, allotments, and community spaces.

These resources help readers understand what is possible when focusing on local food sources.

Empowering Individuals and Communities

By highlighting what can be grown or sourced locally, Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK encourages readers to make more informed choices about the food they eat and support.

Whether as home growers, community organisers, or consumers, everyone can play a role in strengthening local food systems.

Part 4: Grow Your Own or ‘Home Growing’

Food Security Begins at Home and in the Community

While national policies matter, the most powerful solutions often start close to home.

Growing your own food, joining community initiatives, or working together as “citizen farmers” can help build a more secure, resilient, and nourishing food system for all.

The Fragility of the Current Food System

The UK’s food supply is more vulnerable than many realise.

Relying solely on supermarkets and long supply chains leaves communities at risk of shortages and disruptions.

Taking action before a crisis is now essential.

Practical Ways to Get Involved

There are many accessible methods for growing food, regardless of space or resources – that include window boxes, containers, grow bags, greenhouses, gardens, allotments, and hydroponics.

Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK provides lists of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and even animals that can be grown or kept at home, as well as guidance on collaborative approaches like community gardens and cooperative farming.

Benefits Beyond Food

Growing your own food and participating in community initiatives offer more than just sustenance.

These activities can improve mental and physical wellbeing, foster social connection, and build local resilience.

Collaboration and Citizen Farming

Community gardens, share farming, and cooperative projects enable people to pool resources, share knowledge, and produce food collectively.

The “citizen farmer” model encourages everyone – regardless of background or resources – to contribute to local food production and security.

Overcoming Barriers

The section addresses challenges such as start-up costs, limited space, and the need for local support.

It offers suggestions for finding gardening clubs, sharing resources, and seeking guidance from local councils or organisations.

Conclusion: Building a Resilient Food Future

Adam Tugwell’s blueprint is both a practical guide and an invitation to question, learn, act, and share.

The future of food in the UK depends on our willingness to rethink, reconnect, and take responsibility for what we eat and how it is produced.

Food security begins with each of us, but its impact reaches far beyond our own plates.

By working together – as individuals, families, communities, and citizens – we can ensure that everyone has access to foods they can trust, and that our food system serves the needs of all.

Key Takeaways

Food security is multifaceted, involving availability, reliability, accessibility, nutrition, and affordability.
The UK is vulnerable due to reliance on global supply chains and insufficient domestic production.
True food security means everyone can access nutritious, trustworthy food without fear or uncertainty.
Local food production and home growing are vital for resilience and sustainability.
Community action and collaboration empower individuals and strengthen food systems.
Critical thinking and personal responsibility are essential for making informed food choices.
Everyone can contribute—whether by growing a few herbs, joining a community garden, or supporting local farmers.

Resources and Further Reading

The book provides extensive links to organisations, guides, and further reading for those interested in deepening their understanding or taking practical steps toward food security and resilience.

Buy the Book for Kindle

If you would like to read Foods We Can Trust: A Blueprint for Food Security and Community Resilience in the UK, it is available for Kindle on Amazon at the link immediately below.

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Being on benefits isn’t a culture; for many it’s a living hell

As you read through the pages of this blog or read the eBooks that are available and recognise the story unfolding and the different parts that we can all see, you may be able to step back and observe the reality that those who ‘take from the state’ are the easiest for everyone else to blame.

No matter their background or reason for being dependent upon the State, Benefits Claimants have become scapegoats and little more than everyone else’s ‘guilty bastards.

Worst of all, they have now become a very easy target for those who are actually responsible for everything that is going wrong with the UK, to project their own guilt and fear upon.

For anyone receiving benefits when they could or would rather be ‘paying their own way’, being anywhere near the Benefits System, the many organisations that work within and around it, and being within the exploding sub-class of our society currently being gaslit by the financial benchmark of the National Minimum or Living Wage; life is a fearful, emotionally and practically challenging living hell.

In my recent research article and eBook ‘Is Poverty Invisible to those who don’t Experience it’, I discussed the realities that people using Foodbanks and in poverty face across the UK today.

Given the nature of the announcements due to be made as part of the Spring Statement this Wednesday and what we already know is on the way from the October ’24 Budget, I will expand here on 5 of the most important points of what being within or touched by the Benefits System means to many of those whose lives are touched by it:

1. It costs more to live than the Minimum or Living Wage allows

The elephant in the room that is the cost-of-living crisis, is this:

What we currently accept as being the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage, isn’t anywhere near enough for a single person without any parental, caring or partner responsibilities, to live independently without top-up benefits, help from charities (foodbanks), going into debt or raiding savings.

2. Working on the Minimum Wage means you still need help

People working in Minimum Wage jobs in the UK, cannot earn enough, working a 40-hour week, to pay their own way.

Those on Minimum Wage cannot live independently, without still having to jump through the hoops and requirements that come from being a benefit claimant; from ‘qualifying’ to get emergency food packages from Foodbanks; by going into debt using credit cards, loans or pay-day-credit type schemes; or by falling back on family or friends for handouts, just to make ends meet.

3. Being on benefits is no breeze: Welfare cuts are an act of increasing cruelty when many just want safe-to-climb ladder to escape

Being on benefits means being treated like you are someone else’s guilty bastard and like you are the one who is in the wrong.

The staff in jobcentres (understandably) often don’t really want to be there. They are regularly exposed to some of the UKs most unhappy people. When they themselves are at the cutting edge of a Benefits System that has ALREADY removed all sense of humanity from its heart and behaves like it already runs with the dehumanisation that we can expect from universal AI that is being introduced for all the wrong reasons.

People who are not working or who have personal issues that have made them dependent upon benefits often feel vulnerable.

They suffer from the lowered levels of confidence that any form of unexpected or inescapable vulnerability brings. Even before they contact Jobcentres, the Benefits Office or any other organisations that provides the different services and offerings that provide income and support that comes from the public purse.

Some active claimants do use anger and exhibit loud forms of frustration. But this is often a self-protection mechanism and way to try and secure what they need from the System.

Sadly, these few are the stereotype upon which much of the prejudiced behaviour towards those on Benefits that reaches far beyond DWP staff is formed.

The profit-led private contractors who provide ‘back to work’ or ‘welfare to work’ services and ‘support’ are no better.

The tick-box culture that is applied universally towards anyone whose existence touches the welfare purse is one where claimants are considered capable of working if they tried, and therefore there because they choose to be.

Once through the turnstile of the benefits door, benefits claimants are considered worthless.

Nobody operating or administering the benefits system from within is prepared to look at anyone asking for help as being anything other than the same.

The Benefits system is inherently cynical and labels everyone who doesn’t work as being in the benefits queue as a lifestyle choice.

Unless benefits claimants possess a CV or situation which would be strong enough to indicate that they wouldn’t even be there in the first place, the experience of being just within the benefits system itself quickly takes its toll. Once inside, it is a downwards spiral for many where there is no genuine escape, even if you find a way to leave.

Politicians may indeed be openly questioning the number of unemployed who there because of mental health issues.

But beyond the torture of what it takes for growing numbers to keep up with a financial and money-centric culture that demands everyone keep up, the constant hits that come from being in ‘the system’ and treated like you are sub human by those who do and can work, makes for a progressively difficult challenge, that in the situation we all face today, has come down to little more than lucky breaks for the many who do want to escape.

4. Very few want to be on benefits – Living independently on a basic wage is key

I mentioned the angry and the frustrated above.

These are the people that hide behind a mask and fight the contact that they have with the Benefits System, because it’s what they believe they have to do, to survive.

Yes, many receiving benefits suggest openly and behave with a sense of entitlement. But this is the situation that decades of poor politicians – and therefore that we all have created, because of the responsibility that we all have, for appointing the politicians who have created, developed and maintained the mess that the UK is now in.

The stories of people who cannot step out of the benefits trap, because they cannot afford to do so, are also true.

There is something perverse about a situation where claimants will not take the risk of taking jobs and opportunities because of how they will be treated by the benefits system and what support they will lose immediately if and when they take those steps to get out.

Unless they cannot work because of other commitments or they find themselves genuinely unable to do so, there are few Benefits Claimants who have entered or remain within the Benefits System by choice.

5. A Minimum Wage that is guaranteed to be a Living Wage would change everything

Another truth that we have turned a blind eye to, is that many people who cannot do so currently, would be very happy to be working in Minimum Wage jobs IF they actually paid what its costs to live independently.

Many people would choose to work in Minimum Wage jobs, in receipt of a wage that they could live independently on. Because their only working responsibility or responsibility to others would then be to do what they are asked for the time that they are at work.

Many of us would be very happy just to work a working week and at the same time earn enough so that all of the bills and the essentials that it takes to live an independent and self-sustaining life today are paid for. Just as long as we don’t then have to go looking for and making ourselves vulnerable to anyone or anything else, reaching out for help, just to make ends meet.

The Basic Living Standard | Full Text

Is Poverty invisible to those who don’t experience it? | Full Text

The Way of Awakened Politics for Good Government | Full Text

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