As the world warms, just how secure is our food supply?

13 Aug 2024
3 min read
Woman shopping for vegetables

In terms of food, nothing is more talked about and photographed than chocolate goods. From Valentine’s Day to Easter and Christmas, every year there are plenty of big chocolate buying holidays, but the bad news is, the sweet treat we all love is getting pricier.

Due to climate change, extreme weather conditions are set to increase and that is bad for food security and prices.

In fact, chocolate prices are at a record high. Hershey’s, the big chocolate company in the US, is passing on the price hikes to consumers while Cadbury’s in the UK is shrinking products.

When it comes to chocolate, 70 percent of the UKs global consumption comes from West Africa which, due to poor climate and bean disease, has struggled with yields.

Sugar prices, another ingredient in chocolate, have risen seven percent in the last 12 months again due too due to poor weather conditions. Due to climate change, extreme weather conditions are set to increase and that is bad for food security and prices.

UK food import figures

The UK imports around 46 percent of the food it consumes.

The UK imports around 46 percent of the food it consumes at a cost of around £48 billion so our food security is incredibly important.

The UK produces over 50 per cent of vegetables consumed domestically, but only 16 per cent of the fruit we consume.

With the necessity to import so much though, comes vulnerability.

The risk is global

Wheat crop destroyed by wildfire

Olive oil prices for example have soared in recent years with floods, wildfires, poor harvests and labour costs all contributing to the spiralling cost. In Spain in fact, olive oil was the most stolen item in supermarkets in eight of its seventeen regions recently showing food inflation is an issue across Europe and not just the UK.

Back British where you can

For so many reasons – from food miles to local economies, it’s vital we back sustainable British farming as much as we possibly can especially as the wet weather over winter and spring has been disastrous for planting crops and feeding livestock. #backbritishfarming has its own hashtag and it’s got over 156,000 hits in Instagram. You can find out more about Back British Farming here.

Make smart choices to reduce risk

Hands holding bowl of green vegetables

There are plenty of things you can do to improve your family’s food security and try and not get hit by the inevitable price hikes that are going to continue throughout the summer as drought and heat stress hit imported crops.

Lots of supermarkets have their wonky veg sections and if you don’t already get from there, why not? They’re always far cheaper too. Not wasting food is another easy way to make shopping stretch further. It’s still shocking a third of food gets wasted in Britain.

Next – and it’s a lot easier said than done when you have children – don’t let your household be a fussy one and get them, and you, to try and eat seasonally.

We have amazing rhubarb grown in this country and lots of apples and pears too. Get them out foraging later in the year for blackberries which grow in abundance in woods and on verges across the country.

Eating less meat and dairy is also a great idea to reduce costs and also help with food production as a plant-based diet requires far less farm land and water for the equivalent calories.

The government have a UK Food Security Index you can look at for more information.

Prices will keep rising

The Institute of Grocery Distribution (the IDG) have said the consequences of extreme weather events and climate change on global production could lead to a huge 20 percent increase in food prices globally by 2050.

That’s just two decades away and very few people I know have an extra 20 percent in their household budget they could easily start spending on their weekly shop.

Small changes now mean we won’t be so reliant on food imports for our family food security.

Disclaimer

The information in this article was correct at the time of writing and is provided for guidance only. Please see the full disclaimer in our terms and conditions.

Please share this article and comment on social.

Related articles

How to stop wasting food and lower your shopping bills

Every day in the UK, we waste 20 million slices of bread, 280 tonnes of poultry and 4.4 million tonnes of potatoes. And that’s just for starters. Each year, we bin 6.5 million tonnes of food – of which 4.5 million tonnes is still edible.
Angela Terry 13 Mar 2024 4 min read
Food waste in the bin