"World-leading research to provide government, business and decision makers with the evidence that they need to develop a robust food and nutrition security response to COVID-19."
The project partners have launched a survey to gather data from key stakeholders on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the UK’s food and nutrition security. Access it here. [1]
The COVID-19 pandemic is having substantial consequences on UK and global economies and hence food and nutrition security (FNS). This project has undertaken world-leading research to assess the emerging situation and provide government, business and decision makers with the evidence that they need to develop robust responses to future threats to food and nutrition security arising from climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
The pandemic has and continues to cause major shocks to the four pillars of food and nutrtion security: access; availability; utilisation and stability. Examples have included reductions in productivity (labour limitations), breakdown of norms of food systems (distribution, changed demand) and supply chain restrictions (available storage). Economic impacts are altering both supply, distribution and demand. Collectively these shocks are substantially altering food systems whilst in the longer-term norms of trade may not adapt appropriately, as a result of Brexit and new trade deals, leading to changes in the balance of traded commodities, reduction in sustainability of production, food standards, food reserves and potentially price increases.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council through UK Research and Innovation COVID-19 response, the project focuses on UK FNS which is heavily dependent on global markets. Nearly half of the food we consume is imported and UK livestock industries rely heavily on imported feed. The aim of this study was to:
The overall purpose has been to provide input into the wider dabate on food system transformation to achieve the multiple objectives of improved human and environmental health and how the system can become resilient to future shocks.
Latest: Final Report now available
UK food and nutrition security during and after the COVID-19 pandemic [2]. The James Hutton Institute, Chatham House, Cranfield University. 14th December 2021.
This final report from the project summarises the main findings from the eight individual reports (see Project Publications below).
The key message from this research, in light of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, is the need for preparation and contingency planning with national food system strategies and internationally agreed measures to protect food and nutrition security. Fundamentally, prevention, in the form of reducing climate risks through deep and rapid mitigation and well-resourced support for adaptation in the food system, integrated with the reversal of environmental damage through the use of sustainable production methods and ecosystem restoration will help progress towards protecting food and nutrition security against future risks.
The key findings are:
There is increasing potential for the use of new technologies, such as Controlled Environment Agriculture [5] and precision agriculture.
Based on these findings, the report goes on to raise some key questions and provide responses:
Will the pandemic drive change? A fundamental question becomes “has the pandemic been a sufficiently impactful event large enough to drive change in the food system?”. Our conclusion is that it has not, on the basis that supply was maintained. The pandemic has primarily caused a demand-side shock, not a supply-side one.
A second following key question thus needs to be asked: “Do we have a false sense of national food and nutrition security?”. There is a substantial risk that the overall conclusion drawn to the first question is that the current structure of the food system is resilient because it maintained supply and that a sufficiently large enough majority of businesses remained financially viable (indeed for some, profits increased). This risks development of a false sense of security and over-confidence in the ability of the food system to cope with future sporadic, multi-faceted and geographically diverse production-based shocks which may have unpredictable cascading consequences through food price rise impacts and differences in geopolitical responses.
Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst the pandemic has affected everyone, it has had differentiated impacts on society and economic sectors. This has been termed the “K” response. In respect of learning from this experience and developing strategies for improving food and nutrition security, in the UK and globally, the key lessons include:
The need for preparation: To develop a food system that will better cope with future production shocks due to climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and improve resilience for food and nutrition security, the primary lesson from the pandemic is that prevention is better than cure, and that preparation and contingency planning can reduce the severity of impacts.
The food system has not been stress-tested by the pandemic. The primary stress on the food system during the pandemic was a demand-side shock. However, climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are likely to cause supply-side shocks, for which the food system has not yet been stress tested.
An opportunity to reflect and adapt. The pandemic is an opportunity to pause and reflect on what society wants from the way our economies are structured and organised. A key part of this is how we build a safe and resilient food system that ends hunger and malnutrition, is equitable, economically viable and improves human and environmental health. Given the scale of transformation needed to achieve these multiple objectives, it is essential to establish fora through which a diversity of stakeholders can voice their experience and concerns, to enable meaningful dialogue on developing solutions. This necessitates the opportunity to challenge the power relations in the food system and develop a shared vision of what a sustainable, resilient and equitable food system looks like and how this can be achieved.
Looking Forward: The Decade of Change. The United Nations has described this as the Decade of Change in recognition of the challenges society faces in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in the face of the climate, biodiversity and ecological health crises. At the core of the SDGs is the need to end hunger and achieve food and nutrition security for all people. The actions needed to meet these challenges must be rapid and at scale: reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately; adopt sustainable environmentally beneficial food production practices; restore degraded ecosystems; align land and marine use for food production, processing and retail with healthy diets; develop safety nets to protect the most vulnerable when shocks occur; internalise the human and environmental costs within the food system.
Project Publications:
Papers:
Rivington, M., King, R., Duckett, D., Iannetta, P., Benton, T.G., Burgess, P., Hawes, C., Wellesley, L., Polhill, J.G., Aitkenhead, M., Lozada‐Ellison, L.‐M., Begg, G., Williams, A.G., Newton, A., Lorenzo‐Arribas, A., Neilson, R., Watts, C., Harris, J., Loades, K., Stewart, D., Wardell‐Johnson, D., Gandossi, G., Udugbezi, E., Hannam, J. and Keay, C. (2021), UK food and nutrition security during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic. Nutr Bull, 46: 88-97. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12485 [7]
Reports:
Related articles:
An ecological perspective of COVID-19 and the UK food system [18] - Paul Burgess, Cranfield University.
Key Project Objectives:
Principal investigator:
Co-investigators:
For more information on the project, contact Mike Rivington [19].
Links:
[1] https://hutton.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bNjapbd4MuMb6ZL
[2] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/UK Food and nutrition security during and after the COVID-19 pandemic - FINAL 17-12-21 v3.pdf
[3] https://www.foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/food-insecurity-tracking
[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00225-9
[5] https://www.apgc.org.uk/
[6] https://www.gpmb.org/#tab=tab_1
[7] https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12485
[8] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/UK%20Food%20and%20nutrition%20security%20during%20and%20after%20the%20COVID-19%20pandemic%20-%20FINAL%2017-12-21%20v3.pdf
[9] https://resourcetrade.earth/publications/covid-19-uk-food-nutrition-security
[10] https://resourcetrade.earth/publications/covid-19-uk-food-nutrition-security-update
[11] https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/12/implications-covid-19-uk-food-supply-resilience
[12] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/An Overview assessment of the COVID_19 pandemic on UK food and nutrition security.pdf
[13] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Scenarios for UK Food and Nutrition Secrurity in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic.pdf
[14] https://zenodo.org/record/4966627#.YPbftaiSl9N
[15] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/D4 Report Post-Covid-19 land use options to achieve food security FINAL 12-12-21-21.pdf
[16] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Exploring COVID-19 food and nutrition security plausible scenario narrtives with the FeedUs model of global trade.pdf
[17] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Exploring the effects on UK food security and land use of four scenarios describing socio-economic responses to COVID-19(1).pdf
[18] https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/alumni/communications/alumni-news/2020/1012-an-ecological-perspective-on-covid-19-and-the-uk-food-system
[19] mailto:Mike.Rivington@hutton.ac.uk?subject=COVID-19%2C%20food%20and%20nutrition%20security
[20] https://www.hutton.ac.uk/staff/mike-rivington