Tim Lang - Feeding Britain

1. 1. CHAPTER 1 :
      Food and the National Interest:
      Redefining Progress
   2. CHAPTER 2 :
      Why UK Food Security Matters
   3. CHAPTER 3 :
      The State of UK Food (In)Security
2. 1. CHAPTER 4 :
      Our Food Problems:
      Recognizing the Lock-in
3. 1. CHAPTER 5 :
      What We Ought to Do:
      A Great Food Transformation

Tim Lang is Professor of Food Policy at the Centre for Food Policy at City University of London, which he founded in 1994 and directed until 2016. For the last twenty-five years he has researched, written and lectured on the role of policy in shaping and responding to the food system, particularly in relation to health, environment, social justice, the political economy and consumer culture. He previously spent seven years as a hill farmer, an experience which has shaped his work ever since.

Period life expectancy at birth, England and Wales, 18502010

Period life expectancy, UK, 200117

Henry Dimbleby

Sir William Beveridge

Economic summary of the UK food chain

UK trade balances in goods and services, Nov. 2016Nov. 2018, bn

The widening Food Trade Gap: value of imports and exports of food, feed and drink, 19932018

Total Income from Farming (TIFF), 19932017, plus direct support (subsidy)

Farm income in England 2017, with and without subsidy, by type of farm business,

UK food production to supply ratio, 19882016

The FAOs five grades of food security

Age structure of the UK population, mid-20162041

1917 poster urging lower consumption of bread from imported wheat, carried by ships which were being threatened by German submarines

Where food came from in 1939: Wooltons Ministry of Food map

Freight through UK airports, 2018

Ports in the UK

Flows of lorries and trade source

Agricultural and food goods moved by UK-registered heavy goods vehicles, 200417, mt

Average miles travelled per person, per year, England, 200217

Purpose of car-based trips, per person per year, 200217

Top five ports for UK Ro-Ro movement, mt

A multi-criteria approach to food system sustainability

Where the money goes from a 2.50 cup of coffee

Current use of all land in the UK

Foods greenhouse gas emissions

Water stress in non-EU countries exporting food to the UK

The external water footprint of rice consumption in the EU27 in 20002004

Population of wild birds in England by habitat, 19702017

Environmental effects per serving of food produced

The range of GHGs, acidification, eutrophication and land use for different foods

Prevalence of overweight and obese women in the EU, twenty-eight member plus three non-member states, 2014%

Trends in people being obese or overweight, nine countries, 19702030

Obesity in boys and girls aged 317 years, England, France and the USA, 19902015

The spectrum of choice

The INFORMAS model

UK food waste 2017, by sector, %

A schematic representation of bio-energy production

An example of a five-tier approach to food waste

Number of three-day emergency supplies given by Trussell Trust in 201819, by region

UK trends in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices in real terms, January 1998December 2018, in constant 2015 prices

Family spending on food and non-alcoholic drink, and on alcoholic drink and tobacco, 200118, in real terms at 201718 value

Percentage of income spent on food by UK households and the lowest 20% by income, 200517

Percentage of children under fifteen living in a moderately or severely insecure household and in severely food-insecure households

Cumulative percentage point differential growth in gross value added, South UK, North UK and London, 19712013

Percentage of all individuals in households below Minimum Income Standard, UK, 2008/09 and 2014/15

Total value of agricultural land and woodland in 2016

Distribution of direct payments (subsidies) to farmers in 2017

Share of migrants in the total population 2017, by region

UK Food Trade Gap, 2018: imports and exports, by major commodity group, EU and non-EU, bn

Where Britains food came from, 2017

Types of trade deal under which UK food was imported, and percentage of food sectors imported under those deals, 2017

Some key concepts in or associated with the food security debate

Estimated and projected population of the UK and constituent countries, mid-2016 to mid-2041

Population of the world and regions, 2017, 2030, 2050, 2100, in millions

Changing rates of British self-sufficiency

Border protection vessels in the UK and six European countries, 2017

Comparison of food to non-food shops, UK, 25 July 2019

Breakdown of all food-related shops, UK, as at 25 July 2019

Top ten containerized UK imports of food (2014)

Major ports groups

Possible causes and impacts of port disruption

Increases in area treated (shown by type of pesticide)

Number and size (ha) of holdings in England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland, 2017

Arable crops in the UK 2017, ha

Total UK area of horticultural crops 2017, ha

Agricultural labour force on commercial holdings, 2017

UK livestock numbers, 2017

Takeaway presence: local authorities in Wales, Scotland and England with the five highest and lowest presences of takeaway outlets, %

Food and drink company rank and adspend in fifty top UK fmcg, 2017

Food security status, England, Wales and N. Ireland

Top ten UK food and drink exports, 2018

GB food retail market share, ownership structure and base, 2018

GVA in the UK food chain, 2018, bn

How well retailers comply with the UK Grocery Code, %

The UK food service market, 2018

Estimate of land ownership in England

Some policy visions for the future of the UK food system

Over forty years ago, I picked up a copy of Le Gros Clark and Titmusss 1939 Our Food Problem and Its Relation to Our National Defences in a junk shop. I have the copy still. It is an early Penguin Special, the series created by the publisher Allen Lane to inform and comment on current affairs. This book gave a sober account of the strategic weakness the UK faced on food. It argued that a country whose state had created a default policy of food imports laid itself open to severe weakness not just in the food itself but in public morale. Reading voraciously about the 1930s debates led me to earlier ones and my interest grew in how complex the politics of food are, and how tricky an issue food security can be and what it means. It also instilled an urgency about food and war which endures. Wars almost always disrupt food systems and often destroy them. Food can be used as a weapon; it can make or break economies. How we manage our food systems is something fundamental to human civilization and culture. We constantly have to update our understanding of what is going on. How societies manage food in war and times of food insecurity necessitates not just public comment but public engagement. In these days when governments bow down to market power, appreciation of what happens when food is disrupted concentrates policymakers thoughts on how food is a matter of minds and mouths not just dry market economics.