Food Ethics Council

A surge in commodity prices has pushed 'food security' up the agenda in policy, business and public debate. Yet the term is used to promote everything from self-sufficiency to social justice. The May meeting of our Business Forum discussed what it means and what factors affect it.

The meeting was chaired by Helen Browning OBE, Food and Farming Director of the Soil Association and a member of the Food Ethics Council. We are very grateful to our speakers, Professor Philip Lowe OBE and Dr David Barling. Philip Lowe is Director of the Rural Economy and Land Use programme. David Barling is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Food Policy at City University London, where he researches the sustainability of our food supply.

You can read a report of the meeting here. Key points from the meeting include:

• Some see the current short-term spike in food commodity prices to end the long-term downward trend in real food prices.
• Poorer consumers who spend proportionately more on food are hurt by higher prices, while potential gains for producers are eroded by higher input costs.
• A key concern for many businesses is to maintain profitability, if necessary by passing costs to their customers.
• Higher prices may put pressure on the environment, as land is farmed harder.
• Inflation has pushed food security up the policy agenda. Internationally, this means a renewed focus on tackling hunger and malnutrition. In this sense, food security is better seen as a question of demand and distribution, than supply and productivity.
• In the UK, renewed interest in food security owes more to geopolitical concerns about resource scarcity and supply chain resilience.
• While many stakeholders accept the UK government’s long-standing principle that national self-sufficiency is not necessary to food security, they nevertheless challenge the prudence of the UK’s laissez-faire approach.
• A study by City University proposes that the challenges raised by stakeholders are best captured by the concept of ‘food capacity’, which is about building the foundations for a resilient, healthy and sustainable food system.
• Building food capacity demands major public investment, including in research.

Click here to find out more about the Business Forum.