Building food resilience – from the bottom-up and from the top-down – is vital in an uncertain and rapidly-changing world. That’s why Food Ethics Council is pleased to be involved in a new project called Backcasting to Increase Food System Resilience in the UK. The project is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Anglia Ruskin University is leading the project in partnership with experts from the University of York, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the University of the West of England and the Royal Agricultural University.
Food Ethics Council is one of a number of partner organisations involved. We will be playing a supporting role in the project, primarily through hosting a key workshop (invitation-only) taking place in spring 2025 and participating on the Steering Group.
We will bring our insights built up over more than 25 years, and our convening power to address the hard questions that need to be asked. We will also draw on previous work we have done, including work on building community food resilience in the UK.
Shocks to our food system are coming – and indeed are already here. The UK’s food system is fragile, as highlighted by Emeritus Professor Tim Lang in his report for the National Preparedness Commission here, entitled ‘Just in case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap’.
This new project aims to urgently address vulnerabilities in UK food value chains. It aims to identify and find ways of mitigating the potential tipping points that could lead to a collapse and prioritise the areas within the UK food system that urgently need to strengthen their resilience to likely risks and shocks. To achieve these goals, researchers will work closely with key stakeholders including food producers, importers, distributers and retailers. There will be a “backcasting” mapping exercise to identify the most likely pathways leading to civil unrest with a focus on addressing problems at the early stages of these pathways, well before any unrest arises.