Building Civil Food Resilience at a local level

The UK is not prepared for the food supply shocks that climate, geopolitical and cyber threats are making more likely. Resilience cannot be run from the centre alone – it is delivered locally. Sustainable Food Places food partnerships are the proven vehicle, but they need Government to act on four fronts:

• Give resilience bodies a remit for food – including food in the official risk registers that local areas plan around.
• Fund and recognise food partnerships – multi-year funding and a formal role in local planning.
• Use public sector food buying and local infrastructure as levers to strengthen supply chains.
• Lock it in through a Good Food Bill – a statutory duty that turns this from good practice into standard practice.