Building Civil Food Resilience at a local level
This briefing is informed by the report ‘Civil Food Resilience in practice: capacity-building for resilience across the Sustainable Food Places network’ and focuses on the role of national government in enabling communities to prepare for food system shocks and emergencies.
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.
Sustainable Food Places: Network bringing together over 100 local food partnerships.
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