Resilience and sustainability

As the coronavirus pandemic lays bare the fragility of global supply chains, the need for building more resilient and sustainable economies becomes ever more evident. It’s not just about medical supplies. In his new book, Feeding Britain, food policy expert Tim Lang dissects the nation’s perilous dependence on just-in-time supply chains in which eight mega-corporations control 90% of the retail market. From an interview in the Guardian:

What’s Lang’s solution? It’s detailed and includes the introduction of a food resilience and sustainability act, complete with legally binding targets. National nutritional guidelines should become the basis for food procurement contracts, both public and private. There should be an audit of food production in the UK and the budget for public health should be doubled from £2.5bn of the £130bn health budget to £5bn. It also proposes the creation of no fewer than nine bodies or institutions, including a royal commission to map a new set of “multi-criteria principles for the UK food system”, a food resilience and sustainability council and a network of urban and rural food and farming colleges.

Read more here.