Resilient Food Systems 

UK food systems (how we grow, sell, consume food or manage food loss and waste) are a major contributor to climate change. These systems impact many aspects of our environment e.g., biodiversity and water use. They are also key drivers of diet-related health, nutrition, and food safety. In turn, climate change in the UK and across the globe has the potential to increase threats to UK food security, as we rely on imports for many of our key foods. Initial projects currently co-developed across partners include: 

Climate change threats to UK food security: more than energy per capita  

Climate change poses a multi-dimensional challenge to UK food security, influencing not only agricultural productivity but also food safety, nutrition, affordability and equitable access to the food we need to support population health and wellbeing. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and shifts in global trade introduce risks, such as food price volatility, disruption of supply, increased prevalence of food-borne pathogens, and unequal health burdens across populations.

Traditional metrics of food security focus narrowly on per capita energy availability, yet food goes beyond ensuring sufficient food is produced/imported to prevent hunger. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization have a broader definition of food security: when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. This definition is represented by four pillars of food security: availability, accessibility, utilisation [safety, nutrition, culture], and stability.  

Current evidence linking climate change with UK food safety and nutrition outcomes is fragmented, patchy across devolved nations, and rarely integrates perspectives from science, policy, and public discourse. This piece of work will address that critical gap by synthesising evidence across the boundaries of humanities, social, and natural sciences from academic literature, policy documents, and media narratives, together with stakeholder and participatory involvement and engagement through the Net+ centre.

The project will challenge tensions between food safety and nutrition, where evidence and policy are siloed despite inherent links between these two areas to fulfil UN Sustainable Development Goals and transition towards healthier, more sustainable, and resilient food systems. This work can help to clarify the links between climate change and nutrition and food safety in the UK and inform future UK Climate Change Risk Assessments [CCRA], national food strategies, and local adaptation policies. 

Preliminary objectives:  

1. Evidence mapping: Identify, appraise, and synthesise evidence on climate change impacts on nutrition and food safety in the UK via a systematic scoping review. 
2. Media narratives: Explore UK media reports on climate-related risks to food safety and nutrition, disaggregated across the four nations, to understand public framing and risk communication. 
3. Integrated synthesis: Combine science, policy, and media evidence using an international food security framework to assess cross-cutting risks, regional disparities, vulnerable groups. 
4. Public involvement and engagement: Engage with young people via a young people’s advisory group 

PhD project: Sustainable solutions to improve public health through food security in fruits and vegetables (Georgia Browne) 

How fruits and vegetables are produced, sold and consumed is essential for food security in the UK and transitioning to healthier, more sustainable, and equitable food systems. The UK produces 60% of total vegetable supply and 20% for fruits with the remaining largely imported. This makes the UK vulnerable to shocks in global food systems, such as climate-induced weather events interrupting supply and causing volatility in food prices, which in turn exacerbates access to healthy foods.  

Research is required to explore how to create feasible systems-wide solutions to increase the ubiquity of fruits and vegetables in our food environments, without exploiting people or the planet. This relates to growers in terms of growing practices, profitability, and diversity of routes to market, and how to compete with the marketing of less nutritious foods. It also relates to ensuring universal access, affordability, and a culture of consuming fruits and vegetables to encourage healthy dietary practices to reduce diet-related health inequalities.  

This PhD will aim to explore sustainable solutions to improve the UK’s food security and public health related to horticulture and fruits and vegetables through a planetary health and systems approach. The PhD might include to explore coherence in local-national policy to improve the UK’s food security in fruits and vegetables; explore practices, experiences, aspirations of local growers/retailers regarding the future of UK horticulture; and explore the contribution of local innovation to improving food security of fruits and vegetables in the UK e.g., via engaging with economically disadvantaged communities and local innovators and/or evaluating existing programmes.