Tim Lang, emeritus professor of food policy at City University London, has called for a Food Security Resilience Act, following years of inaction.
Speaking on a vodcast interview with IGD’s Matthew Stoughan on the future of food, Lang pointed to a deeply entrenched culture of complacency that can be traced back centuries.
“We’re dealing with British exceptionalism,” he said. “The line was, we can get food from anywhere, we’re rich.”
When pulling together his landmark ‘Just in Case’ report for the National Preparedness Commission, Lang found that while areas such as energy and markets were covered in government contingency plans, there was “silence about food”.
“There are huge gaps in what we might expect of resilience in a rich country like Britain for food systems and the reality,” he said.
Since Lang began work on that report, the world has entered what some are calling a ‘permacrisis’. Yet, food seemingly remains a non-priority for UK government and a disconnected issue when it comes to resilience and defence.
‘We can’t leave it to Tesco’
When asked if we are seeing any progress since the report was published, Lang replied: “That’s a dangerous question.”
He continued: “The policy now is leave to Tesco et al […] but I don’t see how the retail industry can resolve fertiliser crises or climate change.”
For Lang, drastic change is needed, including a move away from very concentrated distribution (on which 94.5% of retail depends) and ‘just-in-time’ models.
This approach, which was introduced as a way to become more efficient, has resulted in the removal of storage, flexibility and – despite thousands of SKUS – diversity.
Similar concerns have been raised by the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), which recent called out government for ignoring the cold chain’s role in resilience and national security.
During the Covid pandemic and several times since, the CCF says the UK has come close to running out of long-term cold storage.
Can we afford to change?
But as Stoughan queried Lang, if we’ve to pivot away from traditional models, it’s going to cost a heck of a lot of money. So how do we balance adding cost into the system on wafer thin margins, coupled with the on-going cost-of-living crisis?
“I’m probably going to offend the listeners,” Lang replied, “there’s a lot of money in the food system.”
The food system turns over roughly £180–200 billion annually. However, Lang reckons much of the true cost goes elsewhere, with society paying them indirectly through NHS spend, environmental damage, and wider public health.
He suggests that by shortening supply chains and cutting out some of the ‘middlemen’, primary growers can receive a fairer return.
“The issue is when you look at where that money goes, there is a very long chain of lots of people operating on tight margins,” he contended.
Decentralising power
Lang also believes a redistribution in power could lead to tangible benefits.
“Defra has not championed food and emergency and resilience planning. It’s buried in Defra but it’s not scaled,” he said.
“We need to give them [metro mayors] more powers to start building a resilient, more diverse food system in their regions,” he said.
He also calls for a Food Council similar to the Climate Change Committee, which would provide short and long term strategic advice.
In some ways, some of his thoughts are echoed in Andy Burnham’s recent speech, who has called for a decentralisation of power from Westminster.
Burnham, who is widely assumed to be the UK’s next PM, argues that power is not in the hands of the places members of parliament represent but rather “held by an insufficiently accountable outsourced state”.
His Number 10 North proposal would see power and resources redistributed across the UK and coordinate all parts of government at national and local level to agree long-term economic goals.
His policy speech also looked at changing UK public procurement policy which he said have “been based on chasing cut price deals around the world rather than helping our own British-based suppliers become more stable and competitive”.
He flagged this change as “essential” in an increasingly uncertain world, where relying too heavily on imports is proving to be too risky; and instead promised to “safeguard sovereign manufacturing and production capability across the country in critical sectors”, including food and farming.
Surviving the turbulence of politics
While the future government direction hangs in the air, Lang doesn’t see any progress in resilience being made until a legal framework is imposed.
“I do not see us doing anything unless we have a legal basis to resilience in the food system,” he told Stoughan.
He acknowledged that some businesses are taking resilience more seriously, but it’s happening “in pockets”.
He said some “thoughtful” big firms and “at risk” small firms are looking at what they can do about it, but it has not translated across the entire sector.
“I want to see that creativity of thinking everywhere; and I don’t think we’ve got the framework that encourages it to go from some boardrooms to all boardrooms.”
While initiatives have been put in place by previous governments, Lang says that plans have been scrapped because they’ve not been protected by law.
He pointed to the Climate Change Act which has survived the turbulence of politics because it’s a law; and that the same needs to be done for food security resilience: “We need a Food Security Resilience Act.”
He continued: “The answer is a multi-level approach, there are things that central government can do and there are things that only we in our communities can do, and there are levels between. A new Food Security and Resilience framework would spell that out.”
Stoughton said for now there is low hanging fruit and “triple win” actions (resilience, sustainability and health) that businesses can grasp, but agreed that a framework, upskilling and knowledge challenges need to be addressed first.
But if Lang’s theory is correct, it’ll take another crisis before we get our act together.
Our next Business Leaders’ Forum will take place on 22 October 2026 and focus on the topic of being resilient in the squeezed middle, featuring guest speakers Tim Lang; Paul Geary, ex-Morrisons trading director; and Lumina Intelligence’s insights lead, Flora Zwolinksi.
The session will be chaired by industry veteran and current IFST president, Chris Gilbert-Wood.