‘Food security does not just happen; it needs to be pursued’

Prof Lang gave a speech during the NFU Conference 2026, highlighting that the UK must be less complacent when it comes to food resilience.

The founder of the Centre for Food Policy at City University London and author of a book called Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them added: “We cannot rely on current supply chains to produce our food and must build resilient networks.”

The expert explained that food systems need stability, planning, clear frameworks and trust.

“Food security does not just happen; it needs to be pursued. It needs to be a clear goal of a policy and be defended. Food security isn’t just about supply; it’s about access, affordability, health, reliability, and appropriateness. It needs to be prepared for shocks,” he said.

Mr Lang added that climate change, the floods and droughts and the systematic built-in consumer misinformation are part of the vulnerabilities to the just-in-time logistics system of the food system.

“We’ve created a food system in the name of efficiency, which is now inappropriate for where we are. Concentration, big companies dominating, and being the choke points create vulnerability. […] Drone warfare and software dependence make it doubly, doubly vulnerable.”

Mr Lang explained that the UK is now in what academics call a “poly-crisis world’. This means that “unpredictability is predictable”. “We’ve got a mix of slow-burn and fast-burn crises,” the expert added.

Mr Land also emphasised that “it would be a mistake to demonise environmentalism versus food production”.

READ MORE: NFU Conference 2026: ‘We need a food strategy that sets clear ambitions’

‘Could you feed your region if there was a shock?’

Prof Lang has spent two and a half years researching the Just in case: Narrowing the UK civil food resilience gap report, and his message to the farming community is “you have work to do”.

He said that Britain is about 60% self-sufficient in food production, and we have shifted in 200 years from the empire feeding us to a more complex system of Europe feeding us.

“The idea that others will feed us is hardwired into our psyche,” he said, adding that other countries are looking into storing food as a way of improving their resilience. The challenge I pose to you is could you feed your region if there was a shock?”

In a polycrisis world, Prof Lang suggests we need to move away from a supply chain based on consumer choice to one that looks at consumer needs – basically, simpler diets.

He points out that as society gets richer, people eat more meat – we have taken a feast day treat and made it into an everyday essential.

He said: “This does not mean a return to gung-ho, let-it-rip farming – environment is the infrastructure of food production, and we have a strong case for revisiting mixed farming.”

READ MORE: NFU Conference 2026: Reforms to SFI welcomed by farming industry

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