Britain is “sleepwalking into a food crisis,” food experts have warned, as a heatwave, inflation and the fallout from the Iran war push pressure through the country’s farms and supply chains. The warning landed this week as ministers were pressed to rethink the national food strategy for a hotter, less stable future.
Farmers are already dealing with a dry spring and a current heatwave, with crops likely to yield less as temperatures rise beyond their tolerance and livestock suffering heat stress. The risks are not confined to the field: experts said wildfires are becoming more likely, while the financial damage from the weather and market shocks could run into the hundreds of millions of pounds.
Food prices were already on track to be 50% higher in November than they were five years ago, and more heatwaves are expected later in the summer, when temperatures could top 40C. Against that backdrop, Rachel Reeves floated the idea of voluntary price caps on staple foods last week, only for supermarkets and opposition parties to reject it almost immediately.
This week, a group of nine food experts wrote to ministers calling for the national food strategy to be updated. The signatories, including Mike Barry, Anna Taylor and Lee Stiles, said the plan should take account of the risks now bearing down on British food production and prepare the UK for a future of higher temperatures and more severe weather. They argued for resilient domestic production of healthier food, better preparation for supply chain shocks and access for all to safe, affordable and healthy food.
Tim Lang, one of the signatories, said the government’s current approach amounted to little more than “business as usual.” He said ministers had received serious scientific, intelligence and policy advice on food security but were still signalling that all was well, adding: “It’s not.” Lang also said volatility was now the new normal, with climate heating, geopolitics and the cost-of-living squeeze driving Britain into “escalating trouble.”
He said the public was ready for action but needed leadership and support, asking what could be a more important state responsibility than ensuring the population can be fed in all circumstances. Richard Nugee, another signatory, said food security should be treated as a top-level national security concern, warning of the potential for food to be reduced in quantity through “heat domes” over grain baskets in Europe and around the world. He also pointed to the war-related damage to the food chain, saying the inability of people to export to Britain and Britain to import food, along with the strain on UK farmers, was making the system more fragile.
The experts said fuel and fertiliser prices would remain high even if the Iran war ended soon, because of the supply crunch moving through the strait of Hormuz. That matters now because the shocks hitting farms, imports and household budgets are converging at once. The message in the letter is blunt: Britain is not facing a distant risk, but a food crisis already taking shape in the heat of this summer.
