Energy & Climate
Conflict & food security
IFAD president: Fragile food systems ‘pose an underestimated risk to global stability’.
15 February 2026
The UK’s food supply is facing unprecedented challenges.
Last month the government’s own research warned that in the increasingly likely event of continued biodiversity loss and the collapse of vital ecosystems, the UK could face food shortages, increased food prices and a threat to national security.
With the nation still suffering the effects of the cost-of-living crisis and the highest food price inflation for 40 years, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the aftermath of the global Covid19 pandemic, policymakers must now take action to protect the UK’s food system from further global shocks, an increasingly turbulent international context, ongoing extreme weather patterns and inflation.
Today (25 Feb) more than 100 major UK retailers, food businesses, investors, health organisations, food and farming NGOs and academics are calling on the UK government to introduce a ‘Good Food Bill’ to protect citizens, farmers and food businesses.
‘The breadth of this coalition – from major supermarkets to health experts – shows the need for a step change in the government’s approach to food policy. We are living in an age where global shocks and climate change are already having major impacts on our food system, leaving more people struggling to access healthy food. A Good Food Bill would provide a statutory imperative for this government, and those that follow, to make concerted progress towards everyone having access to healthy and sustainable food.’
LYDIA COLLAS
Head of Natural Environment, Green Alliance
The proposed Bill would be a piece of legislation and a once-in-a-life time opportunity for the government to set out a visionary plan to transform the food system.
It would enshrine in law policies, targets and ambitions to improve public health, reduce inequalities, protect the environment and improve UK resilience, while safeguarding progress from short-term political cycles.
Businesses including Marks & Spencer (M&S), Danone, Co-op Group, Bidfood, The Compleat Food Group and major caterers Elior and Sodexo are standing alongside NGOs including The Food Foundation, Sustain, Green Alliance, Barnardo’s and WWF, as well as health organisations like the British Medical Association, British Heart Foundation and the British Dental Association with a shared call for a ‘Good Food Bill’.
‘A Good Food Bill would provide the durable policy foundation needed to transform the food system for generations to come. Governments can achieve important wins within a single term, but only legislation can lock in change, providing certainty and protecting progress from shifting political priorities.
‘With food strategies and legislation already in place across the devolved nations, this is a timely opportunity for Westminster to introduce legislation that benefits the whole UK. We are calling on the government to seize this moment, commit to new primary legislation and lead the change needed to build a food system fit for the future.’
ANNA TAYLOR
Executive director, The Food Foundation
These issues are also of key importance to the electorate. The Food Foundation has today released YouGov data showing 69% of people think the UK government should be doing more to ensure everyone can afford and access healthy food, with only 3% saying they should be doing less.
On top of this, half (53%) of people think the current state of international affairs has made protecting the UK food supply ‘more important.’
Support for action cuts across political divides, with 65% of people supporting the introduction of a government ‘Good Food Bill’ that would put in place new duties and targets on government and government bodies to make healthy food more accessible and affordable.
‘If getting prepared to feed the public well in times of shock was taken seriously, we’d have to redesign the food system to make that happen. Placing a duty on authorities to be able to feed all the public well in crises means civil food resilience becomes real. We cannot just trust to luck or big retailers to feed us in crises. Food resilience is a common good. Such a duty would mean food is taken as seriously as the energy system. If we can plan to keep the lights on, why not plan to keep people fed?’
TIM LANG
Professor Emeritus of Food Policy, Centre for Food Policy, City St George’s, University of London
We already have a situation in the UK where 15% of households with children report experiencing food insecurity and where healthier foods are more than twice as expensive per calorie than less healthy foods and less available.
Type 2 diabetes is rising among young people, and 36% of children are living with overweight or obesity by secondary school.
This demonstrates that major change is needed in the food system if Labour is to achieve its election manifesto pledges to ‘raise the healthiest generation of children ever’ and ‘end mass dependency on emergency food parcels.’
A ‘Good Food Bill’ would put into place the long-term duties required by government to deliver these important wins.
It has now been 14 months since the government first set out its ambition for a food strategy and with the next King’s Speech approaching, now is the prime opportunity to commit to a White Paper as a precursor to a ‘Good Food Bill’ to lock in the government’s ambition for a healthier, more resilient, sustainable food system.
‘The BMA supports a ‘Good Food Bill’ and supports the focus on improving the UK’s food environment, because, as our recent report, ‘Improving the nation’s health: the impact of ultra-processed food’, highlights, not enough is being done to halt rising obesity levels and preventable disease, particularly among children.
‘Doctors are seeing the consequences of poor diet every day. We support measures that strengthen regulation, increase industry accountability, and make healthier, minimally processed foods more accessible and affordable, as meaningful reform is essential to protect public health and ease pressure on the NHS.’
PROFESSOR DAVID STRAIN
British Medical Association board of science chair
IFAD president: Fragile food systems ‘pose an underestimated risk to global stability’.
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