FOOD SECURITY
It's time we started thinking differently about how we feed ourselves.
A blog by Deri Reed | The Warren, Carmarthen
There's something quite strange about the way we've come to think about food in this country. Most of us don't really think about where our food comes from, how it gets to the supermarket, how much of it is actually stored in the UK, or what would happen if, for whatever reason, that supply suddenly stopped. We go to the supermarket, pick up what we need for the next day or two, perhaps do a bigger shop at the weekend, and assume that when we go back next week the shelves will be full again. And, for the most part, they are. But I think it's time we started asking ourselves a few questions about just how secure that system really is.
A wake-up call
In October 2026, the UK government launched its new Be Ready campaign, advising households to keep enough essential supplies at home to manage for at least three days in the event of an emergency. We're being encouraged to keep bottled water, non-perishable food, a torch, batteries and other essentials. The advice is designed to prepare us for things like severe weather, power cuts, cyberattacks and disruption to essential services. It's worth pointing out that countries such as France, Ireland and the Netherlands have already been encouraging their citizens to prepare in a similar way, as the government itself acknowledges.
Now, I'm not suggesting we should all rush out and empty the supermarket shelves. Quite the opposite. But I do think there's something important in this message. Why have we become so accustomed to having absolutely everything available to us, exactly when we want it, that the idea of keeping a few weeks' worth of basic food in our cupboards seems unusual?
For generations, having a well-stocked pantry was simply part of running a household. It wasn't about being a prepper or expecting the end of the world. It was common sense. Somewhere along the way, we've lost a bit of that independence.
How secure is our food system, really?
The UK has developed an incredibly efficient food distribution system. Supermarkets have become very good at getting food from farms, factories and ports onto shelves with very little sitting around in storage. This is what's known as just-in-time supply. Rather than keeping huge quantities of food in warehouses, businesses order what they need as they need it. It reduces storage costs, limits waste and makes commercial sense when everything is working as it should. But there's a downside.
The government's own UK Food Security Report 2024 acknowledges that this approach leaves the food supply chain vulnerable to disruption. Transport delays, cyberattacks, extreme weather, energy shortages and international conflicts can all affect the movement of food.
We've already seen how quickly things can change. Think back to the beginning of Covid. A relatively small change in shopping habits, with people buying a little more than usual, resulted in empty supermarket shelves. Toilet rolls became almost impossible to find, pasta disappeared and certain everyday essentials were suddenly in short supply. We weren't actually running out of food as a country, but the system struggled to cope with a sudden change in demand. It demonstrated just how dependent we've become on a supply chain that relies on everything arriving at precisely the right time.
And it's not just Covid. We've seen the effects of Brexit-related supply chain difficulties, the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. The Guardian has highlighted how concentrated Britain's supermarket distribution network is, with around 131 distribution hubs serving approximately 12,300 stores. Think about that for a moment. We have an entire country relying on a relatively small number of distribution points, enormous logistics networks and a continuous flow of goods. What happens if several of those links are disrupted at the same time?
We don't have to imagine an apocalyptic scenario. A few days of transport disruption, a significant power outage, extreme weather or a problem with a major supplier could be enough to make life very difficult.
There's another uncomfortable fact: the UK no longer holds the strategic food stockpile that existed after the Second World War. Instead, we're relying heavily on the resilience of commercial supply chains. We have become accustomed to the idea that food will simply be there whenever we need it, but perhaps we should be asking whether we've built a system that is efficient at delivering food on an ordinary Tuesday but considerably less prepared for anything out of the ordinary.
Further reading: The Guardian – 'Some aren't going to make it': how pressure on farmers threatens UK food security.
Are we putting too much faith in supermarkets?
I don't want this to become an anti-supermarket argument. Supermarkets provide an essential service, employ thousands of people and have developed incredibly sophisticated systems for getting food to people. But we need to understand what they are.
The major supermarket chains are enormous commercial organisations. Their primary responsibility is to operate profitable businesses and deliver returns to their shareholders. They aren't designed to provide national food security. They're not community food resilience organisations, and they're not necessarily going to prioritise keeping large quantities of essential food in storage when doing so doesn't make commercial sense. That's not necessarily a criticism. It's simply the reality of the business model.
But perhaps we've become a little too comfortable outsourcing almost every aspect of our food security to these organisations. I think we need to start looking at food as something more important than just another consumer product.
Food is a fundamental part of our national infrastructure. It's as important as energy, water and transport. Without it, everything else starts to fall apart. And perhaps we should be treating it that way.
A different approach: start in our own homes
I genuinely believe that one of the simplest things we can all do is start keeping a better supply of food at home. Not panic-buying. Not hoarding. Just building up a sensible, rotating supply of things that we regularly eat.
A few extra bags of rice, lentils, pasta, oats, tinned tomatoes, beans, pulses, cooking oil, tea and coffee. Things with a decent shelf life that can form the basis of a meal. Buy an extra packet when you do your weekly shop. Use what you have, replace it and gradually build up a little resilience.
It means you're less exposed to sudden price increases, temporary shortages or simply not being able to get to the shops. It also gives you a little more flexibility financially. If the price of something suddenly increases, you've already got some in the cupboard.
I think there's something quite empowering about knowing that you could comfortably feed yourself and your household for a few weeks without needing to visit a supermarket. And if enough of us started thinking this way, we'd be creating a much more resilient society.
The government's Be Ready emergency checklist is a useful starting point for thinking about what we might want to keep at home.
What if we started buying together?
This is where I think things get really interesting.
Rather than relying entirely on large supermarkets, what if we started looking at how we could organise ourselves locally to buy food differently? Buying groups and community food collectives aren't new ideas. They've existed for decades in different forms, but I think they're becoming increasingly relevant.
The principle is really simple: a group of households comes together, pools its purchasing power and buys food in larger quantities. Instead of 20 households individually buying a small bag of rice, we collectively purchase a much larger quantity. Instead of everyone paying individual retail prices, we access more competitive wholesale pricing.
We can buy the things we use regularly, store them sensibly and distribute them amongst ourselves. The same approach can work with pulses, grains, flour, cooking ingredients, oils, tea, coffee and all sorts of other everyday essentials.
It doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be a huge operation. A few dozen households organising a regular bulk order can make a meaningful difference to what they're paying for food and how much control they have over their supply.
More importantly, it starts to build relationships between people. We begin to know who we're buying from, where things come from and who we're relying on.
We're no longer just anonymous consumers at the end of a very long supply chain. We're participants in our own local food system.
Looking beyond the supermarket
I also think we need to start looking at food production much closer to home.
The UK currently produces around 60% of the food it consumes, according to government food security figures. That means a significant proportion of what we eat comes from elsewhere. We're exposed to international markets, changing trade relationships, fuel prices, fertiliser costs and weather conditions in countries thousands of miles away.
We can't realistically produce everything we need in the UK, nor should we necessarily try to. But we can do more to support local growers, farmers and independent food producers.
We can encourage more community growing projects, make better use of available land, support small-scale agriculture and develop shorter supply chains. We can learn to preserve food, store seasonal produce, share skills and make better use of what we have. And we can create stronger relationships between the people producing food and the people eating it.
This isn't about turning the clock back or rejecting modern food systems. It's about finding a better balance.
A food system that has multiple routes of supply, a stronger local foundation and communities that have some degree of independence is surely a more resilient one.
For the figures behind this, see the government's UK Food Security Report – Theme 2: UK Food Supply Sources.
Why we're starting the Warren Food Collective
This is really the thinking behind what we're trying to build here at The Warren.
The Warren Food Collective started with a fairly simple idea: could we bring people together to access good-quality, organic and sustainably produced food at something closer to wholesale prices? Could we use collective purchasing power to make food more affordable, reduce unnecessary costs and give people access to products that might otherwise be difficult or expensive to buy?
But the more I've thought about it, the more I've realised that it's about something much bigger than getting cheaper bags of rice or a better price on olive oil.
It's about food security. It's about food resilience. It's about building something locally that gives people a little more control over where their food comes from and how they access it.
It's about recognising that we don't always need to rely on huge organisations to solve every problem for us. Sometimes we can organise ourselves, pool our resources and do things collectively. And I think there's something quite powerful in that.
Imagine if more communities across Wales and the rest of the UK started doing something similar. Small local buying groups, community food collectives, shared growing spaces, local producers working together and households building up sensible food stores.
None of these things individually will solve every problem with our food system. But together, they can make us considerably less vulnerable. And perhaps just as importantly, they help create communities that are more connected, more knowledgeable and better prepared to look after themselves and each other.
It's about being prepared, not being frightened
I don't want people to read this and feel worried about the future. I want people to feel empowered to do something about it.
Start with your own kitchen cupboards. Think about what you eat regularly and what you'd like to have available if you couldn't get to the shops for a while. Talk to your neighbours. Find out whether there are local growers or producers you could support. Look into buying groups and community food projects. And if you can, get involved in something local.
We have become incredibly disconnected from the systems that feed us. I think it's time we started reconnecting.
Food security shouldn't just be something discussed by government departments, supermarkets and international organisations. It should be something that we all have an interest in.
Because ultimately, food security isn't just about whether there's enough food in the country. It's about whether people can access it, whether they can afford it, where it comes from and whether the systems that deliver it are strong enough to withstand a bit of pressure.
At The Warren, we want the Food Collective to be part of that conversation and, hopefully, part of the solution. We're starting small, but the idea is much bigger.
Buy together. Support local. Build resilience. Take back a little control over the food that feeds us.
I think that's something worth being part of.
*Deri Reed The Warren, Carmarthen*
A little more about the Food Collective
The Warren Food Collective is open to people who want to access good-quality, sustainably produced food through collective purchasing. By bringing orders together, we can access larger quantities, improve our buying power and share the benefits between members.
We're building this as a community-led project, with the longer-term ambition of developing something that can support local food resilience and food security.
Interested in getting involved?
Join the Warren Food Collective and find out more about what we're building.