The Alarm Bell of Food Security was Suppressed for Two Years

After the ITV story on the National Security Assessment, this work has now broken further – this time in The Times. Interest is growing, and the space for honesty is opening.

This is a different report – earlier, more UK-focused, and spanning multiple critical systems. I have worked with environment journalists at The Times on this for some time to help bring it to light.

When I asked, via a Freedom of Information request, for this report to be published, the Government response was that they had no record of it.

And yet, here we are. The reality is that we are far more vulnerable to food scarcity than our government would have you believe.

If you can access the article, I strongly recommend reading it. If not, I’ve shared the full text here.

This report, like the National Security Assessment – though a year or two earlier, and more tightly focused on the UK and its critical systems – is not solutions-focused. It was a civil service document, designed to be “neutral”.

And yet what it sets out is stark.

It points to serious vulnerabilities in areas like food security and supply chains, and to the real possibility of cascading disruption under climate and ecological stress.

This is what reality looks like when it is written in the cautious language of officialdom.

Another de facto official emergency briefing in the making.

There is a clear pattern now.

First, the National Security Assessment – quietly published, partially withheld, then forced into the open and onto ITV.

Now this.

Two reports. Both deeply concerning. Both effectively sat on.

The Conservatives sat on this – and Labour sat on it too.

So much more to do with this one, of course.

But right now, I am asking for your help.

Please share this story widely – especially with politicians, journalists and civil servants you know.

And please press your MP:

What is the Government’s actual, concrete response to this brace of devastating reports that have now been exposed?

All of this only strengthens the case for what we argued in our recent Plan B report.

We need to move beyond unwinnable debates and toward strategic – indeed transformative – adaptation:

– preparing our food systems and supply chains

– building real resilience into our infrastructure

– and developing the forms of inner adaptation that enable us to face these realities without denial

As a movement, we have a limited amount of resources and energy. Climate adaptation, I believe, is where we should be focusing the lion-share of our attention over the coming years. In a recent paper with Cathy Rogers, we argue that climate adaptation has long been neglected by the wider climate movement, but is a powerful tool for building the broad-based, politically potent constituency that campaigners have long sought.

Finally, if you would like to hear more, I recently appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze. You can watch a short clip here on Instagram, or the full episode on BBC Sounds.

More soon.

Please help.