Resilience of the UK Food System in a global context - Programme Coordination

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Recent years have seen a significant interest in global and UK food security in policy, science and business circles, and in the more general press. Heightened by the 2007/08 food price crisis this is further driven by growing concerns about increasingly unsustainable dietary patterns. These have given rise to a growing number of overweight and obese people worldwide, while hunger and under-nutrition continues to be a problem, even in the UK. Changes in climate and associated weather extremes, in trade arrangements, and the continued unsustainability of many agricultural and fisheries production systems, and further stresses related to dietary changes are increasing the vulnerability of the overall food system. This concern has led to the growing awareness of the need to increase resilience of our food system to such stresses. The interest is however also driven by recognition of the need to reduce negative outcomes of the food system activities (from producing to consuming food) for the environment, and for health and other socioeconomic parameters. These issues are set against the need to maintain vibrant, competitive agri-food enterprises (and their associated livelihoods) which underpin the food system. A set of research projects is being funded as part of the £14.5 million GFS Food System Resilience Programme which, collectively, will provide policy makers and other stakeholders with information about how they can improve the resilience of the UK food system. Three key components are required to maximize the impact of the GFS Resilience Programme: (i) mutual awareness-raising and integration of individual projects to add value to each other and establish the intellectual identity of the Programme by deriving new insights from the various projects can help to gain a better understanding of overall resilience building; (ii) stakeholder engagement and matching of needs to GFS outputs; and (iii) communications within the Programme and with broader communities. All three will depend on effective management and coordination which is proposed in three phases: Planning (October 2016-early 2017); Delivery (early 2017-September 2021); Building Legacy (October 2019-September 2021).