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Government needs to act urgently to protect UK food security in a changing world

By Isabelle Sadler, Research Assistant, Plant-Based Health Professionals UK

We all want a United Kingdom where, year-round, people can access healthy, nutritious food, the supermarket shelves are stocked and we aren’t concerned by food shortages.

That reality is still possible, but it’s under pressure.

UK food security is vulnerable. Recent years have brought some of the worst harvests on record. We rely heavily on imports for many healthy foods, while much of our farmland and resources goes to supporting high consumption of animal-based foods rather than plant-rich diets that human and planetary health require. COVID-19, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and extreme weather have all shown how quickly disruption travels through global supply chains.

Protecting national food security is therefore critical and requires urgent change to how we produce and consume food. A shift towards a more plant-rich food system could build a healthier, more sustainable and more resilient food supply.

Food security under threat

Climate change is disrupting food production at home and overseas. The record-breaking heat and drought of summer 2026 damaged crops, cut yields and forced some animal farmers to start using winter feed early. Despite our own challenges, the UK is far less exposed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than many other countries which supply us with healthy staple foods we depend on.

The UK imports around 40% of all food, 80% of fruit and 47% of vegetables. Around 18% of our fruit and veg comes from nations at high and moderate risk to climate change, and recent modelling suggests that, without action, 52% of the legumes and 47% of the fruit supplied to the UK in 2050 could come from climate-vulnerable countries.

As climate breakdown accelerates, countries are likely to hold on to what they produce rather than export it, which puts Britain in a particularly weak position, leaving us exposed in respect to the foods we need for good health. Being able to domestically produce 60% of our food will also be hard to achieve in the future with more extreme weather due to climate change.

Geopolitical instability adds another layer of risk. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted international wheat, fertiliser and energy markets. Conflict involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz has highlighted the vulnerability of oil and fertiliser supplies: oil prices affect the cost of producing and transporting food, while almost half of the world’s urea, a major nitrogen fertiliser, passes through the Strait.

As the climate crisis worsens, global ecosystem degradation is likely to lower crop yields, trigger crop failures, reduce arable land, collapse fisheries and increase water insecurity.

Plant-rich diets: a way forward

“Livestock which consumes animal feed offers a much less efficient calorie conversion than crops for direct human consumption. The dominant use of land for animal feed in the UK is therefore an important consideration for questions around the sustainability and productive capacity of UK food production.”
– UK Food Security Report 2024

Using land to feed people

A more plant-rich food system could make much more efficient use of the UK’s limited land and resources, while reducing our reliance on vulnerable global supply chains.

Raising animals for food is an inefficient way to produce calories and protein. Over its lifetime, a cow converts just 5% of the calories and 10% of the protein it is fed into meat. In 2024, farmed animals consumed 47% of domestic wheat, 68% of barley, 37% of oats and 60% of field peas.

This has major implications for how effectively we use our agricultural land. According to Defra, all croppable land in the UK could be used to grow food for people, yet 56% is currently used to grow animal feed. Production of meat, dairy and eggs also increases our reliance on imported feed and fertiliser. Shifting land used for animal feed to growing food directly for people would increase the amount of food we produce from the same land, and reduce dependence on imported agricultural inputs.

“The UK does not have enough land to feed its population and rear livestock: a wholesale change in consumer diets would be required.”
– UK Parliament, Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and UK national security, 2026 Research Briefing

Many of the plant foods needed for healthy diets can already be grown in the UK, and expanding their production could substantially increase our domestic food supply. Research by Compassion in World Farming estimates that converting UK land from feed to food production could feed an extra 16.5 million people.

Growing more of the foods we need

UK horticulture is in long-term decline, with vegetable and fruit output at or near their lowest levels since 2015. Only 53% of vegetables and 16% of fruit consumed in the UK are home grown. We cannot build nutritional security by neglecting domestic horticulture while leaning ever harder on climate-vulnerable regions.

Protein crops such as faba beans, soya, hemp and lupins have so much potential. For a given amount of protein or carbohydrate, plant foods need less land and fewer inputs than animal-sourced foods, so a shift allows us to do more with less and leaves UK businesses and consumers less dependent on the imported commodities that support animal farming. Pea protein and faba beans are already produced at scale, but mostly fed to animals.

Some of these crops are currently hard to scale because they are not ideally suited to UK weather and soils. But research into existing and new varieties, including precision breeding, offers the prospect of commercially viable UK crops, and species not currently grown here, such as chickpeas, are also being researched. With half of the UK’s legume supply imported, the commercial opportunity and the food security case for expanding protein crop production are clear. Innovative techniques such as vertical farming, which also shields crops from extreme weather, can help overcome land suitability limits. With the right investment and government support, UK-produced novel proteins such as those from precision fermentation could meet some of our nutritional needs.

Saving water

Water is fundamental to food production, but scarcity is becoming an immediate threat. In summer 2026, three quarters of England was in drought, 23 million people faced hosepipe bans and 1,350 wildfires were reported. As the climate changes, these pressures will become more frequent, while competition for water between households, businesses, energy generation and food production intensifies. It’s estimated that if water use stayed the same, by 2055, we could be short by 5 billion litres a day in England.

The government is responding with greater investment in climate adaptation, including major new reservoirs such as the Fens Reservoir. Projects like this are important, but progressing slowly and not the sole solution. Reducing demand for water-intensive products is also required.

The water required to produce the food consumed by the UK accounts for 7% of blue water use (water from rivers, lakes and groundwater). Animal meat is particularly water intensive. Analysis by Green Alliance found that producing 1kg of UK-grown pulses uses 95% less blue water than producing 1kg of beef.

Shifting what we eat could result in huge water savings:

  • If every UK household swapped 100g of red and processed meat a week (about two pork sausages) for UK-grown pulses, we would save 45 billion litres of freshwater a year. That is equivalent to 82% of the Fens Reservoir’s planned capacity, or 375 million bathtubs.
  • Swapping 200g a week (a beef burger and two pork sausages) would save 81 billion litres a year, equivalent to 147% of the reservoir’s capacity.
Protecting against food price shocks

The cost of a typical shopping basket has risen by more than 30% since 2022, and food prices are rising faster than household incomes, making a healthy diet harder to afford.

The Green Alliance estimates that climate impacts added around £361 to the average household food bill between 2022 and 2023, and that without effective action, heatwaves and floods could push UK food prices up another 34% by 2050.

Meat-heavy diets are especially exposed to this volatility. The large quantities of feed and energy required for animal farming makes it vulnerable to price or supply shocks in those inputs. As climate and resource pressures grow, meat is likely to become more expensive and less predictable to produce. Plant proteins need fewer inputs and are cheaper to produce; pulses deliver 42g of protein per £1, compared with 28g from beef mince.

Households can directly benefit now. Swapping a 100g or 200g a week of red and processed meat swap for UK-grown pulses could save the average household £95 or £147 per year, respectively.

Building a more resilient food system

None of this means that the UK should aim for complete food self-sufficiency. Imports provide valuable diversity, and can protect against a poor harvest in any one country and against supply or price shocks that come from individual suppliers. The problem is excessive dependence on vulnerable supply chains without enough domestic capacity or diversity to absorb shocks.

There is a clear need to boost UK production of fruit, vegetables, beans and pulses while simultaneously growing demand for foods that are healthy and sustainable. With rising food prices and the risk of empty shelves, increasing plant-based consumption and reducing animal-based foods is critical.

This would also tackle one of the underlying drivers of food insecurity, as agriculture is a major contributor to climate change. Moving towards more plant-rich diets and producing food more efficiently would help cut agricultural emissions and reduce pressure on land and other natural resources, while strengthening the UK’s capacity to feed its population.

Supporting British farmers

A secure and resilient food system depends on a thriving farming sector. British farmers are already under pressure from extreme weather, volatile input prices, tight margins and uncertainty, with difficult growing conditions affecting yields in recent years.

Reducing meat consumption in line with dietary and climate recommendations must not come at the expense of farmers’ livelihoods. Instead, a shift towards more plant-rich diets should be accompanied by policies that help farmers adapt and create new opportunities for a more resilient and diverse agricultural sector (see recommended reading below).

A recent analysis by the Green Alliance suggests that increasing domestic fruit and vegetable production could add £1.9 billion to the economy.

PBHP UK endorses the policy proposals to increase production and consumption of more plant-based foods that are outlined in the joint position paper: Reaping the Benefits of a Plant Rich Diet: the Ten Point Plan. 

Take action

Write to your local MP 

Ask your MP to act with urgency on this matter of national food security, suggest they attend a Public Emergency Briefing screening, and back The Ten Point Plan for Plant-Rich Diets.

Find your MP’s contact details using the Find MPs function on the UK Parliament website. Please make sure to only write to your own constituency MP.

See some suggested text here, or write your own, just make sure it is brief and polite.

Keep a sensible emergency food cupboard

Aim to gradually maintain around 72 hours’ worth of foods that you already eat and do not need refrigeration or extensive cooking. Don’t forget to include your animal companions in this emergency planning.

Useful plant-based options include:

  • tinned beans, lentils, chickpeas, fruit and vegetables;
  • nut or seed butter;
  • oats and wholegrain cereal with fortified long-life plant milk;
  • crackers and oatcakes;
  • couscous, noodles, pasta or quick-cook rice;
  • jars or cartons of sauce, herbs and spices;
  • nuts, seeds, dried fruit and familiar snacks; and
  • sufficient drinking water, alongside any essential medicines and foods needed for infants, older people, allergies or medical conditions.

If you have freezer space, frozen fruit and vegetables are useful everyday foods and can provide a buffer when fresh foods are temporarily unavailable. But a power cut can make frozen supplies unreliable. Keep a manual tin opener and consider what you could prepare without electricity.

There is no need to buy everything at once. Pick up an extra item when affordable, use the oldest products in everyday meals and replace them, rather than leaving a separate stockpile to expire.

Recommended reading

Further policy solutions, including how to support farmers, are outlined in these reports:

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