Britain is one shock away from a food crisis, experts warn

Britain is one shock away from a food crisis, experts warn

The UK is one global shock away from a food crisis, experts have warned, as the country is overly reliant on the rest of the world for staple goods. Britain’s dependency on imports has made it increasingly vulnerable to volatile food and energy prices , they said, criticising the Government for not taking its food security “seriously”. “When it comes to food we are massively dependent on other countries,” Prof Timothy Lang, emeritus professor of food policy at the University of London. “If you look at nutrient value, Britain doesn’t even produce half of its food. We export meat and dairy and import that which is good for health – namely, fruit and vegetables.” Government figures show Britain imports 46 per cent of its fresh vegetables and 84 per cent of its fresh fruit. In the past three years, food prices in the UK have been shaken by Covid, Brexit and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine . The impact on food is already being felt by people across the country. Almost one in 20 British households said one of their family members went a whole day without eating in the past month, because they couldn’t afford or get access to