Results of a Survey of UK Farmers on Food System Vulnerability over the Short and Long Term

Aled Jones*, Sarah Bridle, Pete Falloon, Jez Fredenburgh, Christian Reynolds

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

We report the results of a survey of farmers and landowners to identify the most likely potential food system disruption scenarios for the UK and compare these with a previous expert elicitation with a much wider set of food system stakeholders. We found that 60% of farmers think a Societal Event in which 1 in 2000 people are injured in the UK is at least 20% likely to occur over the coming decade. Over a timeframe of 50 years, this increased to almost 90% of farmers. These results show that farmers and landowners are considerably more concerned about the vulnerability of the food system in the UK than the wider group of food system experts are. Farmers agreed with experts on the majority of potential causes of such vulnerability, which are climate change, trade policies (import and export), competition for land and ecological collapse (over 50 years). However, they also highlighted the importance of the power structure within the food system, with large corporations supplying to, or buying from, farmers creating lower revenue, making farming an unsustainable business. We conclude that an urgent systematic review of potential interventions that would improve resilience be conducted by the UK Government, in partnership with farmers.
Original languageEnglish
Article number6851
Number of pages15
JournalSustainability
Volume16
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.

Research Groups and Themes

  • Food Justice Network

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