Food security: National challenge, local solution

‘Epic Fury' may capture the mood of many farmers. Those caught in traffic behind a tractor on demonstration days in Westminster may have felt similarly. But while the arguments around inheritance tax on farms have still to be finally resolved, President Trump's eponymous war on Iran has highlighted something even more immediate: food security.Fluctuations in energy prices may dominate domestic headlines, but the impact on food prices is also now cutting through, and with that, food security – internationally of course, but also within the UK.Domestically, concerns around food security are not new. Last year's Food Strategy set out to increase resilience in the UK food system, while the Government's earlier Food Security Report compiles three-year trends.Our current priorities break into three: positioning within the local economy; access to local procurement; and, critically, building a skills and employment pipeline – perhaps our biggest challenge in maintaining local production and productivity.But with imports of food at some 40% of national consumption and of fruit and vegetables at significantly higher levels, it's clear we are strongly reliant on imports. Add to this, factors such as seasonal employment shortages, and long and complex international supply chains, our food security looks increasingly vulnerable. Consider then our junk food addiction and increasing child obesity and health-related issues, and it shouldn't take a crisis in Iran to remind us we need to grow and eat more, good, locally produced fresh food.In Kent, a combination of factors has driven our support of growers and producers, not least the importance of the sector to the local economy. Around 40% of the horticulture the country consumes is produced in Kent and 80% of UK top fruit, while some 80% of fresh food coming into the UK is through Kent ports.In a sector receiving minimal Government support, we established a Fresh Food Group of growers and producers, itself a significant move towards joint working.Our current priorities break into three: positioning within the local economy; access to local procurement; and, critically, building a skills and employment pipeline – perhaps our biggest challenge in maintaining local production and productivity.Minette Batters' recent Farming Profitability Review confirmed the importance of the wider food and farming sector at 6% of the UK economy, accounting for one in eight jobs and with exports of some £25bn. But it fails to be classified as one of the eight priorities in the Government's Industrial Strategy.So, we doubled down on local growth. Although failing to progress on devolution, Kent and Medway took the decision to create a Local Growth Plan, the evidence base clearly showing the depth, breadth and potential of fresh food and agriculture within the county.We want to support local procurement of fresh food. Local political ambition is with us, but it continues to be fiendish to achieve. With budgets squeezed, the public sector has to get good value but, in a rural county like Kent, the link with local growers and producers must be improved.We must understand how fresh food procurement works – and why it doesn't. We want to examine how food is purchased, recognising the need for bulk, what stops major local growers providing it, the role of existing brokers and wholesalers and what may be needed in the system to make it work. Some answers will be simple, some more complex, but our aim is to make this a sustainable link which must offer good prices but also give certainty and profitability.But where the group's work has really focused is on growing our own workforce. As part of the council-led Employment Task Force, we've highlighted the need for a pipeline of people and skills to drive future productivity and growth. Already, we have the first sector-backed Centre of Excellence in Greenhouse Growing and through our emerging Kent & Medway Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) we are developing a distinctive local offer to promote careers and training within the sector, positioning Kent & Medway as a national exemplar.Our aim must also be to make the sector more attractive by highlighting wider job opportunities and jobs currently obscured by the more immediate focus on pickers. Communications in schools and colleges and on social media will support the change in perceptions and promote the range of career opportunities.Kent is by no means alone in promoting fresh food production and we continue to look at success elsewhere we may duplicate. But while food security is ultimately a national challenge, we believe local solutions can provide much of the answer.Carol Ford chairs the Kent & Medway Fresh Food & Horticulture Group and David Godfrey is director of Quintain Consulting, having previously worked at Kent CC

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RESILIENCE

Food security: National challenge, local solution

By Carol Ford, David Godfrey | 02 July 2026

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