Banter 121: 27May26 Food Resilience
Professor Lang's "Just In Case" report to the National Preparedness Commission, building food resilience, learning from other countries, mapping community assets, food resilience committees
Video Timeline (min:sec):
00:00 - 33:15 Presentation
33:15 - 64:54 (end) Q & A
Banter 121 - Presentation
You are very welcome to download and use either the Powerpoint or the .pdf version of the presentation. A markdown (text only) version of the slides is provided at the bottom of this page
Please do take a look at this - one of the better reads!
Meeting Summary - Banter 121 Food Resilience
May 27, 2026 11:52 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536
Quick recap - Food Resilience
The meeting focused on food resilience, with Graham presenting a comprehensive overview based on Professor Lang's "Just In Case" report to the National Preparedness Commission. Graham outlined seven key steps for building food resilience, including learning from other countries, mapping community assets, creating local food resilience committees, and resetting the national resilience framework to properly address food security. The discussion highlighted current challenges including the lack of strategic food reserves, inadequate preparation for multiple crises, and the need for better coordination between national and local government. Participants shared local experiences and initiatives, with Katie describing community engagement efforts in her area and the challenges of getting people involved in food growing projects. The conversation also covered broader resilience issues including water supply problems and the importance of localizing food production and emergency planning.
Next steps
Graham
Provide the presentation as a PDF (and original format) to Jane and other attendees as requested.
Katie
Send references and resources (including the community-produced zine, resilience web link, and details of local food initiatives) to Graham and/or share in the chat for others to access.
Look through notes from webinars and sessions on effective climate communications and share relevant documents/resources with the group.
Collaboration
All attendees (implied from discussion): Engage with and support local food growing projects, community supported agriculture, and food resilience initiatives in their areas.
All attendees (implied from discussion): Contact and educate local MPs about the importance and current gaps in food resilience planning and policy.
All attendees (implied from discussion): Review the "Just In Case" report (to be shared in the knowledge base) and consider its recommendations for local action.
All attendees (implied from discussion): Consider how to increase community engagement in local food growing and resilience activities, including exploring paid opportunities to support involvement.
All attendees (implied from discussion): Reflect on and implement positive, non-fear-based communication strategies when raising awareness about food and climate resilience, using resources to be shared by Katie.
Summary
Land Use Framework Discussion
The group discussed a new Land Use Framework for England, which aims to optimize land use across housing, nature restoration, renewable energy, and food production over a 25-year period. Graham shared details about his current location in Switzerland while visiting his son who works on seaweed-based packaging film development. Jane mentioned a marine research project in Scotland that uses salmon farm effluent to grow kelp more efficiently, though this remains in experimental phase. The conversation included casual discussion about travel and environmental initiatives, with no specific decisions or action items identified.
Food Resilience Discussion
Graham led a discussion on food resilience based on a report called "Just In Case" written for the National Preparedness Commission. He highlighted the need for a shift toward local resilience, buffer stocks, stronger domestic production, public preparedness, and community food planning, noting that current government funding priorities are misaligned, with significant resources allocated to cyber protection rather than food security.
Food Resilience Framework Discussion
Graham discussed a report by Professor Lang on food resilience, highlighting the importance of building local capacity and redundancy in food systems due to current global challenges and the lack of a comprehensive UK food resilience framework. He emphasized that while there is no national legislation or strategic reserve system, local government and community efforts are crucial in preparing for potential shocks. Graham outlined seven key steps from the report and explained how they apply to local government levels, noting the need for government support and coordination to effectively address food resilience issues.
Community Food Resilience Planning
Graham discussed the importance of learning from others' experiences and emphasized the need for community support rather than individual survival during food shocks. He highlighted the necessity of mapping community assets and planning for mass-scale cooking facilities in case of power outages. Graham also stressed the role of local authorities in building civil food resilience, noting that national government alone is insufficient and that local authorities, including food policy councils in large cities, are playing an important role.
Food Resilience in Wales
Graham discussed the current state of food resilience partnerships in Wales and highlighted the need for legal powers to tackle food resilience at a larger scale. He emphasized the importance of reducing food travel distances, creating local food resilience committees, and addressing the government's unclear responsibilities in food resilience. Graham also criticized the current mindset of resilience planning, which focuses on single crises rather than multiple concurrent crises, and stressed the need for national government action in this area.
Climate Emergency Funding Strategy Discussion
Graham discussed the need to educate MPs about climate emergency funding and food resilience issues, noting that the Conservative Party plans to cut climate emergency money if they regain power. He emphasized the importance of developing a national strategy for food resilience, highlighting concerns about supply chain vulnerabilities and the impact of recent weather conditions on farming in the southeast. Graham stressed that local communities have an obligation to communicate effectively with MPs about these critical issues, particularly given the current lack of trust in national government communication.
Agricultural Impact and Food Challenges
Graham and Jane discussed the impact of heat on cattle and milk production, highlighting challenges in the agricultural sector, including low milk prices and the lack of focus on food in the Environmental Land Management Plan. Graham emphasized the urgency of addressing these issues due to worsening weather conditions. Jane requested the presentation be shared as a PDF, and Alison raised concerns about community gardens struggling to attract participants and the limited reach of the Forest Food Forum in raising awareness about local food issues.
Food and Climate Engagement Challenges
Katie discussed the challenges of engaging people in local food and climate action groups, noting that while interest exists (evidenced by sold-out events like the "6 inches of soil" film screening), translating that interest into active participation remains difficult. She highlighted the need for paid opportunities in food production and climate action to support volunteers and sustain engagement, emphasizing that creating paid positions would be essential for growing involvement in these critical areas.
Water Resilience Planning Discussion
Katie presented on voluntary initiatives and agreed to share her references with Graham via email. Stuart raised concerns about the lack of timescales in water resilience planning, to which Graham responded that preparation times vary by country, suggesting a 3-day preparation period based on Swedish models. Graham emphasized the importance of education in changing community mindsets and noted that infrastructure improvements would require significant investment. Andrew highlighted the need to restore local water resilience approaches that were previously common, drawing from his experience working in Africa.
Water Management Solutions Discussion
Andrew discussed water management solutions from Africa, particularly mentioning how his village in Somerset creates ponds to manage floods and store water for farmers. He noted that current planning meetings focus on drainage rather than water conservation, and suggested that changing attitudes about water availability might require experiencing water shortages firsthand. Frank shared that Stirling Council has commissioned external consultants to work on climate resilience for rural villages, focusing on infrastructure like power and communications, with Dumfries and Galloway serving as a model for community-based approaches.
Community Resilience Food Program
Frank discussed a program providing hot food during power outages, billing Scottish Power, and emphasized the importance of local resilience in climate emergencies. Graham expressed hope for the new organization's effectiveness while noting the challenge of testing it in practice. Alison highlighted the lack of food and water planning in emergency protocols and advocated for localized, sustainable living approaches to address long-term resilience needs.
Food Systems Climate Strategy Discussion
Katie discussed her work as thematic lead for a new food, farming, and land use strategy, emphasizing the potential for food systems to unite people around climate action. She highlighted the importance of positive communication approaches over fear-mongering when discussing climate issues, noting that evidence shows fear-based messaging can be counterproductive. Graham raised questions about government support for farmers in building food resilience and requested documents on effective communication strategies, which Katie agreed to look into sharing.
Chat:
00:08:28 frank deas: Land Use Framework
00:08:56 frank deas: First use for England Framework
00:09:12 tristram cary: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-use-framework 00:25:35 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Katy, you noting these? …..conversation with Simon et al 00:25:47 Katie Clubb: Reacted to "Katy, you noting t..." with 👍 00:42:13 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Surely MPs should be aware of the most vital issue i.e. food - no food no people 00:44:48 Andrew Clegg: Food resilience is critically linked to local water resilience. This seems not to exist any more. I live in an old village and the old maps - even as near as 1950s showed rows of small ponds (on the same contour line). Now all filled in and built upon 00:46:25 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Reacted to "Food resilience is c..." with 👍 00:46:57 Andrew Clegg: Small local food famers have very serious problem simply because they dont control their own markets
00:55:51 Katie Clubb: Forest of Dean | Resilience Web
01:00:32 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: First new major reservoirs in England for more than 30 years given go-ahead
01:12:23 Lynn Parker: Sorry not to fully engage – I’ve had to do work in the background and am now off to a meeting. I’ve found the presentation and discussion really interesting. There are groups actively looking at water resilience here in Shropshire, farmers in response to upcoming changes in abstraction licences, early days but some hopefulness. Thanks all. 01:12:38 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Reacted to "Sorry not to fully e..." with 👍
Audio-Transcript:
119 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:55.460 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Hopefully you're all being blinded at the moment by my gorgeous choice of colours, which is meant to represent the heat.
120 00:13:55.990 --> 00:13:57.269 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I hope it stays successful.
121 00:13:58.270 --> 00:13:59.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And,
122 00:14:02.890 --> 00:14:14.229 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We're going to talk today, why are we having this conversation, and what are we defining as food resilience, so that we can have the conversation, and why do we need to talk about it?
123 00:14:14.470 --> 00:14:17.950 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, let's press on with that.
124 00:14:18.410 --> 00:14:28.369 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, all of this is based upon a report called Just In Case, which was written to the National Preparedness Commission last year.
125 00:14:28.900 --> 00:14:44.459 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And some of the comments that they made, you'll find, I hope, very topical. Some of them are slightly out of date because the response from the government was to come up with a change to all of their documents which reflected the
126 00:14:44.600 --> 00:14:48.480 Graham Stoddart-Stones: This report.
127 00:14:48.830 --> 00:15:04.649 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I commend to everybody, and the rapport will be in the knowledge base, that you read it, because it's actually a first-class example, I thought, of wonderful, straightforward thinking based on
128 00:15:04.800 --> 00:15:14.590 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Practical fact. And basically saying what needs to be done in quite blunt language, which is lovely to see.
129 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:22.410 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And you'll see, I think, from the steps that we're about to go through, that there's huge amounts of common sense involved.
130 00:15:22.650 --> 00:15:27.090 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Which I suppose means it's very unlikely to make it into the legislature, but never mind.
131 00:15:27.690 --> 00:15:35.140 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Let's roast on. So, Mr. Lang's report said, or I'm so sorry, he's Professor Lang.
132 00:15:35.340 --> 00:15:38.890 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That our food system is highly vulnerable.
133 00:15:39.090 --> 00:15:44.679 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That the just-in-time logistics that we use are fragile if things go wrong.
134 00:15:45.220 --> 00:15:52.240 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Although it's listed now as the 13th out of 14 critical national items.
135 00:15:52.380 --> 00:15:55.400 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Food isn't treated that way.
136 00:15:55.720 --> 00:16:01.390 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, for instance, there is 2 billion pounds this year has been set aside for
137 00:16:01.630 --> 00:16:07.430 Graham Stoddart-Stones: cyber protection and investigation, because cyber is one of the items on the CNI.
138 00:16:07.550 --> 00:16:11.970 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But there's nothing in that sort of scale of money being put for food.
139 00:16:12.190 --> 00:16:17.149 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And when you think about it, I think they've got their numbers allocated to the wrong places.
140 00:16:17.740 --> 00:16:27.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then lastly, he was finding that civil society and local communities, which is what we're really all about, are underprepared for shocks to the system.
141 00:16:28.540 --> 00:16:35.060 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the, the summary is that we should change to, just-in-case food delivery.
142 00:16:35.620 --> 00:16:53.439 Graham Stoddart-Stones: much more local resilience, which is where we come in, buffer stocks, which is where we come in, stronger domestic production, which is where we come in, public preparedness, which is where we come in, and community food planning, which is weed planning, sorry, where we come in. So hopefully, you'll think this is useful.
143 00:16:53.900 --> 00:16:54.910 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Alright.
144 00:16:55.900 --> 00:16:58.199 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, as a result of this report.
145 00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:05.869 Graham Stoddart-Stones: There is now a much more recognized, feeling that food resilience is important.
146 00:17:06.180 --> 00:17:10.749 Graham Stoddart-Stones: When you stop and think about just-in-time.
147 00:17:10.910 --> 00:17:17.589 Graham Stoddart-Stones: delivery, it automatically, by definition, means that there aren't any buffer stocks. You know, otherwise you wouldn't be.
148 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:17.969 Andrew Clegg: Very.
149 00:17:17.970 --> 00:17:19.019 Graham Stoddart-Stones: just in time.
150 00:17:19.280 --> 00:17:21.660 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And…
151 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:34.209 Graham Stoddart-Stones: The resilience that we're getting down at our level is being appreciated a little bit more from senior level, because as you'll see shortly, the,
152 00:17:34.390 --> 00:17:43.080 Graham Stoddart-Stones: much of what Professor Lang is suggesting is not just a matter of sorting out the,
153 00:17:43.180 --> 00:18:00.139 Graham Stoddart-Stones: logistics, where is the food coming from, how much food are we growing, that sort of thing, which is what I thought he would be reporting. He's saying much more, you've got to cope with the fact that you've got thousands and maybe millions of people, will be in desperate straits if
154 00:18:00.280 --> 00:18:07.589 Graham Stoddart-Stones: They don't take these steps in preparation, and that makes it a very serious matter.
155 00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:20.740 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, the current state of affairs in the world has obviously, strengthened his arguments that, as we've seen from, everything from COVID-19 up through the war in Iran.
156 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:24.450 Graham Stoddart-Stones: All, and of course, that wonderful
157 00:18:24.840 --> 00:18:29.570 Graham Stoddart-Stones: evergreen ship that blocked the Suez Canal a couple of years ago.
158 00:18:30.080 --> 00:18:35.209 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Things do get in the way of smooth food distribution.
159 00:18:35.550 --> 00:18:37.780 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the weather isn't helping either.
160 00:18:38.290 --> 00:18:44.040 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, we need to get, more involved with the public discussions which are going on.
161 00:18:45.470 --> 00:19:02.329 Graham Stoddart-Stones: On the other hand, even though he has sent in this comprehensive report, there is no comprehensive UK food resilience law, there isn't a strategic reserve system, there's no national household preparation program as there is in countries like Sweden.
162 00:19:02.590 --> 00:19:09.470 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And there's no systematic local food resilience planning requirements, which is, again, where we come in.
163 00:19:09.940 --> 00:19:13.230 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And he's still insisting that food is not.
164 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:17.219 Graham Stoddart-Stones: treated very seriously on the CNI list, even though it's there.
165 00:19:19.600 --> 00:19:20.930 Graham Stoddart-Stones: However…
166 00:19:22.320 --> 00:19:35.880 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's… he thinks, really, it's the people's mindset that may be the most important thing. So, in terms of food security before now, people would think, well, if the supermarket shelves are full, everything is fine.
167 00:19:36.150 --> 00:19:43.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Now we're beginning to say that food resilience means that we must be able to continue functioning in the middle of shocks.
168 00:19:44.010 --> 00:19:52.299 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Which means local capacity, redundancy, social cohesion, community logistics, and public understanding, which are all falling into our bailiwick.
169 00:19:53.230 --> 00:20:00.670 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, the concept is probably as important as the actual physical stuff on the ground.
170 00:20:03.140 --> 00:20:13.179 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I thought a definition of what he said would be helpful to you all to make sure that we're all on the same page when it comes to saying what is food resilience.
171 00:20:13.340 --> 00:20:21.480 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I'm not going to read this through for you, I'm sure you're all quite capable of reading, but I will give you a few moments to go through it.
172 00:20:22.140 --> 00:20:26.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones: In particular.
173 00:20:26.840 --> 00:20:36.439 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I would say that the important sentence is that one in the middle that says, this cannot be left to people to activate in an ad hoc way or on their own.
174 00:20:36.570 --> 00:20:38.999 Graham Stoddart-Stones: They need the government behind them.
175 00:20:39.780 --> 00:20:44.509 Graham Stoddart-Stones: To help them learn, and also to say that we need to do this.
176 00:20:44.730 --> 00:20:48.740 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And hopefully, as the size develops, you'll see why we need to do this.
177 00:20:50.210 --> 00:20:53.190 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, ugh.
178 00:20:53.340 --> 00:21:06.339 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Why do we need to talk about it now? Well, because there have been some changes, alright? So, the Resilience Action Plan came out a couple of months after his report, and paid, attention to it, made reference to it.
179 00:21:06.370 --> 00:21:15.530 Graham Stoddart-Stones: DEFRIS Food Strategy, and the 2024 Food Security Report are there, but that's the whole point. They're all in separate,
180 00:21:16.690 --> 00:21:28.820 Graham Stoddart-Stones: what's the word I'm looking for? Silos of the government. There isn't a single resilience framework document that brings all of these factors together into a strategy, which is daft, really.
181 00:21:29.030 --> 00:21:33.900 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We still don't have any strategic food reserves, local
182 00:21:34.100 --> 00:21:39.590 Graham Stoddart-Stones: logistics when the supermarkets can't operate, and I'll get into that later as well.
183 00:21:39.890 --> 00:21:44.390 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We do need to decentralize distribution capability.
184 00:21:44.840 --> 00:21:46.989 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I think…
185 00:21:47.570 --> 00:21:54.380 Graham Stoddart-Stones: People are feeling that you really need to get back into the mindset that will enable people to accept
186 00:21:54.780 --> 00:22:01.240 Graham Stoddart-Stones: the sort of wartime stuff that we had to do in the Second World War, when I say broadly, we had to do.
187 00:22:01.660 --> 00:22:05.059 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I mean, some of our parents, perhaps.
188 00:22:06.520 --> 00:22:25.340 Graham Stoddart-Stones: All right, so the report was broken down into seven steps that, people can take, and I should say that the 7 steps are probably in about the last half of the report. The first half, which is the bit that I do recommend to you all to read, is stating how do we get there.
189 00:22:25.360 --> 00:22:33.589 Graham Stoddart-Stones: sorry, hear from there, and why are we in the situation that we're in? What do other countries do better than we do?
190 00:22:33.800 --> 00:22:42.659 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And how can we make sure that we don't run into trouble when the next big weather shock hits us?
191 00:22:42.980 --> 00:22:49.550 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, of course, Professor Lang is under no doubt whatsoever that the weather shocks are going to be hitting us.
192 00:22:49.970 --> 00:23:01.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, 7 points, we're going to go through each of these one by one, in several ways. First of all, I'll try and explain what he says each of these steps is.
193 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:13.449 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then I'll break it down into how does that apply to us at our level of government, and then we'll just list what has been the lessons learned from elsewhere.
194 00:23:14.350 --> 00:23:21.049 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… I'm sorry, I just mean saying what I have… oh, well.
195 00:23:23.210 --> 00:23:28.660 Graham Stoddart-Stones: This report was very definitely aimed at the UK national government.
196 00:23:28.840 --> 00:23:33.709 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But it does apply to us, and hopefully, again, I'll be able to highlight that for you.
197 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:41.929 Graham Stoddart-Stones: There is an issue that because there is not a government strategy, There is therefore no legislation
198 00:23:42.070 --> 00:23:53.820 Graham Stoddart-Stones: The problem is, what do we do? Because we need to get on with things, because we're here already dealing with climate change, and who knows how quickly the government will act.
199 00:23:54.220 --> 00:24:07.189 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And so that's good, but on the other hand, if all of us are all doing our own thing, then we're going to be less likely to be net… networking with other people, or able to network with them smoothly.
200 00:24:07.290 --> 00:24:14.320 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, if a national strategy does come through, does it mean we have to rewrite all of our work? But I do think…
201 00:24:14.470 --> 00:24:19.019 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, it'll be up to you to make your own decisions about what you do locally.
202 00:24:19.280 --> 00:24:22.810 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But I don't think that we can dally much longer.
203 00:24:24.120 --> 00:24:29.829 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I did mention already the common sense stuff, so I think it'll all appeal to all of you.
204 00:24:30.800 --> 00:24:34.480 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Alright, the step one was to learn from others.
205 00:24:34.890 --> 00:24:38.849 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And these are the main points that he's suggesting.
206 00:24:39.160 --> 00:24:42.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So that, getting advice through to people
207 00:24:42.790 --> 00:24:57.619 Graham Stoddart-Stones: with food shocks, sorry, with advice on the food shocks. It varies from country to country, so that sort of raises the question of, well, how long do they need to be capable of providing for? Where do they keep it? In places that don't have much space?
208 00:24:57.620 --> 00:25:03.830 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And where do they find the money for people who are very short on cash? There's that wonderful line in…
209 00:25:04.030 --> 00:25:14.979 Graham Stoddart-Stones: the people's Emergency Briefing about the lady who recognizes that people who are just spending every day trying to survive don't have the time to say, oh, I wonder what'll happen if…
210 00:25:15.330 --> 00:25:18.479 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We have to go for 4 or 5 days without food.
211 00:25:19.550 --> 00:25:29.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones: The community guidelines on stockpiling are very interesting, because it's basically, again, a mindset, which we'll get into in a second.
212 00:25:29.610 --> 00:25:33.540 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Then we're mentioning, indeed, that
213 00:25:34.440 --> 00:25:44.300 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Getting these instructions and procedures in place so that people are aware of them, and familiar with them, and do accept them and do them is part of the issue.
214 00:25:44.800 --> 00:25:51.010 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We need to encourage people to conduct audits of resources.
215 00:25:51.270 --> 00:25:52.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And…
216 00:25:53.690 --> 00:26:01.449 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We have people to remember that they're all part of a community, rather than just fighting to make sure that they themselves are okay.
217 00:26:02.280 --> 00:26:07.360 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… If I move on to… Where we got.
218 00:26:08.890 --> 00:26:12.550 Graham Stoddart-Stones: The advice that we give to citizens should take note.
219 00:26:12.760 --> 00:26:17.820 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Of their varied circumstances and capacities, without adding to their burdens.
220 00:26:18.020 --> 00:26:31.240 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, this is going to be very tricky to do at the household level, because of the financial implications. And I think that some of us may need to think about what do we do with the lesser,
221 00:26:31.650 --> 00:26:34.219 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Rich people in our communities.
222 00:26:35.220 --> 00:26:36.150 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And…
223 00:26:36.600 --> 00:26:47.379 Graham Stoddart-Stones: There's a second bullet point about the coordination being essential. Again, it's blindingly obvious, it's common sense, but it's far from what is actually happening.
224 00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:57.230 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I think part of the fun I have of working with Great Collaboration is finding just how keen everybody is to do the right thing and to get on with it.
225 00:26:57.380 --> 00:27:03.029 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Which is the coordination, which is so essential. And, so I think that…
226 00:27:03.350 --> 00:27:07.769 Graham Stoddart-Stones: All you guys on this call are already going to be in agreement with point 2.
227 00:27:09.290 --> 00:27:20.920 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But the second step that he suggests is that we've got to assess the public's mood. And this is his major issue, because not many people trust the national government.
228 00:27:21.590 --> 00:27:37.119 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's a very long time since we last had a huge food shop, to the point where everybody was involved, so no one has really got the mindset ready to say we may need to take some drastic steps, including rationing.
229 00:27:37.310 --> 00:27:42.920 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then there's all the business of how, do we do the rationing in a fair way.
230 00:27:43.380 --> 00:27:44.920 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then…
231 00:27:45.150 --> 00:27:57.410 Graham Stoddart-Stones: again, it's a major lesson learned from elsewhere, is that the public needs to know, which is something in my italics that the National Emergency Briefing and the People's Emergency Briefing are trying to ensure.
232 00:27:58.660 --> 00:28:01.149 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, lessons learned from Step 2.
233 00:28:01.880 --> 00:28:09.380 Graham Stoddart-Stones: we need to emphasize community support, not look-after-yourself basis. Some of this, I think, we got
234 00:28:09.380 --> 00:28:24.029 Graham Stoddart-Stones: in COVID-19, we were all rather, I think, pleasantly surprised at how all the communities seemed to pull together. I mean, certainly wherever I've been, everyone was saying how beautifully everyone worked together in COVID-19.
235 00:28:26.170 --> 00:28:34.449 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Again, they're giving people the mindset now that rationing may be necessary, but it's got to be seen to be fair and equitable.
236 00:28:34.670 --> 00:28:37.979 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And re… and understand why it's done that way.
237 00:28:38.600 --> 00:28:45.999 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, after the crisis rationing, people need to be able to understand that it's based on fact.
238 00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:51.929 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the processes that are in place improve rather than worsen the situation.
239 00:28:52.110 --> 00:28:59.260 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And they need to be planned now, because guess what? You cannot really plan successfully when,
240 00:28:59.510 --> 00:29:03.719 Graham Stoddart-Stones: the world is falling apart around you. You need to have it done ahead of time.
241 00:29:04.370 --> 00:29:09.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the whole point of a shock is that it's going to leave uncertainty.
242 00:29:09.310 --> 00:29:21.520 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And part of the idea of making food resilience available is to help reduce that uncertainty. If people know that no matter what happens, there's going to be food, that's going to be hugely helpful.
243 00:29:21.860 --> 00:29:24.989 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, again, we need to get on with this.
244 00:29:25.830 --> 00:29:31.150 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, the third point was to map the assets that we've got,
245 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:46.749 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And this is where the lessons that they're drawing here are that it's got to be the communities working together, and the individuals are not going to do more than keep the individuals alive, and we're all responsible for our communities.
246 00:29:47.670 --> 00:29:57.760 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, we need to encourage people in thinking that way, that the more we work together, the better the chances of getting through whatever crisis it happens to be.
247 00:29:58.420 --> 00:30:11.469 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And then we all know about the loo rolls disappearing whenever there's a threat in the weather, and so people do stockpile automatically, but they tend to stockpile for themselves. And I think
248 00:30:12.030 --> 00:30:15.030 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Again, the evidence is piling up that…
249 00:30:15.270 --> 00:30:24.529 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Local communities need to know that these stockpiles are being held for community level, again, just to keep everyone's well-being at a high level.
250 00:30:25.080 --> 00:30:30.069 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And we need to think about, how do we cook at mass scale if we've lost power?
251 00:30:30.320 --> 00:30:35.199 Graham Stoddart-Stones: For instance, so if you've got to supply your entire parish with hot food.
252 00:30:35.370 --> 00:30:37.849 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Have you got the facilities to do it?
253 00:30:38.460 --> 00:30:56.229 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And they're suggesting here all sorts of ideas. Funnily enough, we had a street fair on Monday of this week, and it was very noticeable that by far the most popular stands were the ones that can churn out food, whether it be hot dogs, hamburgers, or hot coffee.
254 00:30:56.410 --> 00:31:02.529 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, clearly, those people have got a part to play in our planning for what do we do when things go wrong.
255 00:31:02.970 --> 00:31:07.440 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Lots of, propane gas cylinders needed, I suspect.
256 00:31:09.760 --> 00:31:19.079 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, what will be lessons learned from the Step 4 is that we do need the government to say, this is what's going to happen, this is what needs to happen.
257 00:31:19.370 --> 00:31:23.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But there are examples of people who are getting it right.
258 00:31:24.010 --> 00:31:27.209 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, Professor Lang was very,
259 00:31:28.070 --> 00:31:37.960 Graham Stoddart-Stones: fervent about the Scottish Land Fund, which is obviously something that will help people grow more food on community food areas.
260 00:31:39.460 --> 00:31:51.719 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And there is legislation sort of going through at the moment that should improve our access to land that is not owned or being used by anybody at the moment, so that we can
261 00:31:51.750 --> 00:32:07.439 Graham Stoddart-Stones: get them out there, and, getting involved, and it's well known, I think, to anybody who's got an allotment, that the feeling of well-being has vastly improved by sitting there amongst your vegetables and your flowers, and the… all the good that you're doing to the community.
262 00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:10.989 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Fourth point?
263 00:32:11.130 --> 00:32:20.580 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oh, wonderful spelling of local, sorry about that. Local authorities are key to building civil food resilience. So, big recognition.
264 00:32:20.980 --> 00:32:38.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones: that the international… oh, sorry, the national government is not enough on its own. It's got to get better at down, loading the responsibility to more local authorities. And we have got some of that happening,
265 00:32:38.620 --> 00:32:47.939 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Largely because there isn't a central government policy. So, the big cities, in particular large towns, have invented food policy councils.
266 00:32:48.080 --> 00:32:50.969 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Which seemed to be working surprisingly well.
267 00:32:53.060 --> 00:33:05.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones: The metro mayors are now, also pitching in to say, we need to do this regional food focus, and they're putting money and, support into making it happen.
268 00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:24.120 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And Yorkshire, amazingly, has got an Intermayor regional food collaboration, which is now being taken as an example for others to take up. So, anyone who's in Yorkshire today, congratulations, the rest of us better take a look at what they're doing so successfully there.
269 00:33:24.120 --> 00:33:26.459 Andrew Clegg: Graham, why, amazingly?
270 00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:34.479 Graham Stoddart-Stones: My mother was born in Yorkshire, so I have to be very careful.
271 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:48.539 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And Wales is, has got, as of 2025, had 22 food partnerships all up and running, and presumably there are more now. Again, if we need examples, we now know where to go and look.
272 00:33:50.110 --> 00:33:54.929 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I seem to do step 4 lessons learned twice, did I? Hmm.
273 00:33:55.650 --> 00:34:02.309 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Anyway, the lesson here is, at the moment, we don't have the legal powers to tackle food resiliences
274 00:34:02.520 --> 00:34:08.950 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But at the scale needed. In other words, you can't force people to do stuff, and we probably need to be able to.
275 00:34:09.060 --> 00:34:13.900 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Because people do need a kickstart at times,
276 00:34:14.520 --> 00:34:23.329 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And again, he's stating that more needs to be done, because it's not a big enough function on its own at the moment, the second point.
277 00:34:25.710 --> 00:34:36.409 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I think the third one is very commonsensical. Try and reduce the travel that your food has to do. Make sure that where it's being grown is known about by the people who are going to eat it.
278 00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:44.429 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And try and keep the distances as short as possible, the fuel use as short as possible, and the difficulties as little as possible when things go wrong.
279 00:34:45.550 --> 00:34:56.229 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And a wonderful line, the last one, I thought the idea of moving horticulture uphill rather than concentrating in flooding areas sounds like a lot of nonsense to me.
280 00:34:58.500 --> 00:35:02.170 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Step 5, in his… 7 steps.
281 00:35:02.680 --> 00:35:08.879 Graham Stoddart-Stones: is create the local food resilience Committees. Now, I suspect that this is at a slightly higher level
282 00:35:09.060 --> 00:35:21.420 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I… we're talking, I think they're talking local authority level here, but again, I think it's necessary for us to know what should be happening, so that we can kick those people who need to be doing it into action.
283 00:35:22.180 --> 00:35:23.190 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So…
284 00:35:23.340 --> 00:35:38.189 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We… the government invented local resilience forums not all that many years ago, and they're saying that it's not clear to them whether they're responsible for food resilience. So some of them are doing it, and many of them are not.
285 00:35:38.540 --> 00:35:43.220 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And clearly, they want to have, some guidance there.
286 00:35:45.760 --> 00:36:00.729 Graham Stoddart-Stones: there is quite a lot of subnational experimentation and development going on. I mean, think of transition towns, think of, places that are saying, we're not… all the ones that are building their own resilience arrangements.
287 00:36:01.090 --> 00:36:11.030 Graham Stoddart-Stones: it's a growing field, and what people have done is great stuff, so they're… Professor Lang is asking in the government to grasp what's been done, and just…
288 00:36:11.190 --> 00:36:12.540 Graham Stoddart-Stones: improve it.
289 00:36:13.820 --> 00:36:18.020 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, he's also very, scathing about the…
290 00:36:18.230 --> 00:36:25.449 Graham Stoddart-Stones: thinking, the mindset of resilience people, is that they think in terms of single crises.
291 00:36:25.950 --> 00:36:38.439 Graham Stoddart-Stones: or a single crisis, perhaps. And he, obviously, is aware that the food system is going to be entering polycrises, and certainly the People's Emergency Briefing
292 00:36:38.550 --> 00:36:50.620 Graham Stoddart-Stones: talks about a cascade of crises, and certainly the military gentleman in the film was saying that they're looking at all these things coming in at the same time, and how on earth do you cope with that?
293 00:36:51.830 --> 00:37:10.149 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, the section in Building Food Resilience Committees is the largest part of the report, so I didn't go through the effort of trying to summarize it for you here, because it involves lots of diagrams showing how all these people should link together with their local organizations.
294 00:37:10.150 --> 00:37:19.800 Graham Stoddart-Stones: and into the national organizations. So, again, it's very clear. Most of the diagrams are very straightforward and, sensible.
295 00:37:20.010 --> 00:37:30.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And again, when you're reading through this, I'm sure you'll get on to the Step 5 Food Resilience Committee's, section, because it's…
296 00:37:30.360 --> 00:37:35.450 Graham Stoddart-Stones: He obviously thinks it's very important, and he's obviously spent a lot of time and trouble on it.
297 00:37:35.850 --> 00:37:39.969 Graham Stoddart-Stones: There weren't any lessons learned in that section of the book.
298 00:37:44.550 --> 00:37:49.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, step 6 places the load very squarely on national government.
299 00:37:49.980 --> 00:37:57.839 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I would say that there's not much here for us except the need to educate our local MPs. Now,
300 00:37:57.950 --> 00:38:12.509 Graham Stoddart-Stones: When we held the People's Emergency Briefing here in Bembridge, our MP came along, and we asked him what he thought. What was the state of recognition of the situation in Westminster?
301 00:38:12.650 --> 00:38:25.190 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And he was a bit optimistic. He thought that most of the people in Westminster were aware of what was going on, to which the obvious report of retort, of course, is, and then why the hell isn't anything done about it?
302 00:38:26.360 --> 00:38:40.760 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I'm afraid to say that shortly after, he'd said that they're all aware of the situation. The Conservative Party came out and said, if we ever get back into power, we're immediately going to chop all the climate emergency money that's been set aside.
303 00:38:40.760 --> 00:38:43.760 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Sorry, can I ask you what color your MP is?
304 00:38:45.130 --> 00:38:50.280 Graham Stoddart-Stones: What color? Yeah. Red. He's conservative, yeah.
305 00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:51.759 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Oh, really? Oh, God.
306 00:38:52.010 --> 00:38:52.920 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah.
307 00:38:53.270 --> 00:39:07.810 Graham Stoddart-Stones: However, in the local district council elections, our, Harris Clark, who is a Liberal Democrat, was appointed ahead of the Conservative,
308 00:39:08.250 --> 00:39:11.670 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Runner, so… All is well in Bembridge.
309 00:39:12.760 --> 00:39:29.169 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, again, education of your MP, because, you know, these people are very busy chaps, just like we are, and they really don't have the time necessary to look at things unless somebody brings it to their mind. So I think we have an obligation
310 00:39:29.210 --> 00:39:33.120 Graham Stoddart-Stones: to make sure that we're very much in touch with our MPs.
311 00:39:33.180 --> 00:39:37.949 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, I think we have a responsibility to make sure that they know what we know.
312 00:39:38.130 --> 00:39:40.820 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Because they probably don't.
313 00:39:43.570 --> 00:40:00.490 Graham Stoddart-Stones: we've already discussed the fact that just-in-time is the wrong strategy to be using when you're in a crisis mode. It's very interesting to take a look at the way that the English, well, the British system works at the moment. I mean, your Tesco deliveries, the co-op, and
314 00:40:00.670 --> 00:40:06.040 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Morrison and all the rest of them are brilliant. I mean, they're very, very…
315 00:40:06.470 --> 00:40:15.970 Graham Stoddart-Stones: tight on time. If you are a driver out of a lorry and you miss your slot by more than 5 minutes, you're put down to the bottom of the queue.
316 00:40:16.010 --> 00:40:27.970 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Which kills everything all the way down, but they will not hold up deliveries for a late driver. They just basically say, we'll get you when we get a moment. It might be in the middle of the night.
317 00:40:28.390 --> 00:40:36.590 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, the fact about all this degree of detail is that it depends very much upon the internet working.
318 00:40:36.980 --> 00:40:44.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, you have to think what happens if some other state decides that what they're going to do is hijack Britain's internet.
319 00:40:46.640 --> 00:40:55.330 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Which may be why the £2 billion has been allocated to cyber this year, because it's very, practically possible to do that.
320 00:40:55.980 --> 00:41:08.369 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, again, we need to educate these MPs so that they can make decisions at the national level, because this report is saying there really is a need for big decisions at the national level.
321 00:41:09.160 --> 00:41:27.480 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, in case the MPs hadn't got the message, you have to say, just think what's going to happen if an entire area runs out of food, and what people are going to do. Parents desperate to feed children will do all sorts of things that they wouldn't normally do, and you really, really, really don't want to get to that situation.
322 00:41:27.880 --> 00:41:30.429 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I think it's important.
323 00:41:32.200 --> 00:41:43.460 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Again, the last step was that the entire resilience framework needs to be, reset for food, because it isn't actually targeted at food
324 00:41:43.890 --> 00:41:55.999 Graham Stoddart-Stones: in the degree of importance that he feels is needed. So they have put food on the critical national infrastructure, but they haven't actually come up yet with the strategy to deal with it, and how you're going to prevent it from going wrong.
325 00:41:57.250 --> 00:42:03.430 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… just summarizing what I think I've said.
326 00:42:03.780 --> 00:42:16.850 Graham Stoddart-Stones: At the moment, we're all very well supplied when things work. We might find out what happens when you run out of diesel fuel and the trucks can't keep going, which I wonder how close we are to that.
327 00:42:17.300 --> 00:42:22.849 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But the actual matter of food resilience itself is not fine.
328 00:42:23.190 --> 00:42:35.349 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And most of what this report is aimed at is getting the national government to come about with a proper strategy, a proper organization, and the proper legislation.
329 00:42:35.460 --> 00:42:40.020 Graham Stoddart-Stones: To make the system function more evenly in a crisis.
330 00:42:40.570 --> 00:42:47.709 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But at our level, I thought it was very noticeable that the national government is not particularly trusted.
331 00:42:48.080 --> 00:42:57.500 Graham Stoddart-Stones: He doesn't know how to communicate that well with, its… its… the country as a whole. Think of poor old Keir Starmer.
332 00:42:58.920 --> 00:43:07.359 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And they're not very good at communicating in advance, i.e. letting people know the sort of things that they're going to have to think about.
333 00:43:07.630 --> 00:43:18.439 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So we have an obligation at our level, I think, to say, yes, you need to be able to trust your local parish council, or your community organization.
334 00:43:18.580 --> 00:43:24.440 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Or even the town council, which is sort of the scale that we're operating at.
335 00:43:24.680 --> 00:43:28.470 Graham Stoddart-Stones: There's lots of lessons for all of us to learn about communicating well.
336 00:43:30.800 --> 00:43:38.630 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And people, I don't think, realize that we have to plan in advance, because, things are going to happen.
337 00:43:38.880 --> 00:43:47.030 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And you need to plan whilst you can think about things in a rational, logical way, rather than when the world is falling apart around you.
338 00:43:47.590 --> 00:44:04.459 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And it was clear from Professor Lang's report that he would like us to grow more, and he would like us to grow more of it locally, and to consume the more that we're growing locally, so that we're more resilient, more independent, and can survive when big, bad things happen.
339 00:44:05.200 --> 00:44:13.910 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And just my final point, which I thought was rather remarkable, given the line that comes out of the People's Emergency Briefing.
340 00:44:14.720 --> 00:44:33.369 Graham Stoddart-Stones: We had a wet winter, although I don't remember it as such, but the ground was already saturated when the February rain… rains arrived. Now, the February rains were not record-breaking. They were in various parts of the country, but very localized, as a nation as a whole, and the month as a whole.
341 00:44:33.490 --> 00:44:43.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones: February was wet, but not particularly wet, in terms of record-breaking. But it came… that water arrived on top of ground that was already saturated.
342 00:44:44.090 --> 00:45:01.739 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So it had much worse effect on the fields for the farmers and so forth. And then we followed that with, the hottest May we've ever had. So, just bear in mind, guys, we've still got a few days to go in May, and we've already broken the records twice for this month.
343 00:45:02.180 --> 00:45:12.429 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And the direct result of these two, where you have bad weather for planting seed, and then you have hot weather for burning it, is likely to recess in very poor harvests.
344 00:45:12.610 --> 00:45:17.300 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And this is particularly so in the southeast, which is where an awful lot of stuff gets grown.
345 00:45:17.430 --> 00:45:23.909 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So… The report talks about stressed
346 00:45:24.070 --> 00:45:28.650 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wheat and barley, already this year.
347 00:45:29.370 --> 00:45:34.269 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, you know, the facts are it is happening as we speak.
348 00:45:34.650 --> 00:45:42.090 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And likewise, the heat is not good for cattle, and so the biggest result probably is less milk.
349 00:45:43.320 --> 00:45:47.790 Jane Humphreys: Yeah, we've got a milk plot at the moment, actually. The price of milk is very low.
350 00:45:48.610 --> 00:45:51.190 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay, well, I hope it stays that way.
351 00:45:51.620 --> 00:46:06.969 Jane Humphreys: Well, no, that isn't good for the farmers who are producing milk, and also the Environmental Land Management Plan, which was produced about 3 or 4 years ago, never made any mention of food in the whole of the document.
352 00:46:07.180 --> 00:46:11.000 Jane Humphreys: So we've got a real problem, really, on the agricultural sector.
353 00:46:11.390 --> 00:46:17.039 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, well, I think you're saying exactly what Professor Lang has been saying. There's very little,
354 00:46:17.480 --> 00:46:24.660 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Emphasis on the food side of the things that the government ought to be looking at.
355 00:46:24.940 --> 00:46:29.519 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And your farmer's side of… point of view, of course, is hugely valid.
356 00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:45.720 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, just ending on the last line that came out of the People's Emergency Briefing, because I thought it was a very mind-opening line, but the weather you're seeing at the moment is the least extreme we're going to see in our lifetimes.
357 00:46:46.060 --> 00:46:56.420 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, it's only going to get worse, peoples. So, I think everything that we are looking at today, we really need to get on with it, because it's going to get worse.
358 00:46:57.300 --> 00:46:59.710 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I'm going to wrap it up at that point.
359 00:47:00.170 --> 00:47:03.009 Graham Stoddart-Stones: See what can come out of the sharing.
360 00:47:03.860 --> 00:47:09.310 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And ask if anyone wants to say anything, or you're all eager to get away and start planning.
361 00:47:09.670 --> 00:47:10.819 Graham Stoddart-Stones: or buying.
362 00:47:12.260 --> 00:47:17.929 Jane Humphreys: Could we have this, presentation as a PDF, please?
363 00:47:18.560 --> 00:47:19.170 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes.
364 00:47:19.170 --> 00:47:23.570 Jane Humphreys: I mean, we've got a real problem in this Mahesh.
365 00:47:24.060 --> 00:47:30.779 Jane Humphreys: Because of the… skew of the membership of the parish council as much as anything else.
366 00:47:31.770 --> 00:47:35.290 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right, so you'd like it to be PDF? That's fine, I'll put both in.
367 00:47:35.740 --> 00:47:38.269 Jane Humphreys: Yeah, I think PDF would be good, really.
368 00:47:38.270 --> 00:47:40.439 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay? I don't have any problem with that.
369 00:47:40.690 --> 00:47:41.730 Jane Humphreys: Thank you.
370 00:47:42.150 --> 00:47:43.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones: You're welcome, Jane.
371 00:47:44.240 --> 00:47:45.200 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: So at that…
372 00:47:45.200 --> 00:47:46.839 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Listen, you look as if you're about to put…
373 00:47:46.840 --> 00:47:53.719 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Sorry, I want to explode. That was brilliant. That was brilliant, Graham.
374 00:47:53.720 --> 00:47:54.390 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oh, thank you.
375 00:47:54.390 --> 00:47:57.510 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: everything that we need, but I have…
376 00:47:58.260 --> 00:48:14.560 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Okay, so I was reading… it's so depressing. Tony Blair seems to think that he can advise internationally. His view is we don't need to bother about climate, net zero or anything. All we've got to do is earn more money.
377 00:48:14.740 --> 00:48:23.820 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: So that's a real mindset. He's telling the government not to bother about it anymore. So that is a huge thing. I don't know what
378 00:48:24.030 --> 00:48:32.860 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: what people think about it. I do think that if anybody thinks about it at all, they think they will do it, whoever they are.
379 00:48:33.210 --> 00:48:39.839 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Community grown. We do have in this area, as Katie will no doubt know,
380 00:48:40.380 --> 00:48:57.910 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: a few community gardens. However, they really struggle to get anybody to come and join them and help. Mostly, it's retired people who have the time to do it. It's really difficult to get people to do that.
381 00:48:57.910 --> 00:49:13.639 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: And what else was I going to say? So, to just tell you what we have in this area, Katie, you can say a bit more, I'm sure. So we have the Forest Food Forum, which is run by our local voluntary organization,
382 00:49:13.760 --> 00:49:17.780 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: No, Forest Food Network, sorry, is run by the local,
383 00:49:17.950 --> 00:49:24.180 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: voluntary organization, and are quite limited, I believe, within their… approaches.
384 00:49:24.180 --> 00:49:25.140 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Bear with me a second.
385 00:49:25.430 --> 00:49:25.850 Jane Humphreys: Cool.
386 00:49:25.850 --> 00:49:33.069 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: There's a plane going over. We also have the Forest Food Forum, which has had… we have now run two,
387 00:49:33.180 --> 00:49:49.809 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: people's assemblies on it, with, producers, and with people who sell food, and indeed, if we can get them in, people who eat food. And you know, it's all about trying to reach people, and just, I think, on a very, very…
388 00:49:49.870 --> 00:49:59.880 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: basic level, I don't think local people are aware of the issues. I really don't think they are. They're probably out there now thinking, whoa, what lovely weather this is!
389 00:49:59.880 --> 00:50:01.020 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Bonus.
390 00:50:01.020 --> 00:50:01.750 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Honestly.
391 00:50:02.200 --> 00:50:02.610 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Correct.
392 00:50:02.610 --> 00:50:05.489 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: You're going to bring in some sanity to what I'm saying now.
393 00:50:05.490 --> 00:50:11.680 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I think you're echoing the people's emergency briefing, aren't they? They're desperate to get the word out there, because.
394 00:50:11.680 --> 00:50:12.159 Katie Clubb: But they can't.
395 00:50:12.160 --> 00:50:17.769 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right, they're right, the average general public is not aware of the implications of life.
396 00:50:17.770 --> 00:50:32.620 Katie Clubb: I think it's a… I think it's a very unequal spread of either really aware and overburdened and overwhelmed already, or completely out of touch. So, for example, we… we have a…
397 00:50:32.770 --> 00:50:52.020 Katie Clubb: two other, groups that have been set up this year, or networks, I guess. So we've got the, Food Growers Network, and we meet every couple of months, and Lizzie Dyer, who's, very engaged, in food farming, growing, and…
398 00:50:52.220 --> 00:50:56.480 Katie Clubb: helps to lead the Forest Food Network,
399 00:50:56.750 --> 00:51:12.070 Katie Clubb: she coordinates, yeah, the growing groups, kind of, to meet, on, I think it's a bi-monthly basis, and the biggest issue that all of the groups shared, and this is our community gardens, our allotment groups,
400 00:51:12.220 --> 00:51:20.180 Katie Clubb: And local, smaller growers, and they all said that their biggest issue is just engagement, and that they…
401 00:51:20.440 --> 00:51:29.160 Katie Clubb: Have some… they're run by amazing people, and everyone's working to their capacity, but it's so hard to get anyone new involved.
402 00:51:29.330 --> 00:51:30.639 Katie Clubb: And so…
403 00:51:30.810 --> 00:51:45.910 Katie Clubb: off the back of that, I've been trying to raise awareness and, get more people engaged, and I've been doing that through more climate comms, so through nature and, climate radio shows, podcast series we're gonna start.
404 00:51:45.910 --> 00:51:51.960 Katie Clubb: the bi-monthly Nature and Climate Action newsletter that I put out with… with the,
405 00:51:52.010 --> 00:52:07.549 Katie Clubb: help of Forest Civilian Climate Action Partnership created a resilience Web, which… that is its name. You can look it up, Resilience Web, and there's lots of different cities and… who've, created them. It's an online directory of all of the different,
406 00:52:07.730 --> 00:52:15.689 Katie Clubb: community climate action groups in an area, and you can filter it by different topics. So, there's one that covers
407 00:52:15.760 --> 00:52:21.960 Katie Clubb: Food farming growing, and that would be a really good resource, for areas.
408 00:52:21.970 --> 00:52:37.750 Katie Clubb: And then I've also been trying to focus on events to highlight our group, such as we ran a 6 inches of soil film screening, panel discussion, community meal, and kind of shop window front for some of the local growing groups.
409 00:52:37.750 --> 00:52:44.559 Katie Clubb: And then, also, this weekend, I organised a… it's called From the Ground Up,
410 00:52:44.680 --> 00:53:02.139 Katie Clubb: area at the Forest Showcase of all of our local growing groups to, again, kind of platform them, and the idea was to tell them to, create local… to create, like, an action day, or an open day, and get people to sign up there and then, and get them involved.
411 00:53:02.240 --> 00:53:11.919 Katie Clubb: And then the other thing we did was to commission a local, young people's group to create a community-produced zine
412 00:53:11.920 --> 00:53:31.099 Katie Clubb: on all of the, local ways that you can support our transition to a more sustainable food network. So I can send that, as a document as well, because it shows how we've linked to the Resilience Web and given ideas of what people can do at home, how they can get involved, and how they can support that
413 00:53:31.100 --> 00:53:39.730 Katie Clubb: the food, local food network in their own, district. So, it's something we are really thinking about. And I think
414 00:53:39.890 --> 00:53:57.909 Katie Clubb: we had so much support for the, 6 inches of soil showing, and I think that does actually show that there are so many, many people that are really, really engaged in this topic, more than… I think, only on par with water quality is there…
415 00:53:58.130 --> 00:54:15.559 Katie Clubb: the next, kind of, significant interest. So, we had 50 spaces in that event. We sold out, and we increased it to 67. We then sold out, we increased it to 80. We didn't even think we were going to fill that room, and we sold out within a week, and we had a waitlist and everything, so…
416 00:54:15.560 --> 00:54:25.039 Katie Clubb: Actually, I do think that there is significant interest in this area. I just don't know how to translate that interest into supporting
417 00:54:25.670 --> 00:54:28.970 Katie Clubb: The… and getting involved, and actually kind of putting…
418 00:54:29.210 --> 00:54:37.830 Katie Clubb: you're, you know, getting involved in, and that's the bit that… and I think… sorry, I'm going… no, I'm going off on one, but the main thing I can think of is that
419 00:54:38.220 --> 00:54:50.789 Katie Clubb: people just don't have the, you know, the capacity, there's the cost of living. We need to create paid opportunities in this area, and we cannot rely on the volunteer sector to prop up
420 00:54:50.950 --> 00:55:10.880 Katie Clubb: nature and climate action in general, but I think especially food, it's such an essential, you know, critically part… critical part of the infrastructure. We need to resource it as so, and pay people fairly a living wage to actually grow that food, and I think that's the only way that we're going to get more people involved. It can't be…
421 00:55:11.050 --> 00:55:12.500 Katie Clubb: just voluntary.
422 00:55:13.420 --> 00:55:30.029 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah, agreed. There's several people lined up behind you to talk, Katie, which is just as well, because I'm going to ask you if you could put all those wonderful references in the chat, or at least send them to me as an email, because everything you're talking about, I think, is of huge interest to the rest of us.
423 00:55:30.250 --> 00:55:33.559 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And it's no good just sitting on your desk, it needs to be on mine.
424 00:55:34.100 --> 00:55:34.470 Katie Clubb: decisions.
425 00:55:35.160 --> 00:55:40.610 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, thank you. That was very useful, and also slightly depressing.
426 00:55:42.340 --> 00:55:43.370 Katie Clubb: Sorry about that.
427 00:55:43.370 --> 00:55:45.740 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Stuart, would you like to have a go, please?
428 00:55:46.060 --> 00:55:53.040 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thank you. I'll start by echoing what I think Andrew's going to say about water resilience.
429 00:55:53.200 --> 00:56:03.440 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Certainly with what's been happening recently in Kent, and as we speak in Norfolk, there seem to be people running out of bottled water.
430 00:56:03.670 --> 00:56:09.180 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: But my main point was, that there seems to be no mention of timescale.
431 00:56:09.750 --> 00:56:14.179 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: When we're planning these resilience maneuvers.
432 00:56:14.420 --> 00:56:17.010 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: How long do you think we should be planning for?
433 00:56:17.620 --> 00:56:21.800 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, I think I mentioned during this, though, that the,
434 00:56:22.370 --> 00:56:26.299 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Suggestions on that vary depending on which country you talk to.
435 00:56:26.530 --> 00:56:29.220 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, I, I think,
436 00:56:29.530 --> 00:56:39.199 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But both to what Katie was talking about, and to what everything is about, it's people's mindset that I think is important. So.
437 00:56:39.260 --> 00:56:58.009 Graham Stoddart-Stones: if anything, the biggest part of our work should be directed at teachers. If you can start teaching the children at 3 or 4 or 5, that actually they need to be part of their community, and that they need to be thinking through their lives, so what are they going to do for others, rather than just
438 00:56:58.100 --> 00:57:04.610 Graham Stoddart-Stones: themselves, that may eventually change the mindset into the sort of,
439 00:57:05.500 --> 00:57:15.980 Graham Stoddart-Stones: land that we're hoping to achieve, and so I'm… I'm… but I always break everything down, and it comes back in the long run to education, I think. So,
440 00:57:16.800 --> 00:57:28.630 Graham Stoddart-Stones: In answer to your specific question, Stuart, I think the Swedes have the mindset that they need to be prepared all the time to cope with a three-day outage.
441 00:57:29.420 --> 00:57:33.289 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And most things in a peaceful world
442 00:57:33.440 --> 00:57:38.510 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Most natural disasters can probably be resolved in certainly,
443 00:57:38.850 --> 00:57:47.529 Graham Stoddart-Stones: the G20 countries, in 3 days. You know, they've got the resources to overcome whatever disaster it is.
444 00:57:47.700 --> 00:57:52.139 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Or at least get food and water to people in that time.
445 00:57:52.140 --> 00:57:54.750 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I think you need to tell that to Anglia Water at the moment.
446 00:57:55.550 --> 00:57:58.410 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well…
447 00:57:58.610 --> 00:58:14.859 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I find it mind-boggling, I'm afraid, that after one of the wettest winters and one of the wettest Febries, two months later, we've run out of water. So you have to think that their ability to capture it and store it at the moment needs fast improvement.
448 00:58:16.690 --> 00:58:34.759 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And, was it Jane was complaining that everybody… no, I'm sorry, it was Madison, wasn't it, who was saying that Tony Blair's solution is to throw money at everything, but all this is going to take a lot of money. I think that people are going to have to get used to the idea that infrastructure needs to be built up.
449 00:58:34.810 --> 00:58:37.229 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Far more than it is at the moment.
450 00:58:37.540 --> 00:58:44.880 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But, so, 3 days at least, but there are conflicting arguments, Stuart, for more or less.
451 00:58:45.670 --> 00:58:46.319 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thank you.
452 00:58:47.230 --> 00:58:51.229 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Come on then, Andrew, you can't do it.
453 00:58:51.230 --> 00:59:05.559 Andrew Clegg: Well, I was just… I was just going to add, as Stuart said, the key thing, I think, is water resilience, and we seem to have lost… completely lost track of what… of how it used to be done very, very simply and locally.
454 00:59:05.560 --> 00:59:12.479 Andrew Clegg: And all our ponds have been filled up and everything. I've spent 35 years working in Africa.
455 00:59:12.480 --> 00:59:26.509 Andrew Clegg: And so this kind of thing, you know, turning on the tap and having nothing come out of the tap was all in a day's work, and supermarkets without food was all… every day.
456 00:59:26.510 --> 00:59:35.840 Andrew Clegg: I lived on tomatoes for months, because you grow… tomatoes grow wonderfully in Africa, and they're wet inside.
457 00:59:35.840 --> 00:59:43.910 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Funny enough, I was going to ask you, do you have some of the solutions that we should be looking at? Better Tomatoes is one of them.
458 00:59:43.910 --> 01:00:00.199 Andrew Clegg: I think, inadvertently, we are looking at… I mean, for around Martok, where I live in Somerset, one of the things that we have in my village of Martok is regular floods, because we're right at the end of the levels.
459 01:00:00.800 --> 01:00:09.189 Andrew Clegg: And so we get lots of floods every year, and we started making ponds upstream in the tributaries.
460 01:00:09.190 --> 01:00:20.979 Andrew Clegg: And the great thing about these ponds is that the farmers can use them in the summer, because what we need to do is to make sure that they're all empty.
461 01:00:21.020 --> 01:00:26.029 Andrew Clegg: At the end of the summer, you see, so that they can fill up over the winter.
462 01:00:26.030 --> 01:00:43.110 Andrew Clegg: And… but nobody is really thinking in these terms. Whenever you… whenever I attend planning meetings, they're talking about drainage, but they're not talking about saving the water that drains away, which is what the farmers used to do all the time.
463 01:00:43.250 --> 01:00:51.150 Andrew Clegg: So I… it seems to me that we're in the… perhaps the most difficult con…
464 01:00:51.190 --> 01:01:03.370 Andrew Clegg: position at all, and that is completely changing, views and attitudes to things. We've got used to not needing water, because every time we turn the tap, it comes out.
465 01:01:03.680 --> 01:01:10.490 Andrew Clegg: Perhaps what we need is a few months like they've been having in Kent, where it doesn't come out for a while.
466 01:01:10.490 --> 01:01:11.030 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right.
467 01:01:11.030 --> 01:01:16.049 Andrew Clegg: That's the only way of, I think, of, of learning.
468 01:01:16.430 --> 01:01:20.110 Andrew Clegg: Another point you made, Graham…
469 01:01:20.110 --> 01:01:26.909 Graham Stoddart-Stones: One second, Andrew, if you wouldn't mind. I need to run away because there's some delivery at the door, but I'll be right back, but please carry on without me.
470 01:01:27.490 --> 01:01:33.540 Andrew Clegg: Okay. A point that Graeme made was, school curriculum.
471 01:01:33.540 --> 01:01:48.110 Andrew Clegg: Years ago, I worked party for UNESCO, and we had a thing there called Disaster Risk Management Curriculum, and my job was to get this curriculum implemented in the schools in the countries where I worked.
472 01:01:48.110 --> 01:02:02.870 Andrew Clegg: That seems to have disappeared now. It's all been absorbed into, I think they call it, comprehensive school safety framework, where you don't find floods and drought in that kind of curriculum anymore.
473 01:02:02.890 --> 01:02:15.130 Andrew Clegg: But the disaster risk management one was adopted by a lot of schools in Africa, but none at all in Britain. Nobody's not… never been part of our curriculum, ever.
474 01:02:18.480 --> 01:02:21.559 Andrew Clegg: Anyway, that's all I have to say. Graham's gone.
475 01:02:27.700 --> 01:02:28.670 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Maybe, Frank, if you…
476 01:02:28.670 --> 01:02:31.750 Andrew Clegg: Are you talking now? Because you're muted.
477 01:02:32.530 --> 01:02:36.699 frank deas: I'll maybe jump in, then. The observation I was going to make is that
478 01:02:37.030 --> 01:02:55.019 frank deas: In the long term, food resilience has to be something we all take on board. In the short term, one of the things we've managed to persuade Sterling Council to take more seriously is resilience in the face of climate impact events. So, we're a network of rural villages, whether it's flooding, trees broken, roads, snow.
479 01:02:55.020 --> 01:03:02.009 frank deas: We get cut off, power gets cut off, communications get cut off because there's no phone lines, because everything's internet telephony.
480 01:03:02.010 --> 01:03:19.340 frank deas: And we finally got the Council of State that's on board, and they've commissioned external consultants to work with us to look at the resilience. And again, because when it happens across a range of villages, the Cat 1 responders, Police, Fire, Ambulance Council, can't cover it, because there's so many villages in EL.
481 01:03:19.340 --> 01:03:34.700 frank deas: So, hopefully, that sort of local resilience and that local resilience mindset, if we can get it established and get people engaged, can then look at the longer-term food resilience. And one of the things, but I've been doing some research to try and understand what other people are doing.
482 01:03:34.700 --> 01:03:40.780 frank deas: Dumfries and Galloway recently did some really good stuff. They experienced the same sort of sudden impact climate event.
483 01:03:40.810 --> 01:03:56.899 frank deas: outages. Traditionally, Scottish Power and Scottish Southern Electricity have to… are meant to turn up with mobile food trucks and provide hot food. And again, there were difficulties in getting them through and contacting them and the coverage they could give. So, Frisk Gallow have reported
484 01:03:56.900 --> 01:04:08.629 frank deas: approached all the individual villages, the restaurants, cafes, and hotels in those, and said, do you have the capacity to provide hot food during a prior outage? And if you can.
485 01:04:08.630 --> 01:04:21.700 frank deas: you provide it under our instruction, you bill us, and we'll bill Scottish Power. And so, again, it's that localization, and getting people to deliver what they need most at a local level. So…
486 01:04:22.040 --> 01:04:41.139 frank deas: It's still… the jury's still out as to how effective this program that's now underway will be, but it's a good idea, and hopefully we'll get people thinking more about resilience, just because the climate in particular is something that… it's not like a major city fire, where everyone can stand back in the emergency service and sort it out.
487 01:04:41.220 --> 01:04:45.219 frank deas: Climate resilience is going to hit everyone, and we all have to be able to sort out our own bits.
488 01:04:47.020 --> 01:04:57.109 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's one of those awkward things, Frank, where I'm dying to see how well that new organization copes, but the last thing you want to do is to have a situation where they need to put it into practice.
489 01:04:57.370 --> 01:05:11.420 frank deas: Well, I think, no, the thing is, we've had, at least once a year, we have power outages. At least four or five times a year, we have named storms that affect our communities. So, compared with some of the challenges you're talking about, which are
490 01:05:11.490 --> 01:05:30.429 frank deas: inevitable, but people had it hard to get their heads around. People find it really easy to think back to, oh yeah, I remember in January we didn't have power for a few days, and some editors didn't have power for 7, 8, 10 days. So, so the fact of that is established. Now we're working on the solution, and you're getting more engagement because the fact has been established.
491 01:05:31.060 --> 01:05:31.610 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: No.
492 01:05:31.610 --> 01:05:32.450 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Interesting.
493 01:05:32.740 --> 01:05:40.150 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Let me just say a thank you to Gary for his wonderful comment about the new reservoir being built. I thought that was good news for change.
494 01:05:40.420 --> 01:05:41.940 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Alison, all yours.
495 01:05:41.940 --> 01:05:50.679 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Oh, sorry, again. Well, what Frank was just saying about, the planning, that sounds absolutely brilliant.
496 01:05:50.680 --> 01:06:05.409 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: And I know that on our parish council, we were looking at the emergency plan. I had the feeling that, in England at least, I think there is a duty on the district councils, or whatever council now exists at that level.
497 01:06:05.440 --> 01:06:11.850 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: to prepare an emergency plan. When we were looking at it, there was no mention at all of food.
498 01:06:12.200 --> 01:06:22.170 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: you know, if you… as I put in the chat, if you don't have food, people can't live. Same goes with water, and yet it's not being recognized. So the only other.
499 01:06:22.170 --> 01:06:29.880 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Pardon? I was wondering whether when water was going to be put in, because that's actually more important even than food, isn't it?
500 01:06:29.880 --> 01:06:40.560 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. The only other comments I wanted to make was that at our district council level, we were talking about,
501 01:06:41.010 --> 01:06:45.160 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Putting out a leaflet to every single household.
502 01:06:45.340 --> 01:06:53.040 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: In no uncertain terms, saying there is an emergency, it is now, and saying all of the really scary,
503 01:06:53.040 --> 01:07:07.080 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: implications of climate and biodiversity tragedies that are already unfolding. We wanted to put that on one side, haha. On the other side, we wanted to put stuff about what you can do about this.
504 01:07:07.230 --> 01:07:23.520 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: Because, you know, there's no point in scaring people if you don't give them something to do about it. But actually, people chickened out. They weren't… the kind of… the majority of the council were not prepared to risk scaring the horses, which I think is a real shame.
505 01:07:23.520 --> 01:07:37.569 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: But the only last comment I wanted to make was, I do think the only way that we can be properly resilient is to localize it all. And that's where the community growing comes in, that's where looking at the water.
506 01:07:37.570 --> 01:07:56.439 Alison Bruce Forest of Dean: comes in, it all has to be localized and become a way of living. Talking about how long we have to maintain this resilience for, it feels to me like it's forever. We have to change the way we're living. It's the way we're living that's created this, so it's the way we're living that has to change in my book.
507 01:07:56.440 --> 01:07:58.210 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, I'm afraid you're right, that's…
508 01:07:58.410 --> 01:08:05.279 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Very true. And there was a point you made there, what was I going to say?
509 01:08:05.940 --> 01:08:09.100 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I'm sorry, I missed it. Gary, yours please.
510 01:08:10.900 --> 01:08:13.609 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Yeah, I'm just listening to this, I'm just wondering…
511 01:08:13.730 --> 01:08:20.160 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: You know, how much could the government do in terms of working with farmers to
512 01:08:21.300 --> 01:08:34.010 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: to kind of deliver this resilience, you know, instead of leaving the farmers just subject to market forces, is there something the government could be doing to kind of, like, saying, right, we need food resilience in this country.
513 01:08:34.330 --> 01:08:37.229 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: You are the people to provide it for us.
514 01:08:37.479 --> 01:08:49.110 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: What is it that they need to do with the farmers to say, right, okay, you have the stocks, you have the, you know, you stockpile the food, you have the three days reserves, or whatever.
515 01:08:49.620 --> 01:08:51.939 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Seems to me to be the obvious solution.
516 01:08:52.630 --> 01:08:53.620 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: But, you know…
517 01:08:54.080 --> 01:09:10.369 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I mean, where localization is concerned, yes, because if they've got the turnips, or the tomatoes, or whatever they are in their own barns, then at least they're local, so I agree. And I guess the government's going to have to come up with a way of paying them for it.
518 01:09:13.189 --> 01:09:19.070 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, like all these conversations, we usually end up with more questions than solutions.
519 01:09:19.300 --> 01:09:22.600 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I've been called again.
520 01:09:23.310 --> 01:09:28.930 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Katie, you look like you're about to talk something. Would you like to say something whilst I just go and ask through the doorbell again? Thank you.
521 01:09:31.279 --> 01:09:38.989 Katie Clubb: I guess just to say that we try and finish on a positive note, like, we are…
522 01:09:39.129 --> 01:09:41.429 Katie Clubb: really, I saw this,
523 01:09:41.669 --> 01:09:54.999 Katie Clubb: report a couple that this whole thing's been based on, which is why I joined the call, a few months ago, and sent it to some of, my colleagues, and Jackie Dale, and some of the other people I knew that were involved in food,
524 01:09:55.069 --> 01:10:10.859 Katie Clubb: saying, like, look at this, we need to think about it. And we are doing a lot around food, so I'm the thematic lead, for our new strategy, on food farming and land use. As I say, it's an area that people really do get behind, and it's kind of…
525 01:10:11.069 --> 01:10:17.269 Katie Clubb: Across… it's across all, kind of, political beliefs and,
526 01:10:17.399 --> 01:10:26.039 Katie Clubb: and different, kind of, parts of society, and I think that is something that draws people together, and I think there's a lot of possibility
527 01:10:26.039 --> 01:10:38.009 Katie Clubb: of food to draw people together, and to really unite people around, climate action, and it's one of the, kind of, key shared benefits of climate action that everyone cares about, even if you…
528 01:10:38.009 --> 01:10:42.389 Katie Clubb: you know, don't care about… we had people… we had climate deniers coming to our
529 01:10:42.389 --> 01:10:52.699 Katie Clubb: drop-in sessions around our new nature of climate strategy, and the only thing I could find common ground with them on was the need for local resilience around food. And…
530 01:10:52.959 --> 01:11:09.249 Katie Clubb: bringing that up, and having conversation about that, and telling them about all the stuff that we're doing on, food, and locally, that really calmed them down, and they agreed to come to the screening that I was running. So I do think there's a lot of potential and hope for.
531 01:11:09.249 --> 01:11:20.709 Katie Clubb: food and resilience to bring people together and to… to really unite people in a time of division. So, it's why I'm really, really, really passionate about
532 01:11:20.709 --> 01:11:30.119 Katie Clubb: this area, and why I'm really trying to move with the momentum that I've experienced in the district around it, and I think these kind of reports
533 01:11:30.309 --> 01:11:46.259 Katie Clubb: only make me feel more like it's the right thing to be focusing on, and the right thing to be, pushing forwards with. So, yeah, I think… I think there's… there's positivity there, and I think more and more people are
534 01:11:46.429 --> 01:12:02.519 Katie Clubb: waking up to the idea of, a quote that I really like from 6 Inches of Soil, if you haven't seen it, is that the food system isn't broken, it's working exactly as it was designed to. And that's not for us. That's for, you know.
535 01:12:02.519 --> 01:12:11.399 Katie Clubb: I'll leave that to you to think about. So, actually, it's one of our biggest acts of resistance we can do, is to
536 01:12:11.479 --> 01:12:22.709 Katie Clubb: buy local, to support your community-supported agriculture projects, to get involved in local growing projects. There are so many of them about, and they are desperate for your help, so let's not think
537 01:12:22.789 --> 01:12:38.249 Katie Clubb: you know, everyone else should do it. It should be us. I've started buying a veg box from my community supported agriculture scheme. I've learned so much from that. I'm really rewiring my brain to think, actually, I should be spending more of my disposable income on food.
538 01:12:38.249 --> 01:12:43.649 Katie Clubb: And making cuts elsewhere, because that's… fits with my values, it fits with…
539 01:12:43.839 --> 01:12:48.139 Katie Clubb: What's right, and we shouldn't be paying nothing for our food, that's not…
540 01:12:48.439 --> 01:12:59.499 Katie Clubb: that isn't normal. We pay some of our lowest amount of money for our food anywhere in Europe, and the more we support our local
541 01:12:59.669 --> 01:13:05.669 Katie Clubb: food agricultural projects, the cheaper that will be for everyone. So really, if we can
542 01:13:05.779 --> 01:13:18.679 Katie Clubb: afford to do it, then we're really helping, to pave the way for that to be more accessible for everyone in the future. So, I could talk for hours on this as well, it's something I'm incredibly passionate about.
543 01:13:18.829 --> 01:13:20.689 Katie Clubb: But… yeah.
544 01:13:20.909 --> 01:13:24.519 Katie Clubb: I'll leave it there. Thank you so much.
545 01:13:24.700 --> 01:13:30.929 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Whilst I was away, I thought of a couple of comments. So, Alison, your committee that…
546 01:13:31.100 --> 01:13:34.069 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And refused to send out the brochure.
547 01:13:34.370 --> 01:13:40.099 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I wonder, is there an argument that they're actually abdicating their responsibility to the public?
548 01:13:40.430 --> 01:13:52.030 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And I think that, you know, when the crisis comes, and everybody says, why the hell didn't we know? Why did no one let us know that this was coming, and we could do something about it?
549 01:13:52.030 --> 01:13:57.820 Katie Clubb: I do… I do actually… I… I feel very conflicted about this, but I… am…
550 01:13:58.380 --> 01:14:05.360 Katie Clubb: I also understand the reasoning for not necessarily going down that,
551 01:14:05.510 --> 01:14:17.880 Katie Clubb: that route, and we did… we talked about it a lot within the climate team, and we have put out a pamphlet which was, instead, everyday nature and climate actions that you can take, and
552 01:14:18.130 --> 01:14:30.369 Katie Clubb: And then there is the support for the briefing, that's going to be happening. But I do a lot of climate comms, and it's kind of, about half of my role.
553 01:14:30.510 --> 01:14:32.379 Katie Clubb: And actually, there's…
554 01:14:32.610 --> 01:14:39.859 Katie Clubb: we do so much where I'm looking at things like the, you know, the, Britain Talks climate, and
555 01:14:39.860 --> 01:14:52.960 Katie Clubb: I've been to lots of webinars around how can we disagree better for a more sustainable future, and really about the psychology behind, communicating climate issues.
556 01:14:53.050 --> 01:14:58.599 Katie Clubb: And there is a lot of evidence to show that the,
557 01:14:58.820 --> 01:15:07.600 Katie Clubb: The way of kind of scaring horses turns a lot of people off, and for a small section of people, it does work really well.
558 01:15:07.950 --> 01:15:23.819 Katie Clubb: And that's why, you know, you've got to put the messages out in different ways, but for a lot of people who aren't there yet, it makes them shut down completely, and it actually is counterproductive to what you're trying to achieve. So, although…
559 01:15:23.930 --> 01:15:27.719 Katie Clubb: I think that there's room for lots of different
560 01:15:28.010 --> 01:15:33.900 Katie Clubb: ways of communicating with people, and for some, it might work. I do also think that
561 01:15:34.040 --> 01:15:39.420 Katie Clubb: the… I'm putting a lot of effort into, basically.
562 01:15:39.420 --> 01:16:00.009 Katie Clubb: trying to really, really, shout about all the amazing work that is happening, and to… and I think using positive stories is more effective than fearmongering, and showing, look at these amazing projects that are happening. Listen to these positive stories of how getting involved in these projects has improved people's lives, improved people's…
563 01:16:00.010 --> 01:16:04.050 Katie Clubb: Mental, physical health, has saved them money.
564 01:16:04.050 --> 01:16:12.199 Katie Clubb: And actually bring them along from that place of an abundance mindset, rather than that fear-scarcity mindset.
565 01:16:12.230 --> 01:16:18.500 Katie Clubb: And that turning that anxiety into action is the best way to move forwards.
566 01:16:18.510 --> 01:16:36.680 Katie Clubb: when I do climate fresque workshops, you can't leave people in that state of feeling really depressed and low, and it follows the Kubler-Ross grief model. If you leave people feeling existential, overwhelmed, burnt out, they are just going to bury their head in the sand, whereas if you
567 01:16:36.870 --> 01:16:54.850 Katie Clubb: tell them some hard truths, but really coax them through into, this is really hard, we understand there's a lot of fear around this, this is what you can do, this is what's already happening, here are so many people who are doing this already, it's not a radical thing to be, you know, thinking in this different way.
568 01:16:55.140 --> 01:16:57.060 Katie Clubb: Suddenly, that's more…
569 01:16:57.440 --> 01:17:04.360 Katie Clubb: it brings people along in another way. So, yeah, I just wanted to say… say that, that,
570 01:17:04.740 --> 01:17:09.780 Katie Clubb: There's different ways of communicating that works for different groups of people, and…
571 01:17:10.330 --> 01:17:14.300 Katie Clubb: I am not supportive of the total
572 01:17:14.740 --> 01:17:18.349 Katie Clubb: you know, doom, fearmongering, because I…
573 01:17:18.630 --> 01:17:23.069 Katie Clubb: I'm so aware, and the evidence is there, that it doesn't work.
574 01:17:24.670 --> 01:17:27.320 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, Katie, are there, any…
575 01:17:27.650 --> 01:17:36.920 Graham Stoddart-Stones: documents of these discussions that you've been having, and the answers you come up with. I mean, this is how to communicate bad news to people.
576 01:17:37.840 --> 01:17:56.459 Katie Clubb: there's… I'll have a look through, because I've… I've taken lots of notes from different, yeah, kind of webinars and sessions I've been to. So, I'm sure, yes, there is. I'll have a look, and I'll have a dig, and see if I can, yeah, share some… some things, but,
577 01:17:56.650 --> 01:17:58.109 Katie Clubb: Yeah, absolutely.
578 01:17:58.110 --> 01:18:04.940 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, you're very kind, thank you, thank you very much. Do we have any more questions, please, for people who are rushing off to lunch?
579 01:18:05.840 --> 01:18:06.900 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Or wherever.
580 01:18:09.600 --> 01:18:18.959 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, thank you all so much for your time. I've loved the comments, thank you very much. I think they're very helpful. Good to see some new faces, or old faces back again.
581 01:18:19.150 --> 01:18:22.970 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Not that I'd call you an old face, Chase, but don't mind.
582 01:18:23.500 --> 01:18:35.690 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Thank you all so much for your help, and I should be able to tell you what's happening next week, but I can't remember. Sorry, I must learn to think these things out ahead of time.
583 01:18:35.810 --> 01:18:41.119 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But thank you all for coming, enjoy the hot weather, and see you next time. Take care. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
584 01:18:41.120 --> 01:18:42.150 Katie Clubb: Hi, everyone.
Markdown of Presentation:
Food Resilience
Slide 1: Food Resilience
Great Collaboration Banter session 121 27May26
By
Graham Stoddart-Stones
Slide 2: Agenda
What is the basis of this topic?
What is Food Resilience?
Why do we need it?
Slide 3: Basis of this session
“Just in Case” – a report to the National Preparedness Commission, January 2025
7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap
Both by Tim Lang
The UK Government’s 2025 Food Strategy explicitly references this report, but with major shortcomings
Slide 4: What does Lang’s report say?
The UK food system is highly vulnerable
“just-in-time” logistics are fragile
Food is not treated as critical national infrastructure (CNI)
Civil society and local communities are underprepared for shocks
We should change to:
A shift to “just-in-case”
Greater local resilience
Buffer stocks
Stronger domestic production
Public preparedness
Community food planning
Slide 5: What has happened since?
Food resilience has entered mainstream policy
Growing acceptance that “just-in-time” is fragile
Local/community resilience is receiving more attention (must be social and local, not merely logistical)
International developments have strengthened the argument
Public preparedness discussion has broadened
Slide 6: What has not happened?
No comprehensive UK food resilience law
No strategic reserve system
No national household preparedness programme
No systematic local food resilience planning requirements
Food is still not fully treated as “critical national infrastructure”
Slide 7: The most important development may be conceptual
Before:
Food security = supermarket shelves stay full
Increasingly now:
Food resilience = society can continue functioning through shocks
Local capacity
Redundancy
Social Cohesion
Community Logistics
Public Understanding
Slide 8: What is Civil Food Resilience? (per the Lang report)
The capacity of people in their daily lives to be more aware of risks to food, more skilled in reducing unnecessary risks, and more prepared to act with others to ensure all society is well fed, in and after crises.
This cannot be left to people to activate in an ad hoc way or on their own.
It requires:
Learning
Capacity-building
Preparation
A “whole of society” response requires infrastructure, guidance and support.
Slide 9: Why do we need Food Resilience?
Since the Tim Lang report, there has been much more emphasis on food resilience, but it is disparate:
2025 Resilience Action Plan
Defra’s 2025 Food Strategy
2024 Food Security Report
No single Resilience Framework document
UK still lacks:
Strategic food reserves
Robust contingency logistics
Decentralised emergency distribution capability
Civil rationing plans
Wartime-style food resilience structure
Slide 10: 7 Steps to Civil Food Resilience
Learn from others (lessons from 10 countries)
Assess the public’s mood, perceptions and engagement
Map the community’s food assets – “prepare, share, care”
Local authorities are key to building civil food resilience
Create local Food Resilience Committees to co-ordinate resilience preparation
The UK Central State must create and maintain a coherent food policy
Re-set the Government Resilience Framework for food
Slide 11: What does this mean at the community level?
The 7 steps are aimed at national government, but have implications at lower tiers
There is tension between:
Waiting for government action
Acting locally now
Most detailed steps in the Lang report are commonsense, so local action is unlikely to go far wrong
Slide 12: Step 1 ‘Learn from others’ - at our level
Provide every household with advice for food shocks
Clear community guidelines on stockpiling
Instructions and procedures for emergency plans
Encourage audits of resources
Approaches based on social rather than individualised food protection
Regular updating of public websites and booklets
Food taken seriously within wider civil protection procedures
Slide 13: Lessons learned from Step 1
Advice should account for varied circumstances and capacities
This has major financial implications at household level
Co-ordination between different levels of government and sectors is essential
Slide 14: Step 2 Assess the public’s mood, perceptions and engagement – at our level
Only 35% of the population say they trust national government
The UK has not experienced a major national food shock for a long time
The public needs to understand the risk
The National Emergency Briefing and People’s Emergency Briefing are attempting to improve awareness
Slide 15: Lessons Learned from Step 2
Emphasise community support, not “look after yourself”
Rationing may be necessary, but must be:
Fair
Equitable
Rational
Rationing systems should improve rather than damage social cohesion
Public preparedness reduces uncertainty
Slide 16: Step 3 Map the community’s food assets – “prepare, share, care”
Communities facilitate resilience better than solitary actions
Encourage socially cohesive collective response
Questions include:
Who stockpiles for whose benefit?
How do we organise mass-scale cooking?
Examples:
Field kitchens
Community cafés
Outside catering
Festival catering
Slide 17: Lessons learned from Step 4
Governmental policy on stockpiling is needed
England and Wales should learn from the Scottish Land Fund
Better access to land improves:
Wellbeing
Social solidarity
Diversity of food sourcing
Slide 18: Step 4 Local Authorities are key to building civil food resilience
Strong international and UK experience already exists
Food Policy Councils active in:
London
Birmingham
Bristol
Metro mayors increasingly involved
Wales already has 22 food partnerships
Slide 19: Step 4 Lessons learned
Local authorities lack powers to tackle large-scale food shocks
Community resilience needs more attention
Urban-rural food connections should be strengthened
A new horticultural strategy is urgently needed due to climate risks
Slide 20: Step 5 Create local Food Resilience Committees
Local Resilience Forums uncertain whether food is within their remit
No official local food resilience structure exists
Current structures are geared towards single crises
The food system now faces “polycrises”
Proposed solution:
Food Resilience Committees
Slide 21: Step 6 The UK Central State must create and maintain a coherent food policy
Educate MPs on:
Rebalancing from “Just-in-Time” to “Just-in-Case”
Just-in-time systems have no buffer stocks
Heavy dependence on the internet introduces cyber vulnerability
Major food shortages would create major disruption
Slide 22: Step 7 Reset the Government Resilience Framework for food
Main local role:
Improve MP understanding of food resilience
Slide 23: Conclusion
UK food distribution works extremely well in normal times
But food resilience is different
The report focuses on:
Organisation
Strategy
Legal frameworks
Core principles for local action:
Be trusted
Communicate well
Communicate in advance
Plan in advance
Grow more locally
2026 has already shown major climate signals:
Very wet winter and February
Record May heat
Likely consequences:
Poor harvests
Stressed livestock
Reduced milk production
“The least extreme weather we are going to see in our lifetimes.”
Last updated