# Banter 121: 27May26 Food Resilience {% embed url="" %} **Video Timeline (min:sec):** 00:00 - 33:15 Presentation 33:15 - 64:54 (end) Q & A *** #### Banter 121 - Presentation {% file src="/files/awRygVdmgvAyrTSpdYZc" %} {% file src="/files/ggs8f44KDPRSPWJBqko8" %} 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 *** ### ["Just in Case" Report to National Preparedness Commission](https://nationalpreparednesscommission.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/NPC-Just-in-Case-Executive-Summary_PDF-Download.pdf) 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 ](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-use-framework)
### 00:08:56 frank deas: [First use for England Framework](https://vegsoc.org/press-releases/response-to-first-land-use-for-england-framework/) \ 00:09:12 tristram cary: \ 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](https://forest-of-dean.resilienceweb.org.uk/) ### 01:00:32 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: [First new major reservoirs in England for more than 30 years given go-ahead](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/29/first-new-reservoirs-in-england-for-more-that-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.” --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. 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