‘Take food insecurity seriously and make plans’

WALES needs to take food insecurity seriously and have a plan for feeding the population in the future, says the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.

Derek Walker is calling on the Welsh Government to support a new generation of local sustainable and healthy food production, with the creation of a long-term national food strategy which he says is urgently needed in the face of an unstable global food system.

A long-term plan for feeding Wales, he says, is vital to ensure the most disadvantaged in society, and future generations, can feed themselves and their families.

At an event today, Mr Walker is bringing together people to examine how we can protect people in Wales from future food shortages and extreme price rises in an unstable global food system.

The effects of a volatile global food system would further exacerbate the challenges of food insecurity, which Wales is already facing.

Professor Tim Lang, who will speak at Food Shocks: Is Wales prepared for an uncertain food future? in Cardiff, a joint event with Our Food 1200, says the UK is unprepared for future food shocks, which could lead to empty supermarket shelves and further food price rises.

Canada and Germany are drafting comprehensive food plans that address resilience, while France requires cities to have plans to feed their populations from their rural spaces, and Lithuania and Switzerland have national food reserves.

In Wales, Bannau Brycheiniog has placed local food networks at the heart of its vision for people’s wellbeing and protecting nature. Conwy and Denbighshire Public Services Board has committed to developing plans to safeguard food, Monmouthshire has integrated food policies – from farm to fork – into its well-being plans, while Cardiff council has developed a local Good Food Strategy and is aiming to become a Goldstandard Sustainable Food City.

Not-for-profit organisation Cae Felin Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is growing crops on land owned by Swansea Bay Health Board near Morriston Hospital, where staff volunteer towards a long-term goal of supporting preventative healthcare by growing fruit and vegetables for patient meals at the hospital, selling food boxes and also providing them for low-income areas.

WWF has said the Well-being of Future Generations Act gives Wales the opportunity to adopt a leading role in the UK in developing food policies, within the wider context of Brexit and the challenges the UK food system faces.