Food security must be treated as national security, NFU warns

Ministers must turn food security rhetoric into policy as global conflict and climate shocks expose the fragility of supply chains, NFU president Tom Bradshaw has warned.

Mr Bradshaw said the government had used “warm words” on food security, but had yet to deliver policy that treated a resilient food system as central to national resilience.

He made the comments during a Cityforum 2026 Intelligent Defence and Smart Power discussion on defence, risk and national resilience, where he urged policymakers to put food and farming at the centre of the national security agenda.

The NFU said conflict in the Middle East was now the biggest driver of hunger globally, while wider geopolitical disruption continued to put pressure on food production costs.

It said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had sent shockwaves through the food supply chain and sharply increased fertiliser, fuel and energy prices.

Mr Bradshaw said recent years had shown that the UK’s approach to food system preparedness needed to change.

He said: “From the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine, to Brexit, the pandemic and the escalating challenges of climate change and extreme weather, the world as we knew it 20 years ago has been fundamentally transformed, and our approach to food security must keep up.”

The NFU president said the UK needed to move away from relying too heavily on highly efficient but fragile supply chains.

He warned that a system built around short-term availability could leave the country exposed during periods of disruption.

Mr Bradshaw said: “Food security is the beating heart of our national security, yet the longer the UK continues to prioritise a ‘just-in-time’ model over a far more resilient ‘just-in-case’ approach the goal of true food security risks slipping further out of reach.”

He said British farmers and growers remained proud to feed the country, but warned that the pressure on the sector was becoming increasingly severe.

Mr Bradshaw said: “British farmers and growers are proud to feed 70 million people every day, but this is no light work.

“Whether it’s grappling with the weather, restrictive planning policies, pests and diseases or rising input costs, farmers and growers are certainly resilient, but at what cost?”

The NFU said farmers were already dealing with extreme weather, pests, diseases, planning barriers and rising input costs, pressures it warned were weakening the UK’s ability to respond to future shocks.

The union said fertiliser prices had remained elevated, with urea reaching £635 per tonne and imported ammonium nitrate hitting £535 per tonne in April.

It said those pressures showed why domestic food production needed to be treated as part of the country’s wider preparedness planning.

Mr Bradshaw called for a long-term plan for farming and food production that matched the scale of the challenges facing the UK.

He said: “We are calling on the government to implement a long-term plan for farming and food production that reflects the urgent situation we are in.

“From the Chair of the National Preparedness Commission to the former Director of MI5, the view that food security is central to our national security is widely held.

“While we’ve had warm words from the government ‘that food security is national security’ we haven’t yet got the policy that recognises a resilient food system is the cornerstone of national resilience and they need to start acting now.”

The NFU said conflict, climate change, extreme weather and global market volatility were making food systems more vulnerable.

It said farming policy needed to protect domestic production, strengthen supply chains and reduce exposure to international shocks.

The union also pointed to the National Preparedness Commission’s work on narrowing the food resilience gap, which has called for a stronger approach to preparedness across the food system.

The NFU said a long-term food and farming plan was now needed to protect domestic production, reduce exposure to global shocks and make food resilience a core part of national preparedness.

Mr Bradshaw said the UK could not afford to treat food production as separate from national security planning.

He said a resilient farming sector would be essential if the country was to withstand future shocks and continue feeding the population.