As London Climate Action Week gets underway in up to 40°C heat, food is no longer sitting at the margins of the climate conversation.
Across this week, retailers, manufacturers, farmers, investors and civil society organisations will gather to discuss a shared challenge: how to build a food system that remains resilient in an increasingly volatile world and that delivers healthy diets for all. With the UK Health Security Agency issuing its highest alert for the heatwave, that conversation feels more relevant than ever.
Just two weeks ago, the cold chain industry issued a white paper calling for it to be recognised as a vital part of national infrastructure for food and health – increasingly under pressure from climate change, and more critical the hotter it gets.
Meanwhile, if ever there was a situation to expose the fragility of a food system based on fossil fuels, the Iran crisis is it. Donald Trump’s Iran deal feels less and less likely to open up the Strait of Hormuz, and so high energy and fertiliser prices will continue to feed through into business costs and, ultimately, food prices on shelves – impacting all of us, but especially those least able to afford it.
But the Iran crisis is not simply another story about food price inflation.
Recent analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit found food prices tend to rise rapidly during shocks but reverse only slowly and partially afterwards. Prices surge like rockets, then drift back down like feathers – leaving households and businesses operating from a permanently higher cost base. Since 2021, UK food prices have risen by around 40%. For many households, the challenge is no longer a temporary squeeze but a structural shift in affordability.
What is food security?
This raises a more fundamental question: what do we mean by food security?
Food insecurity affects six million people across the UK, diet-related disease remains one of the biggest pressures on the NHS (obesity alone costs more than £6bn each year), and a healthy diet is increasingly out of reach – costing an estimated 85% of disposable income for households with the lowest earnings .
At the same time, many of the foods that support healthy diets remain heavily dependent on imports. The UK imports more than 80% of its fruit and around half of its vegetables. Many of these supply chains are exposed to the same climate, energy and geopolitical risks that are driving volatility across the wider food system.
The challenge, therefore, is not simply whether food is available, it is whether nutritious, safe food remains accessible, affordable and resilient in the face of growing disruption. This is why food security must increasingly be viewed as a climate resilience and health issue.
Encouragingly, we are beginning to see practical examples of what this transition could look like. Across retail, foodservice, farming and manufacturing, organisations are starting to integrate health, sustainability and resilience objectives into core business strategies.
More than 20 cities globally have committed to aligning public food procurement with planetary health principles. In the Netherlands, supermarket retailers representing around 90% of market share have committed to shifting sales towards a 60:40 plant-to-animal protein ratio by 2030. Foodservice providers including Compass, Sodexo and Aramark are redesigning menus and testing new approaches to make healthier and more sustainable choices easier for consumers.
Taken individually, none of these initiatives will transform the food system. But together, they show the conversation has moved on. Food is no longer simply an agricultural issue, a health issue or a climate issue. It sits at the intersection of all three.
For policymakers, this means broadening how food security is understood and measured. For businesses, it means continuing to invest in resilient supply chains, healthier food environments and innovation that supports both people and planet. The challenge is ensuring that our definition of food security – and the actions that flow from it – reflect that reality.
Ali Morpeth is co-founder at the Planeatry Alliance
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