It's time to 'wake up and smell the coffee' for food security

摘要

Covid 19 has dramatically illustrated how connected and by extension, how dependent on, we are with practically every other country on earth. Never in living memory has a virus spread so fast around the globe.Furthermore, it is now widely accepted that the UK's lockdown on 23 March was a few days too late and that this delay probably cost tens of thousands of lives.The effects on industries that had adopted the Japanese concept of "just-in-time" deliveries of requisites - and that included food -were caught on the hop. It was only the efforts of UK farmers and growers, together with food banks, that avoided seriousfood shortages.Indeed, as the disease still rages in some of the countries that export food to Britain, playing havoc with their production capabilities, future domestic shortages are still possible.director of the John Innes Centre in Norwich, wrote: "We have a rapidly closing window of time to address three challenges facing society and the planet that sustains us; feeding a growing population; combatting new and emerging health threats; and climate change that calls for new ways of thinking. This is a critical moment."