Feeding People in a Crisis
The UK Food System and the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Michael Winter, Steven Guilbert, Timothy Wilkinson, Matt Lobley and Catherine Broomfield
Published
Dec 1, 2024Page count
192 pagesISBN
978-1529242188Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Dec 1, 2024Page count
192 pagesISBN
978-1529242195Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Bristol University Press
‘Panic buying’ at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic generated enduring media images of empty supermarket shelves and calls for food rationing. The fragility of the Just-in-Time food system was seemingly exposed yet, as the pandemic progressed in the UK, there were remarkably few food shortages. This book reveals the changing patterns of food provision in the UK during that period, looking at how diets changed, and retail, processing, distribution and production businesses adapted. But beneath the apparent logistical success story, there were injustices as the more vulnerable struggled to access good quality food and some businesses received inadequate help.
The authors consider the winners and losers in a time of rapid social change, the lasting impacts on the UK food system, and lessons to be learned for a food system dependent on imports and large retailers and with a high burden of diet-related health issues.
Michael Winter OBE is the Glanely Professor of Agricultural Change at the University of Exeter and Chair of Devon’s Local Nature Partnership.
Steven Guilbert is a Research Impact Fellow at the University of Exeter.
Timothy Wilkinson is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Rural Policy Research, University of Exeter
Matt Lobley is Professor of Rural Resource Management and Director of the CRPR at the University of Exeter.
Catherine Broomfield is a Research Associate at the Centre for Rural Policy Research, University of Exeter.
1. Introduction
2. The UK Food System Before the Crisis
3. Keeping the Supermarket Shelves Stocked
4. Alternatives to Supermarkets
5. From Eating Out to Eating In
6. Food Justice: The Poverty and Health Dimension
7. What Happened to Farmers and Fishers?
8. Where Next for the British Food System?
