Educating for food security in the UK: Planning for an uncertain future

Abstract

The pressures affecting the UK’s food production infrastructure are reviewed, with a conclusion that security of supply is currently unsafe. Planning ahead to improve security of supply is argued as key, especially as we try to cope with an uncertain future. The challenge of planning for uncertainty of food supply leads to a consideration of recent research on risk and the ideas of Taleb about antifragility. This investigation is in the context of Higher Education delivery for the next generation of agriculture and commercial horticulture graduates: the impacts of resource restrictions and opportunities of novel modes of teaching are reviewed as we learn to work with greater uncertainty.