Roadmap for Resilience – a UK Food Plan for 2050

We need to make the UK’s food system work better for people and planet – and we have a once in a generation chance, both politically and climatically, to do it. We’re talking about radical change, not seen since the end of the Second World War. If we get it right, we’ll secure our food system and nature for the future, make the country healthier, and save billions of pounds. 

Join us to hear the plan! Three years of research, a 3,000-strong network, and 150 food system experts, stakeholders and practitioners have fed into the AFN Network+ Roadmap for Resilience: A UK Food Plan for 2050. It launches on 15th October. 

Co-authors of the report, Prof Tim Benton, and Prof Neil Ward, will introduce the Roadmap, its key findings and recommendations, responses to date, and the implications for policy and practice. Have your say with an audience Q&A and discussion. We’ll dig into questions like: 

• Individually and collectively, what turns it from another report on a shelf into practical action? 
• What actionable recommendations for research, policy, and practice does the Roadmap provide?

Our network has to be more than the friends we made along the way. 

About Tim:

Tim Benton is a co-lead of the AFN Network+ and a longstanding researcher in sustainable agriculture and food systems, and led the UK’s Global Food Security Programme (2011-16). His expertise and skills are truly interdisciplinary, with an interest in scenarios for robust decision-making under uncertainty. He was most recently at Chatham House and the University of Leeds (UoL) and his recent projects as Principal Investigator include the £10m GCRF-AFRICAP project. Tim was Chatham House’s Research Director for Emerging Risks, and Director of its Environment and Society Programme.

About Neil:

Neil Ward is a co-lead of the AFN Network+ and Professor of Rural and Regional Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He is a human geographer specialising in agrifood and rural development. He was UEA’s Deputy Vice Chancellor (2014-21) and Director of Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy (2004-08). He’s served as a Cabinet Office advisor on agricultural policy and has appeared before numerous parliamentary select committees. Neil is author of Net Zero, Food and Farming: Climate Change and the UK Agri-Food System (Routledge, 2023).

About this webinar series

This webinar is part of a monthly series run by AFN Network+ which explores net zero in the UK agri-food system with leading movers and shakers. Expect deep and varied insight from across the sector, including farmers, scientists, policy analysts, community leaders, retailers, politicians, businesses and health professionals. The series is organised by Jez Fredenburgh, our Knowledge Exchange Fellow, with oversight from Prof Neil Ward, AFN Co-lead. Jez and Neil are based in the School of Environmental Sciences, and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at the University of East Anglia.