Food systems impacts of COVID 19
  • Food systems impacts of COVID 19

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    What was the impact of COVID-19 on the food system of the UK?

    A research team from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR) led by Prof. Michael Winter OBE, focused on the management of the disruptive social and economic impacts of COVID-19 on the UK’s food supply chain.

    The research was undertaken as part of the UKRI-ESRC’s open call for research and innovation ideas aimed at addressing and mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.


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    Research Briefs

    This suite of five short summaries examine the impacts Covid had on 5 key UK food sectors.  Based on interviews with key stakeholders and critical insight from the project’s Expert...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 17 July 2022


    Brown Crab and the Triple Challenge of Cadmium, Covid, and Brexit

    The brown / edible / ‘pasty’ crab   By Steve Guilbert Is there anything more evocative of the British seaside summer holiday than eating cod and chips on a windy,...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 28 July 2021


    National Food Strategy 2021: A quick outline

      By Tim Wilkinson The second part of the National Food Strategy was published on the 15th July in a two-part report: with one part proposing a set of recommendations (‘The...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 27 July 2021


    Dark Kitchens

      By Tim Wilkinson What are they? The last year has seen a dramatic rise in the demand for takeaways and delivery. A portion of that market is serviced by...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 27 July 2021


    Good Food Enterprises: Adapting to the pandemic, one year – A Summary/Commentary

      By Prof. Michael Winter Sustain has issued a survey report exploring how good food enterprises have adapted to the pandemic one year on. Good Food Enterprises: Adapting to the...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 30 June 2021


    Labour Shortages in the Food Chains: COVID, Brexit or both?

      By Prof. Michael Winter  In recent weeks, the press has been full of stories about labour shortages in many parts of the food system. In another recent post on...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 30 June 2021


    South West Farm Survey 2020: Selected Results

      By Tim Wilkinson and Matt Lobley Context We sent 4000 paper questionnaires to land managers in the South West in late October 2020; sending reminders and receiving responses until...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 29 June 2021


    Further considerations around labour in agriculture: New report released examining labour issues and workforce solutions

      By Caroline Nye* The Centre for Rural Policy Research recently published a new report, Farm labour in the UK: Accessing the workforce the industry needs, commissioned and funded by...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 28 June 2021


    The National Food Strategy: rural communities, urban food and good food jobs. What can be done? A Note

      By Prof. Terry Marsden* It will be important for the National Food Strategy to explicitly address and propose a new vision for British food and farming; to outline in...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 7 June 2021


    Experiences of going out to eat

      By Tim Wilkinson The Covid road map is very date based. 12 April. 17th May. 21st June. It doesn’t say anything about how those changes might be experienced. In...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 27 May 2021


    Consumer Trends in the post-COVID World

      By Prof. Michael Winter One of the tasks in this project has been to keep an eye on what is usually called the ‘trade press’. And one of the...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 May 2021


    A bit late, but some more thoughts on the labour question

      By Prof. Michael Winter Even in the best organised research project – and I am not claiming that epithet for our project! – it is  possible to miss some...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 May 2021


    Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee Report

        By Prof. Michael Winter On the 7th April 2021, the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published a follow-up inquiry[1] to its initial inquiry in...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 April 2021


    Reopening of hospitality

      By Tim Wilkinson The 12th April 2021 marked Step 2 on the government’s Covid roadmap, giving us further possibilities of a less restricted life. Hospitality businesses were able to...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 25 April 2021


    Trade and Agriculture Commission report: ‘bold vision’ or ‘hollow’ promises?

      By Prof. Michael Winter These words are not mine but a question posed by Speciality Food on publication of the Commission report in March. Given the high profile of...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 30 March 2021


    How should the meat food chain be regulated?

      By Prof. Michael Winter It has become customary for critics of the UK food system to attack the weakness and fragmentation of regulatory arrangements: too many government departments with...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 30 March 2021


    A promising career in…

      By Tim Wilkinson In Sky television’s humorous political thriller Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, while on a dinner date the protagonist Jack Ryan describes himself as being in ‘Supply Chain...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 30 March 2021


    Government support for food wholesalers

      By Tim Wilkinson We have previously outlined some of the challenges faced by wholesalers as a consequence of the pandemic. Although wholesale businesses were not legally forced to close,...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 23 March 2021


    The South West Farm Survey 2020

      By Tim Wilkinson The fourth Centre for Rural Policy Research South West Farm Survey went out in the post in October 2020 and we have a great set of...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 23 February 2021


    So has diet changed as a result of COVID-19?

      By Prof. Michael Winter No-one is in any doubt that the Pandemic has for many people changed where they eat, especially during the lockdowns, with home cooking and takeaways...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 22 February 2021


    How can we understand the complexity of the food system?

    Spaghetti Junction UK   By Tim Wilkinson I don’t understand how the food system works. That might sound like an odd thing to say from someone working on this project....

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 22 February 2021


    How can we ‘build back better’ and what’s the role of plant-based diets?

      By Prof. Michael Winter In July 2020, the UK Global Food Security Programme and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council hosted a workshop with a range of stakeholders...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 28 January 2021


    The Footballer and Food

      By Prof. Michael Winter I don’t often watch football. I used to enjoy playing but that was many years ago and somehow I just much prefer watching rugby these...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 January 2021


    Covid Food Business Barometer – summary of results from a short survey in late 2020

      By Tim Wilkinson and Matt Lobley We have been casting our minds back to November 2020. It feels like a long time ago now. A lot has changed; and...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 January 2021


    The Plight of Wholesalers

      By Prof. Michael Winter I suppose it is hardly surprising that most media attention on food throughout the panic has tended to focus predominantly on the retail and hospitality...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 January 2021


    A New Consumer World View?

      By Steve Guilbert About this time last year, in amongst the usual ubiquitous year-end top ten lists and articles about trends we should be looking out for in 2020,...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 16 December 2020


    The Impact of Covid-19 on the UK Fresh Food Supply Chain – A Summary

      By Prof. Michael Winter Research results from other projects on the impact of COVID are beginning to emerge and this month I am highlighting a paper led by some...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 30 November 2020


    Lockdown 2.0

      By Tim Wilkinson In the second national lockdown we saw food service and hospitality businesses restricted to takeaway only. The only option to ‘eat out’ was at outdoor street...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 November 2020


    Online Food Business Barometer survey launched

    We launched our short Covid Food Business Barometer survey this month. It’s about how things are going for food businesses right now, what they think about the future and how prepared they...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 November 2020


    Mapping the UK Food System – A Review

      By Prof. Michael Winter Hasnain, S., Ingram, J. and Zurek, M. 2020. Mapping the UK Food System – a report for the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems Programme. Environmental...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 November 2020


    Economic impacts, business confidence and local lockdowns

      By Tim Wilkinson In a month where Tesco’s posted rising profits, some of the economic impacts of the initial national lockdown are becoming clear. With local lockdowns now implemented,...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 28 October 2020


    Survey design as lockdown rules change

    By Tim Wilkinson This month we have been working on designing a questionnaire survey for food businesses. Our survey is exploring the impacts of Covid-19 restrictions and the strategies businesses have implemented in response....

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 28 October 2020


    Meat Again!

      By Prof. Michael Winter I found myself in Grimsby recently talking about meat! Well not literally on the east coast, for it was yet another virtual encounter.  The National...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 October 2020


    It’s not just about COVID: Food in the news

      By Prof. Michael Winter There has been a spate of press coverage in recent days about food related issues and not all are about COVID impacts. The prospects of...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 23 October 2020


    Baking for stress-relief during a pandemic

      By Veronica White I don’t know about you, but I was very happy when I heard that The Great British Bake Off was returning this Autumn. In this year...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 22 October 2020


    COVID panic buying 2.0?

    By Tim Wilkinson With additional national restrictions, rising cases of Covid-19 and the prospect of a potential second lockdown, one has to wonder what the effect of additional restrictions might...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 23 September 2020


    Sausages + Venison

      By Prof. Michael Winter A meat theme to my blog this month and, in particular, a couple of stories that have come my way, one that shows that not...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 23 September 2020


    A degree of hunger: COVID-19, food insecurity, and the higher education sector

      By Veronica White This month, I will finish my master’s degree in Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture, taught in part by academics from the Centre for Rural Policy Research,...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 18 September 2020


    FSICV-19 Project Bulletin No: 2

      Second of our Food System Impacts of COVID-19 monthly Project Bulletins is out now. Read, comment, subscribe here: http://sites.exeter.ac.uk/foodsystemimpactscv19/monthly-bulletin/

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 3 September 2020


    The National Food Strategy: Part One – An Initial Assessment

      National Food Strategy: Part One – an initial assessment by Prof. Michael Winter   This eagerly anticipated NFS report does not disappoint. As the report makes clear at the...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 27 August 2020


    COVID-19 and the Food Supply Chain: Q+A with Prof. Michael Winter

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 24 August 2020


    EFRA Committee’s COVID-19 and Food Supply Report – Published

      The EFRA Committee’s COVID-19 and Food Supply Inquiry  has published its report.  It is the second major report on UK food systems/food supply to be published in two days...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 31 July 2020


    New agricultural jobs website launched to connect farms with work-seekers

      With an acute labour shortage in the seasonal farming industry and millions of people either out of work or furloughed, The Land Army was born with the goal of...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 31 July 2020


    National Food Strategy Part One – Published

    https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/partone/    

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 29 July 2020


    Reflections on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Food System

      Prof. Michael Winter OBE – Principal Investigator   I originally wrote the research proposal that led to the funding for this project in early April, at the height of...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 20 July 2020


    COVID impacts on farming: new survey launched

    The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Edinburgh is undertaking a survey to ask farmers their opinion on the challenges and potential solutions related to their business associated with COVID-19...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 10 July 2020


    Welcome to our website!

    Welcome to the ‘Food System Impacts of COVID-19’ project website! It is here where you can find out more about the project, the project team, the food sector experts we’re...

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    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 26 June 2020


    What was the impact of COVID-19 on the food system of the UK?

    A research team from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR) led by Prof. Michael Winter OBE, focused on the management of the disruptive social and economic...

    Continue reading...

    Posted by Steve Guilbert on 23 June 2020