Local Food: More Than a Nice-to-Have
While this Sustain report focuses on the UK, many of its findings are relevant to communities everywhere. — Local Futures
Local food isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s an essential ingredient of UK economic resilience. Food prices in the UK are rocketing, showing just how exposed our food economy is to global shocks – from geopolitical disruption to climate shocks. Unless we improve our resilience, food prices will just keep rising. Expanding local food systems is an important way to build that resilience.
Policymakers cannot fully control international events, but they can control how resilient we are. Local food systems offer a desirable and scalable way to improve resilience, stabilise inflationary pressure and retain more wealth in local communities. Doing so will benefit consumers, support British farmers and growers, and boost local economies. That is why the Government’s forthcoming Food Strategy must prioritise local and regional food.
We define local and regional food as food that is produced, processed, sold and eaten within a particular region, and sold through transparent, SME- focused supply chains.
1. Local food can reduce inflationary pressure
Food prices will rise in the coming years and decades. Rises of 9% annually are expected by the end of 20261 and long-term increases caused by climate change and geopolitical instability are also forecast (e.g. 34% by 2050 caused by climate change alone2).
Overreliance on industrial and imported food makes the UK vulnerable to inflation and disruption. The current UK food system is characterised by severe market consolidation, reliance on imports of both food and inputs, and long, complex supply chains, which are vulnerable to shocks such as climate shocks, geopolitical shocks and cyber-attacks3.
While not immune, local food systems can be more resilient to imported inflation:
- Producers supplying local markets are less likely to be reliant on synthetic inputs, such as fertiliser or pesticides, which are rapidly rising in cost. While local does not inherently mean organic or nature-friendly farming, in practice there is often significant overlap4.
- Being domestic in production, they are less exposed to exchange rate swings which are a key factor in food price inflation.
- Short food supply chains are often more diversified than those operating in conventional supply chains, which help them manage risk and adapt. A study of 226 Italian farms showed that 75% using short food supply chains grew at least three crop types, compared to 28% nationwide, helping them reduce dependence on single products and spread risk5.
- Local food producers often have direct-to-customer relationships, providing alternative routes-to-market and increasing flexibility during disruption. UK evidence shows that farmers with more diversified business models including direct selling were better able to adapt and buffer shocks during the COVID years6.
Local food prices and availability can be more stable in shocks. On pricing, Canadian evidence shows that farmers markets experienced lower price increases than national grocery stores from 2018-2023, as well as less frequent rises7 On availability, demand for local food surged 111% in the UK during the COVID period, as supply remained stable while supermarket supply faltered8.
Scaling local food will lower costs and improve resilience. Local food systems can help limit the impact of shocks, but they need scaling. This is not purely about the domestication of supply but sourcing a greater proportion of our food through shorter, simpler, more diverse supply chains that prioritise organic and nature-friendly production, powered by renewable energy.
Price convergence between local and industrial food is possible in the years ahead. Local food systems have suffered from many years of underinvestment. Support to scale local food to deliver 10-30% of UK supply (up from an estimated 0.1-5%) would allow the sector to achieve efficiencies that can make it an affordable, reliable alternative to long supply chains. And as industrial food prices rise, any price gap between them may disappear.
2. Local Food strengthens local economies
Value generated from supermarket supply chains mostly leaves local economies. Farmers receive a tiny proportion of final retail price through the supermarket system9, which often leaves them struggling financially10. Meanwhile listed supermarkets receive much more and only spend locally on wages, with 98% of net profits transferred to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks11.
Local food systems strengthen local economies through:
- Increased income for producers. Producers participating in short supply chains often retain much more value – around 39% of final retail price12, compared with <1% typical of the supermarket systems13. This opens opportunity for higher farm profitability.
- More jobs generated locally. Local food systems create employment closer to where people live, rather than overseas. This is true for both producers14 and retailers15 involved in short supply chains but varies from a factor of 2-10.
- A wider spread of income, leading to more local spending. Short supply chains allow producers and local actors to retain more wealth compared to shareholder-driven supermarkets. A US study shows that $1 million in local food sales creates ~$750,000 in indirect economic activity versus ~$500,000 from supermarket systems16.
Investment in local food can increase farm profitability. Producer incomes from participation in local food systems are high, but so are the costs, due to the current labour intensity of logistics and marketing on a small scale. Investment in local food systems at the regional level would enable economies of scale to reduce those costs, increasing both producer profitability and resilience at the same time.
Conclusion
The current UK food system set-up leaves the UK economically vulnerable and misses the opportunity for local economic growth. Scaling local food systems to deliver a greater proportion of our food, from the estimated 0.1%-5% to 10-30%, can help reduce inflationary pressure, improve food availability, and help bring wealth back to local economies.
Our 3 asks of the Food Strategy for local food:
1. Set an ambition to raise local food supply to 25% by 2030.
2. Empower local mayors, or regional / combined authorities, to plan local food supply chains by funding them to produce Local Food Growth Plans.
3. Use government levers to support stronger local food infrastructure so that producers can supply their local population.
The Government’s Food Strategy is a key opportunity to scale what already works.
Originally published by Sustain - the alliance for better food and farming.
Contact: Rachel Jones, Local Food Coordinator, Sustain. [email protected]
Sustain is a powerful alliance of organisations and communities working together for a better system of food, farming and fishing, and cultivating the movement for change. www.sustainweb.org
You can also read this essay on Medium.
References:
1 Food and Drink Federation (2026) FDF revises food inflation forecast to at least 9% by the end of 2026. https://www.fdf.org.uk/fdf/news- media/press-releases/2026/fdf-revises-food-inflation-forecast-to-at-least-9-by-the-end-of-2026/ (Accessed: 21 April 2026)
2 Garcia, L. and Jones, P. (2025) On the horizon: Climate-induced inflation and the price of food. London: The Autonomy Institute, 28 July. Available at: Autonomy Institute website.
3 Lang, T., Neumann, N., & So, A. (2025). Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap. National Preparedness Commission.
4 Chiaverina, P., Drogué, S. and Jacquet, F. (2024) ‘Do farmers participating in short food supply chains use less pesticides? Evidence from France’, Ecological Economics, 216, 108034.
5 Mastronardi, L., Marino, D., Cavallo, A. and Giannelli, A. (2015) ‘Exploring the role of farmers in short food supply chains, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 18(2), pp.109–130.
6 Gittins, P. and McElwee, G. (2024) ‘Farm adaptive business strategies in crisis management: COVID-19’, Journal of Rural Studies, 111, 103393.
7 Stephens, P., Madziak, V., Gerhardt, A. and Cantafio, J., 2025. Exploring price changes in local food systems compared to mainstream grocery retail in Canada during an era of ‘greedflation’. Food Policy, 130, p.102773.
8 Food Foundation, 2020. Covid-19 UK Veg Box Scheme Report. https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/covid-19-uk-veg-box- scheme-rSupeport
9 Sustain (2022) Unpicking food prices: Where does your food pound go, and why do farmers get so little? London: Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming. [unpicking-...ices-Dec22 | PDF]
10 Get Fair About Farming campaign (2024) Support fair treatment for farmers. Available at: https://getfairaboutfarming.co.uk/ (Accessed: 7 April 2026).
11 Oxfam (2021) Not in this together: How supermarkets became pandemic winners while women workers are losing out. Oxford: Oxfam.
12 Malak-Rawlikowska, A. et al. (2019) ‘Measuring the economic, environmental and social sustainability of short food supply chains’, Sustainability, 11(15), 4004.
13 Sustain (2022) Unpicking food prices: Where does your food pound go, and why do farmers get so little? London: Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming. [unpicking-...ices-Dec22 | PDF]
14 Mastronardi, L., Marino, D., Cavallo, A. and Giannelli, A. (2015) ‘Exploring the role of farmers in short food supply chains, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 18(2), pp.109–130.
15 CPRE (2012) From Field to Fork: The Value of England’s Local Food Webs. London: CPRE
16 Rossi, J.D., Johnson, T.G. and Hendrickson, M.K. (2017) ‘The economic impacts of local and conventional food sales’, Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 49(4), pp. 555–570.
Top photo by Gary Scott on Unsplash.
Second photo by Corina Straub on Unsplash.
Third photo by Kate Asplin on Unsplash.
Stay connected
Insights, stories, and events from Local Futures — exploring localization as a pathway to ecological balance and community resilience.
Follow our blog
Thoughtful writing for a world beyond the global corporate economy — delivered to your inbox.
Author: Sustain
