Food Security in the UK: Why We Need to Rethink How We Grow Our Food

The future of British food security will depend not only on what we grow, but how, where and how efficiently we produce it.

Food security is something most of us rarely think about. We go to the supermarket, fill our baskets and expect the shelves to be stocked. Fresh fruit and vegetables are available throughout the year, often regardless of the season or the weather outside.

But behind this apparent abundance lies a complex global food system, connecting farmers, growers, manufacturers, transport networks and retailers across continents.

As climate change, geopolitical instability and rising production costs place increasing pressure on this system, an important question emerges: how resilient is the UK's food supply, and what can we do to strengthen it?

The answer is not simply to grow everything at home. It is to rethink how we produce food, make better use of our resources and build a food system capable of adapting to an increasingly uncertain world.

How secure is the UK's food supply?

The UK has a well-established agricultural industry, but it remains heavily reliant on international trade to meet domestic demand.

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the UK produced approximately 60% of the food required for domestic supply in 2025, falling from 65% in 2024. For foods that can be commercially produced in the UK's climate, the figure was approximately 72%. These measures compare the value of domestic production with the value of food required for consumption; they are not a literal measure of the proportion of food on our plates.

The UK also imports a substantial proportion of its fruit and vegetables, including produce that could be grown domestically under suitable conditions.

International trade is not inherently a weakness. It gives consumers access to a wider variety of foods, allows countries to specialise in crops suited to their climates and helps maintain supply when domestic harvests are poor.

The challenge is over-reliance on supply chains that can be disrupted.

When transport routes are interrupted, energy prices rise or extreme weather affects major growing regions, the consequences can travel quickly through the food system. A drought thousands of miles away can influence the price of ingredients on British supermarket shelves.

Food security, therefore, is not simply about whether enough food exists globally. It is about whether people can reliably access affordable, nutritious food, even when conditions change.

Climate change is changing the way we grow food

Agriculture has always depended on the weather. However, increasingly unpredictable conditions make planning, planting and harvesting more difficult.

Prolonged droughts, flooding, heatwaves and shifting growing seasons can all affect crop yields. These challenges are not limited to overseas suppliers. British growers are also exposed to increasingly variable weather, which can disrupt planting schedules, reduce yields and increase the risk of crop disease.

For fruit and vegetable production, consistency is particularly important. Retailers need reliable volumes, predictable quality and year-round supply. Growers must balance these requirements against seasonal conditions, labour availability, water use and energy costs.

Protected growing environments, including greenhouses and polytunnels, can help reduce exposure to some weather-related risks. By controlling aspects of the growing environment, growers can improve consistency and extend production seasons.

More advanced controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) takes this further, using systems such as hydroponics, environmental monitoring and supplemental lighting to manage growing conditions more precisely.

These technologies are not a replacement for traditional agriculture. They are additional tools that could help diversify food production, particularly for crops where consistency, freshness and proximity to consumers are valuable.

Growing more food with fewer resources

Increasing domestic production is only part of the challenge. We must also consider how efficiently we use the resources required to grow food.

Conventional horticulture can depend on significant quantities of water, fertiliser, growing media and packaging. Some growing substrates, such as peat-based products and rockwool, present environmental and waste-management challenges, particularly when materials are difficult to reuse or recycle economically.

Hydroponics offers an alternative approach by growing plants without conventional soil. Nutrient solutions deliver the elements plants need, while water and fertiliser can be managed with precision.

Depending on the system and crop, hydroponic production can reduce water consumption, improve space efficiency and support consistent growing conditions. Recirculating systems can also allow water and nutrients to be reused rather than continually discarded.

However, these benefits depend on how a system is designed and operated. Electricity consumption, heating, supplemental lighting, infrastructure and material choices all influence the overall environmental footprint.

The objective should not simply be to grow more food indoors. It should be to produce the right crops, in the right places, using fewer resources and creating less waste.

Could greenhouses help strengthen British food security?

Greenhouses offer an interesting middle ground between open-field agriculture and fully controlled indoor farms.

They use natural sunlight while allowing growers to manage temperature, humidity, irrigation and other growing conditions. Supplemental lighting and other technologies can extend production opportunities when natural conditions are insufficient.

For the UK, this creates opportunities to increase the availability of certain fresh crops, including leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries.

Growing closer to consumers could also shorten some supply chains, reduce dependence on particular overseas growing regions and improve access to freshly harvested produce.

But greenhouses are not without challenges. Construction requires investment, heating and lighting can be energy-intensive, and profitability depends on crop choice, productivity and operating costs.

Successful domestic production must be commercially viable as well as technically possible.

This is where better system design, automation and resource-efficient growing methods become important. If British growers are to expand production while managing labour and energy costs, the infrastructure supporting each plant needs to work harder.

The case for substrate-free growing

One overlooked part of horticulture is the material used to support plants during propagation and production.

Many commercial growing systems rely on substrates such as rockwool, coir or peat-based media. These materials serve an important purpose, providing physical support and helping manage water and air around plant roots. However, they can also create recurring costs, waste streams and logistical demands.

Substrate-free growing offers a different approach.

At GyroPlant, we are developing reusable growing technology designed to support plants without relying on conventional growing substrates. Our GyroCup system uses reusable silicone components to hold plants in hydroponic systems, with the aim of reducing dependence on disposable growing materials.

The concept is straightforward: instead of supplying a new substrate for every growing cycle, use a durable component that can support repeated production cycles.

For commercial growers, this approach has the potential to reduce recurring substrate purchases, simplify certain aspects of growing-system design and support more circular production models.

It also creates opportunities to rethink how growing equipment is handled throughout the production process, from propagation and transplanting to harvesting, cleaning and reuse.

The important point is that substrate-free growing is not simply about removing a material. It is about redesigning the system around the plant, the grower and the wider production process.

As with any new technology, its commercial and environmental benefits must be demonstrated under real operating conditions. Crop performance, cleaning requirements, durability, automation compatibility and whole-life environmental impacts all matter.

Automation could change the economics of growing

Labour is another significant challenge facing horticulture.

Many growing operations rely on repetitive manual tasks, including sowing, transplanting, spacing, handling and harvesting. As production expands and labour becomes more difficult or expensive to secure, these processes can become barriers to growth.

Robotics and artificial intelligence could help address some of these challenges.

Automated systems can potentially improve consistency, monitor crop development, identify problems earlier and carry out repetitive tasks with greater precision. However, automation is not as simple as introducing a robot into an existing greenhouse.

The growing system itself must be designed to accommodate it.

Plants vary in size and shape. Growing equipment can be difficult to grip or position. Conventional substrates may behave differently from one growing cycle to another, while disposable components create additional handling and waste.

Designing growing systems around automation from the outset could help overcome some of these limitations.

This is one of the areas we are exploring at GyroPlant: how substrate-free growing systems could integrate with robotics and AI to support more efficient, scalable horticultural production.

The wider opportunity is to move away from designing farms solely around established manual processes and towards systems that make efficient use of both human workers and automated equipment.

Food security is also about what we choose to grow

Not every crop belongs in a greenhouse, and not every food-production challenge can be solved with hydroponics.

Staple crops such as wheat, barley and potatoes remain fundamental to the UK's food system and are generally well suited to field agriculture. Livestock production, orchards and many other forms of farming also have important roles to play.

Controlled-environment agriculture is most compelling where its advantages justify its additional infrastructure and energy requirements.

That may include crops with high value per unit of growing space, short production cycles, strong demand for freshness or particular requirements for consistency.

Leafy greens and herbs are established examples. Strawberries and other soft fruits present additional opportunities, particularly where protected cultivation can improve quality, extend seasons or reduce weather-related losses.

There may also be opportunities to grow crops that support emerging markets, including specialist ingredients and plant-based products.

The future of food production is unlikely to be dominated by one method. It will require a combination of traditional farming, protected horticulture, controlled-environment agriculture, improved storage and distribution, and better management of food waste.

Resilience comes from having options.

Building a more resilient British food system

Strengthening UK food security requires action across the entire supply chain.

Farmers and growers need access to viable technologies, reliable infrastructure and the resources to adapt to changing conditions. Researchers and engineers must continue developing systems that improve productivity while reducing environmental impacts. Policymakers can support innovation, skills development and investment in domestic food production.

Retailers and consumers also have a role to play through procurement decisions, reducing waste and recognising the value of resilient supply chains.

Crucially, increasing domestic production should not mean abandoning international trade. A combination of productive domestic agriculture and diverse, reliable trading relationships can provide greater resilience than either approach alone.

Nor should food security be measured purely in tonnes produced. Affordability, nutritional quality, accessibility and environmental sustainability all matter.

A resilient food system must deliver food that people can afford, while remaining capable of responding to future shocks.

Rethinking the future of food

The UK's food system faces a complicated set of challenges. Climate change, global supply-chain disruption, rising input costs and labour constraints will continue to test how we produce and distribute food.

There is no single technology that will solve these problems.

But there is a clear opportunity to rethink established approaches, combine complementary technologies and design food-production systems around the needs of the future rather than the assumptions of the past.

Greenhouses, hydroponics, robotics and reusable growing technologies can all contribute where they offer genuine advantages. Their success will depend on sound engineering, commercial viability and measurable improvements in resource efficiency.

At GyroPlant, we believe innovation in growing systems can help make horticulture more efficient, more circular and better equipped for the challenges ahead.

Food security is not just about producing more food. It is about building a food system that can keep producing it reliably, sustainably and affordably, whatever the future holds.

The question is no longer simply how much food we can grow. It is how intelligently we can design the systems that grow it. Source: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025 – Chapter 14: The food chain.