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HomeYork Environmental Sustainability InstituteNews 2020COVID-19 is a reminder of how deeply the UK’s food security is dependent on the EU

COVID-19 is a reminder of how deeply the UK’s food security is dependent on the EU

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Posted on Friday 29 May 2020

In his latest blog Professor Tony Heron asks what impact, if any, will the current crisis have on the political choices the government will be forced to confront in its trade negotiations with the EU and US.
LSE Blog on how UK food security is dependent on the EU
COVID-19 is a reminder of how deeply the UK’s food security is dependent on the EU

YESI Sustainable Food Co-Lead Professor Tony Heron has written a blog piece for the LSE on how 'COVID-19 is a reminder of how deeply the UK’s food security is dependent on the EU'. In which he explores some of the tensions and contradictions between the two common Brexit narratives:that of taking back control’, for those voters ‘left behind’ by the twin forces of globalisation and multiculturalism; and second, the narrative of ‘Global Britain’ – that is, Brexit as an opportunity for the UK to reclaim its historical role as a champion of global free trade, unencumbered by the EU’s supposedly inward-looking, protectionist leanings. 

Tony looks a the issue through the prism of food and agriculture – arguably the sector most defined by EU membership – in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.