Food, in brief

More than 150 experts sent an open letter to Andy Burnham, Britain's prime minister, warning that the country has no plan to feed people in a crisis. [1]

The signers are academics, business leaders, community groups and local food partnerships. They say Britain's government is complacent about food as a matter of national security. [1]

Britain holds no national store of food. Ministers wound up the stockpile kept since the second world war in the 1990s. [1]

Food reaches British shops just in time, so little stock is held anywhere along the way. The letter says that system does not fit today's threats. [1]

The threats it names are the climate, conflicts between countries, cyber-attacks, power cuts, software failures and false information. [1]

It asks for local food committees under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, the law that sets out who plans for emergencies. [1]

It also asks for national, regional and local food stores, and a check on how much Britain relies on imports and a few very large food companies. [1]

The UK government's own plan is aimed at homes. The Cabinet Office, which runs emergency planning, will launch a campaign telling people to keep tinned food. [1]

The letter says many lower-income households cannot afford to build up a stock of food. [1]

This summer showed the reliance on imports. At the peak of the British growing season, wholesalers and supermarkets bought iceberg lettuce and broccoli from Spain and the Netherlands. [2]

Britain's own grain harvest was poor. Spring barley came in 17% below its five-year average, oats 14% and winter wheat 11%, by figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which farmers pay to track crops. [3]

Weeks earlier, the National Audit Office, which checks UK government spending, said ministers were not doing enough to help homes and businesses plan for emergencies. [1]

Why it matters. Watch whether Burnham's government answers with anything beyond the household tinned-food campaign, such as the local food committees or the food stores the letter asks for. [1]

Flavio Bolsonaro, a right-wing senator and son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, came first in Brazil's presidential vote on Sunday. [6][7] With 99.9% of votes counted he had 47%, against 45.1% for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. [7] Neither passed the half needed to win outright, so they meet again on 25 October. [6] Clearing of the Amazon rainforest rose sharply under Jair Bolsonaro, while Lula has a record of tighter environmental rules. [6]

Why it matters. China is Brazil's biggest trading partner and the key buyer of its soy and beef, and Flavio Bolsonaro has promised to keep a practical relationship with it. [6] The runoff decides which man sets Brazil's rules on clearing forest for cattle and soy.

Fifteen US states sued Corteva, a large American seed and farm-chemicals company, on Thursday. [8] They say it moved its seed business into a new company, Vylor, to keep it out of reach of bills for PFAS pollution. [8] PFAS are man-made 'forever chemicals' that do not break down and have polluted the environment. [8] Corteva came out of DuPont, which made them for decades, and took on part of DuPont's pollution bills. [8] Corteva says the claims are unproven and that it never made or sold PFAS. [8]

Why it matters. Corteva now keeps the crop-chemical business and Vylor the seeds, which aims for up to $11.9bn of sales by 2029. [8] A federal judge in South Carolina refused California's request to stop the split the day before it happened. [8]

France, the European Union's biggest corn grower, expects its harvest to fall by half this year to under 7 million tonnes. [2] That would be its smallest in 50 years, according to the US farm department's foreign service. [2] Europe's 2026 heatwave caused it. [2] Tate & Lyle, a British maker of food ingredients, had already spread its corn buying across more places after France's 2022 drought, to keep its European mills running. [2]

Why it matters. Corn goes into food, animal feed and fuel at once, so a short crop squeezes all three, says Kerry, another ingredients company. [2] Buying from many regions helps, but buyers admit a second supplier is little use when the same heatwave hits both. [2]

India's foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, said on Sunday that India is passing messages between Russia and Ukraine. [9] The talks cover the safety of ships in the Black Sea and both countries' grain and energy exports. [9] It was the first time India said it was involved in this way. [9] He spoke at a Munich Security Conference meeting held in Delhi, and defended India's close ties with Russia. [9]

Why it matters. Grain from Russia and Ukraine leaves by sea through the Black Sea, so any agreement on safe shipping reaches bread buyers far from the war. These are conversations so far, not a deal. [9]

About a third of US states now offer some relief on fuel taxes, many of them in the past week, an Associated Press review found. [11] Ohio's lawmakers passed a 90-day holiday from the state's gas tax. [11] Louisiana lets farmers run red-dyed diesel, an untaxed fuel meant for tractors, in road vehicles, and Oklahoma and Texas have widened its use on roads too. [10] Diesel averaged $6.41 a gallon, a few cents under the record set the week before. [11]

Why it matters. Nebraska and South Dakota also let trucks carrying crops and livestock run heavier during the harvest. [10] The high prices come from the US war with Iran and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, which a tax cut does not change. [10]

England's government quietly dropped a plan to prepare the countryside for wildfires, the Guardian found through a freedom of information request. [5] Britain's previous, Conservative government had promised in 2023 to run a wildfire risk programme until 2027, so land would be managed for the risk of fire. [5] Burnham's government says that promise was never brought into effect. [5] More than half of 29 fire services that answered had no protective kit for wildfires. [5]

Why it matters. This summer brought record wildfires to Britain's dry countryside, including one near the Sizewell B nuclear plant in Suffolk. [5] Campaigners want peat bogs made wet again and lost ponds in farmers' fields restored. [5]

Up to 77 million fish are slaughtered in the UK each year, but no agency routinely inspects fish slaughterhouses in England and Wales. [12] The charity Animal Equality UK asked. [12] The Animal and Plant Health Agency sent it to the Fish Health Inspectorate, and both the inspectorate and the Food Standards Agency said they do no routine checks. [12] Britain's government promised humane killing rules for farmed fish in December 2025, but no draft law has appeared. [12]

Why it matters. The animal health agency says fish farms are inspected and cruelty reports investigated, so the gap is at the moment of killing. [12] UK government advisers first asked for a law on it in 1996. [12]

Shops in Scotland can no longer run deals like three for 10 pounds on foods high in fat, sugar or salt. [13] They also cannot put those foods at entrances, checkouts or the ends of aisles. [13] The rules cover businesses with more than 50 staff, from supermarkets to petrol stations and garden centres. [13] England banned such deals in October 2025 and Wales in March. [13]

Why it matters. Simple discounts such as half off are still allowed. [13] Makers of crisps, biscuits, cereals and sugary drinks have now lost their best shelf spots in all three countries. [13]

Angela Eagle, Britain's environment secretary, announced 10 million pounds for the 45 areas in most need of healthy, affordable food. [4] It is called the Good Food Neighbourhood Programme. [4] In Lancashire, Blackpool, Pendle, Rossendale and Burnley councils each get 222,000 pounds. [4] Burnley says it will build a community grocer, a shop that sits between a food bank and a supermarket. [4]

Why it matters. Councils, not Britain's national government, will spend it on their own community food projects. [4] It came the same week experts said Britain has no national plan to feed people in a crisis. [1]

Avannaata, a district in north-west Greenland, approved a plan this year to kill 1,000 Greenland sharks, paying 300 krone for each heart. [14] Halibut fishers say the sharks get tangled in their gear and cut their lines; one says he lost 6,000 hooks this year. [14] The plan was dropped after Greenland's government questioned whether it was legal. [14] Greenland sharks can live more than 400 years and only start breeding at about 150. [14]

Why it matters. Fishing makes up about a quarter of Greenland's economy. [14] A conservation group says too many boats and smaller fish are the deeper problem, and sharks from other waters would replace any that were killed. [14]

The main coffee shop business of Costa, Britain's biggest coffee chain, made an operating profit of 20 million pounds in 2025, after losing 13.5 million in 2024. [15] Sales rose 5% to almost 1.3 billion pounds. [15] Costa, owned by Coca-Cola, credits iced drinks, matcha and fresher pastries. [15] It opened 50 more UK shops than it closed last year, its first rise in several years. [15]

Why it matters. Coca-Cola gave up trying to sell Costa in February, after bids came in too low. [15] Its boss says coffee bean prices stay high and El Nino could hit growers in Latin America. [15]

Growing, making and selling food in the US took 29.3% of all the fresh water the country drew in 2023, the US farm department's economists found. [16] That was 27.7 trillion gallons. [16] The same food system employed 15.5% of US workers and used 10.8% of its energy. [16] Its share of water moved between 26.7% and 30.9% from 2010 to 2023. [16]

Why it matters. Of the three, water is the one food depends on most heavily, and its share changes the most from year to year. [16]

Cows that walk up to a strange object give 0.67 litres more milk a day, a study on New Zealand dairy farms found. [17] Researchers from Purdue University in the US and New Zealand groups scored 788 cows on 27 farms for curiosity, fear of people and temper at milking. [17] Cows less afraid of people gave 0.47 litres more. [17] Sensors on their ears and legs tracked grazing and lying down. [17]

Why it matters. The researchers say sensors could let farmers manage each cow by its character. [17] Farms with a water trough in every field also had higher milk yields. [17]

A poll by the Associated Press and KFF, a health research group, asked more than 2,000 rural US voters about health. [18] About half called themselves supporters of Make America Healthy Again, or Maha, the movement that promotes healthier eating. [18] These voters care deeply about health, but 68% of them said President Trump's policies had not improved health in their communities. [18] Gas, groceries and health care were the prices that worried rural voters most. [18]

Why it matters. Rural voters helped elect Trump, and the poll comes weeks before the US midterm elections. [18] Drug prices were the one area where about 30% of voters said the Trump administration had helped. [18]