Food security has been getting lots of national attention over the past months, as scorching summer temperatures and drought impacted much of Europe. Reports of reduced harvests in the UK, and less fruit and vegetables being imported from mainland Europe, shines a light on the vulnerabilities of our food systems during a climate crisis.
Earlier this year, the People’s Emergency Briefing film was launched, sharing expert testimonials from the National Emergency Briefings on the impacts of the climate crisis. It exposed the reality of how a warming world poses a huge risk to food security, nature, and many more systems we rely on to survive. Thanks to the popularity of community screenings of the film, conversations are now turning to how we can build food resilience into the way we grow food, how we choose to farm, and what we eat.
We’ve been reflecting on how establishing community orchards and integrating forest gardens into agricultural landscapes can help bring about positive systems change through better food security, healthier diets, reduced emissions and habitat restoration.
The impact of summer heatwaves on major harvests
The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit reports that this year UK farmer’s yields for wheat, spring barley and oats are below the 10-year average. For arable farmers, harvest 2026 is on track to be the worst harvest on record since 1984.*
Our food supply is also reliant on climate-stressed regions in mainland Europe, with 40–50% of our food imported. A more shocking figure is that 80% of our fruit is imported, and nearly 50% of our vegetables. The summer’s extreme weather abroad risks food scarcity, increasing food prices and worsening the cost-of-living crisis.
This summer is not an isolated event. Professor Paul Behrens, an expert in food system transformations, explains in his National Emergency Briefing on Food Security that three of the five worst UK cereal harvests on record have occurred this decade. This is a threat to our food supply, but also to farmer’s livelihoods, with over 80% of UK farmers feeling that their work is seriously threatened by climate change, as seasonal drought, wildfires and floods become more and more common.
A large contributor to both the causes of climate change and the vulnerabilities of our landscape is sadly the current food system itself. Removal of trees from arable land increases flood risk. Habitat destruction and lack of biodiversity in the landscape leads to exposed, nutrient poor soils and increased pests. Pesticide and synthetic fertiliser use is then increased to maintain harvests. This effects our freshwater supplies, as added chemicals are washed off the land during rainy days into our waterways, impacting aquatic animals as well as us.
Greenhouse gases are emitted from both animal farming and from tilling the land: methane gas from animal digestion, and carbon dioxide in the soil released back into the atmosphere when the earth is churned.
It’s evident our food systems are in urgent need of transformation, and community growing can play a huge role in this.
Resilient food growing
The good news is that the most resilient food growing is also the most environmentally friendly. Many community orchards are opting to grow fruit and vegetables without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilisers. Instead they use natural processes and biodiversity for pest control and soil health. This includes creating their own compost to add vital organic matter grown on their plot back into the soil.
Many also adopt the no-dig method of plant care, adding mulch on top of the soil for increased fertility and weed suppression, rather than turning over the ground. The trees in community orchards that were most resilient during the summer heatwaves were the ones that had been well mulched with woodchip bark. The woodchip protects the soil from baking and cracking in the heat, retaining valuable moisture.
Community orchards are also beautiful gardens, growing flowers and perennial herbs that attract beneficial predator insects like hoverflies and ladybirds. Inviting a diverse range of creatures into an orchard through careful design and special features such as ponds and water dishes can be a lifeline for these animals during a drought. They’ll want to stick around in the habitat you made for them. Orchards with strong biodiversity can thrive without pesticides, as the insect pests will always be a tasty snack for another creature and kept under control.
The natural world is pretty good at looking after itself without intervention (as long as we haven’t stood in its way). When we create food growing environments that let nature do what it does best, with gentle stewardship from community orchardists, resilience that was once lost is built back into the food system.
Community care over individual stockpiling
In late August, government guidance for households to stock up on non-perishable foods and bottles of water in case of a national emergency created added anxiety for many people. For those most impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, adding extra items to the weekly shop to build an emergency stockpile is just not possible. For those who live in small flats or shared rental houses, space to store emergency supplies is not available.
While stockpiling goods can improve your own preparedness, true resilience is not found in increased individualism, but in strengthening communities. Community orchards across the UK already share their freshly harvested produce with local food banks and community fridges. In the event of natural disasters and emergencies, community groups are often among the first to offer support.
These orchards are also adapting to changing weather conditions, finding varieties of fruit and vegetables that are resilient to droughts or wet conditions; making jams, pickles and other preserves from the harvests to use over winter; and sharing produce among volunteers and neighbours.
Sharing skills and responsibilities is the kind of community support that has the biggest impacts. Community resilience is built by teaching others how to tend to the trees and vegetable beds, how to save seeds, even how to design new community orchards. When an individual creates their own smallholding, they become self-sufficient, but when an entire community looks after an orchard or forest garden, no one is left behind in an emergency.
Our new cohorts for our online Award in Forest Gardening, and our Certificate in Community Orcharding (CICO) in North London and Bristol, are embarking on their studies towards resilient community food growing. A bright future where every person living in a city can walk to a thriving urban community orchard, is being made possible by these students and our former graduates. Preparing for disasters can feel terrifying, but when those preparations take the form of a community orchard, it can strengthen relationships, restore nature, and make the world a better place, little by little.
By Franki Appleton
*1984 is when Defra, the Department for environment, food, and rural affairs, started to collect detailed data.
All photos on this page credit: Cal Holland.
Further reading and viewing:
Take a look at our news story about how the UK needs to be better prepared for emergencies here; about community growing for healthier, sustainable diets here, and why orchards are vital habitats here.
Read our new five-year plan here: Strategic Plan – The Orchard Project – 2026-2031
If you want to catch a community screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing, take a look at their screening map for events near you.