Last Wednesday, January 21, the Council Chamber in Cambridge Guildhall was filled with a group of people brought together to consider one of the most important questions facing us today: how do we feed ourselves? They were joined online by others as part of a series of public conversations about the main challenges and opportunities that Cambridge faces under the theme “How Resilient is Cambridge?”
The meeting was convened through a partnership between Cambridge City Council, the Resilience Web (resilienceweb.org.uk) and the Cambridge Room (cambridgeroom.org), and marked the end of a process that started in July 2022 when I made a commitment in a City Council meeting commitment to find a way to “explore the resilience of the city to the climate emergency in a series of open consultations.” I knew that something like this takes planning, organisation and support and I am grateful that the Cambridge Room and Resilience Web were able to provide all three.
It was the first in a series where we will be talking about several aspects of resilience, including flooding, energy, and communications, but I’m pleased that we started with food security because it was thinking about this that led me to become a city councillor in the first place.
Like many of you I’ve always been worried about the quality and source of our food, and in 2013 I decided to find out more so I enrolled on a Masters degree in Food Policy at City University, London. The course was run by Professor Tim Lang, and it changed my life.
Wanting to make a difference, I started to get more involved in local politics, and eventually stood to be a county councillor. I lost. So I stood again, this time for the city council and won. Now, in 2026 I am privileged to be a local councillor and a cabinet member of Cambridge City Council and in a position to represent residents and local businesses, and to influence policy.
One of the areas I’ve been heavily involved with over the years is food, working with Cambridge Sustainable Food and others, helping Cambridge achieve Gold Award from Sustainable Food Place, and working to set up food hubs and other support when Covid-19 first emerged. When it came to talking about Cambridge and resilience, food was a vital element of the debate.
At a resilience event 3-4 experts provide their perspective, followed by questions from City and County Councillors, community groups and others. During the meeting we heard directly from Professor Tim Lang, Kath Dalmeny CEO of Sustain, Sam Dyer MBE CEO of Cambridge Sustainable Food, and me in my role as Cabinet Member for Planning and Transport, followed by questions and a debate from those in the room and online.
I learnt so much from the presentations that I listened to and really valued the questions, answers and debate. The involvement of cllrs Katie Porrer and Karen Young, who are the chairs of the two scrutiny committees at the Council, and cllrs Richard Swift, lead councillor for food, and Tim Griffin was especially valuable.
I wasn’t expecting to be optimistic at the end, and I came away with a strong sense that we have an even more precarious food system than I had realised and that the situation is worse than most people understand. While we all need to consider our individual choices, that won’t be nearly enough and we need effective action at every level. Cambridge can do some things as a local authority but it will need regional, national, and international effort too.
We can see the problems. Do we have the will to deliver solutions?
What next
Read Tim Lang’s report Just in Case.
Follow up on Tim Lang’s statements to involve local authorities to build civil food resilience and create a Food Resilience Committee.
Use the examples set out by Kath Delmany to learn from what is already happening in other countries and here in the UK.
Use the expertise described by Sam Dyer about local initiatives and turn the challenges around to be opportunities.
And I urge everyone to engage with the current consultation on the emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan.
More Forums
There will be more public forums looking at different aspects of the question “How Resilient is Cambridge?
12 Feb – Reuse
25 Feb – Flooding
12 Mar – Energy Dependency
26 Mar – Communications
8 Apr – Community Systems
A report on all of the forums will be published on 28 May.
You can find out more, and sign up for future ones here.