Designating the cold chain as Critical National Infrastructure will protect our food and medicine supplies, writes CCF chief executive Phil Pluck.
‘Why all the fuss’ is a question put to me just a few weeks ago, when I was discussing our sector and the Federation’s drive to get the cold chain recognised as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). And it’s a good question.
Having a fancy name impresses no one and if this were just a vanity project then it would just be all fuss. But lobbying government for CNI recognition for our industry has a number of benefits that come with the journey. Over the last 18 months we have been promoting the importance of our industry like
never before. It’s working. Politicians and government officials are now taking a keen interest in the cold chain. They are beginning to get it.
“We think it is time we really begin to understand what the cold chain does in the UK,” said one senior official who had been sent by his minister to begin fact finding. At the end of June two MPs, a minister and their officials said they would be supporting us to be given departmental recognition in the Department of Trade and Industry. We might soon have the cold chain as part of a ministerial portfolio.
So why all the fuss? Ministerial portfolio recognition means that we will have someone senior fighting our corner inside government, pushing us towards CNI recognition. And from here we can highlight the dangers that the modern world poses to food and pharma supplies. Just as importantly we can present solutions to supply issues that have already happened and are likely to happen again in the future.
Moving us away from fluctuating energy prices gives us stability. Stability prevents food inflation for the most vulnerable in our society.
“There will be a hell of a fuss if we can’t supply food and medicines.”
Encouraging the uptake of alternative energy and innovative new technologies moves us away from grid connections, from fossil fuels. It takes us away from global supply issues, from grid attacks, from growing climate threats. If we succumb to any or all of these there will be a hell of a fuss if we can’t supply food and medicines.
As I write this the USA congress has just passed the ‘big, beautiful bill’ in Washington adding eye watering levels of debt to the USA. If the legislation adds to economic growth across North America, then all well and good. If it does not, then international debt will rapidly become very expensive, and this country is already paying over £100bn a year in debt financing. If the US gamble goes wrong, then a penny on taxes and pension tax relief removal won’t even touch the sides come the autumn budget.
The globe is going through a revolution – a time of extreme turmoil, climatically, financially, and politically. Other industries have a protective dome placed over them by way of CNI. The people in those industries need to access insulin, covid jabs, blood, protein, carbohydrates and vitamins. We provide those.
Keep our major costs stable, encourage us to innovate away from the grid, away from fossil fuels, protect us from cyber attacks and then we can feed the nation and keep our population healthy. We are getting there. I really don’t know what all the fuss is about.
