Rising
Pressure
What DOES A changing
climate mean for the
people who produce
our food?
SBR Project ID
#EGNE01
Date of project
September 2024–August 2027
Location
United Kingdom
Type of project
Mixed Methods
CategoRies
Artwork: Project Feed the Hood wall mural in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
This project is funded through a research fellowship from:
When we talk about sustainable food systems, we often focus on soil health, carbon emissions, or biodiversity. But there are people in these systems – millions of them producing, picking, processing, fishing, and packing the food that ends up on our tables. What happens to them as the climate changes?
Workers in agriculture and food processing face some of the most precarious conditions in any industry. They are also among those most exposed to rising temperatures, flooding, and the economic pressures that come with a shifting climate – pressures that can push vulnerability toward something much darker.
The UK produces food domestically and imports it from across the globe, which means it is connected to labour conditions in places as varied as a Lincolnshire field and a seafood processing plant on the other side of the world. This project examines what the UK food system looks like when you put workers at the centre of the picture.
2.1 million
People
are estimated to be in a situation of forced labour in the global agricultural sector
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AIMS
What we want to know
We have three main questions we aim to investigate:
Which products in the UK food supply carry the highest risk of exploitation somewhere in their chain – and has that changed since Brexit?
As temperatures rise and the weather becomes less predictable, what does that mean in practice for the people working within the supply chain?
What do the people inside the UK food system think about working conditions across the supply chain – and what needs to change?
Importance
Why it matters
There’s a term for the minimum of what work should look like: decent work. The International Labour Organization defines it as employment that’s safe, fairly paid, and doesn’t damage your health – physical or mental.
We should be aiming for the baseline standard of ‘decent work’ across the food system. But for many workers in the global food system, it remains out of reach.
Climate change makes this harder. It doesn’t just raise temperatures – it adds pressure to systems already under strain. And forced labour, where work is extracted through threats, coercion, or deception, sits at the extreme end of that spectrum.
HOW CLIMATE CHANGE COMPOUNDS EXISTING VULNERABILITY IN FOOD SYSTEM WORKERS
Understanding these risks matters beyond the research itself. A food system that can see where exploitation is concentrated and where climate pressures are likely to hit hardest is one that can actually respond – adapting practices, shoring up protections, and getting ahead of problems rather than reacting to them. The UK has the opportunity to lead on this: to be a food system that doesn’t just avoid the worst, but actively ensures its workers have access to decent work as a baseline, and builds from there.
A sustainable food system is free from worker exploitation and is resilient to disturbances.
This research works towards these United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
Project
So we set up a study
Each of our three aims tackles a different part of the problem, building towards a shared set of recommendations.
How each research aim works and what it produces
Select a research aim to explore:
Policy & guidance for governments & food businesses
Aims 1 & 2 focus on agriculture, fishing, aquaculture & processing. · Aim 3 spans the full supply chain.
FAQ
Frequently
Asked
Questions
Q: What is decent work?
A: The International Labour Organization (ILO) definition of decent work refers to worker safety, remuneration, and physical and mental integrity in employment. It forms the basis of the Decent Work Agenda, which is underpinned by a series of fundamental principles and rights at work. This includes the elimination of forced labour and access to a safe and health work environment – the latter including the risks posed by climate change. Both of these elements are at the heart of this research.
Q: What is forced labour?
A: Forced labour is a crime whereby work is exacted from an individual under the threat of penalty (violence, coercion) and is non-voluntary. It was defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1930 through Convention 29 and can comprise one or more of the eleven indicators identified (after investigation). Indicators include abuse of vulnerability, deception, restriction of movement, and withholding of wages, amongst others.
Q: What areas of the food system are you looking at?
A: We are mainly focusing on the primary production nodes of the food system – agriculture, fishing, and aquaculture. We also investigate the processing industry (e.g., manufacturing, milling, etc.).
When we refer to the land-based supply, we primarily mean agriculture and processing, it also includes risks associated with the production of feed materials for livestock.
For Aim 3 we will expand to cover the entire food system and welcome contributions from farm to table.
Timeline
The long journey
Project begins
Approval granted
papers published
Publication of two papers, one on forced labour in US dietary patterns and one on decent work in fishing.
papers published
Publication of two papers on decent work and climate change (Aim 2).
Data Analysis
Assessing forced labour risk (Aim 1) and decent work and climate change risks (Aim 2).
Food Systems Institute policy document published
These guidelines look at emerging priorities for the future of the UK food system.
Launch of food workers survey
(Aim 3)
project Ends
Final results published.
IMPACT
WHAT’S HAPPENED
Here’s some of what we’ve published and contributed to. We’ll keep adding to this as the work develops.
Expert review
Decent Work in a Changing Climate
Journal Paper
Climate change, health, and decent work: a call for combined action
team
Who are we?
Lead Investigator
United Kingdom
Rights Lab
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Food Systems Institute
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
United States
LASTING Project, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Tufts University, Greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA
University of Nottingham
This study couldn’t be done without all the participants, investigators, and staff involved. Thanks to all of you for your support.
CONTACT
Get
Involved
We are looking for anyone who works in the UK food system to get involved, whether you work for a big retailer or in labour recruitment for the sector, from a delivery driver to a factory worker, or a farmworker to a fisher. If you work in the UK food system, we are interested in your opinions and experiences of working conditions, climate change, and the perceptions and priorities you have for ensuring better working conditions across the UK food system.
The survey should launch in Autumn 2026, so sign up to receive an email when it is live and other updates from this project.
Follow this research
Get an email whenever we publish new findings on this project.
Authors
HAVE YOUR SAY
What does decent work look like to you?
How do you think climate change impacts your working conditions?
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