Food Justice Is Climate Justice

As we enter August month ten of our Year of Climate Action it’s time to put the focus firmly on the issue that sits at the very heart of our union: food.

Food is fundamental to life, yet the system that produces it is deeply unequal, exploitative, and unsustainable. From the fields to the factories, from the bakeries to the supermarket shelves, workers are under pressure, communities are struggling, and the planet is paying the price.

The fight for climate justice and the fight for food justice are one and the same and both depend on worker power to make them real.

A Broken Food System

The global food system is built on contradictions. We produce more than enough food to feed everyone, yet millions go hungry. Workers across the supply chain from farm labourers to factory packers and delivery drivers are expected to absorb the costs of low prices, insecure contracts, and unsafe conditions.

Meanwhile, giant corporations dominate production and distribution, raking in profits while driving down wages and driving up emissions. They promote “sustainable” branding while wasting tonnes of food, overusing packaging, and relying on energy-intensive, low-wage production models that exploit people and the planet alike.

This isn’t an accident. It’s the result of a system that treats food as a commodity, not a human right and workers as expendable, not essential.

Food Workers on the Frontline of Change

BFAWU members know this better than anyone. We’re proud to represent the people who bake, produce, pack, and deliver the food that keeps the country going through crises, through pandemics, through heatwaves and cost-of-living pressures.

Our members see the waste, the inefficiency, and the environmental harm built into the system. They also see the solutions because they live them every day. From reducing waste in production to improving energy efficiency and challenging unsafe or excessive targets, food workers are already leading real, practical climate action in their workplaces.

But it can’t just be down to individual effort or voluntary schemes. We need systemic change, and that means organising collectively to reshape the industry from the bottom up.

Solidarity Across the Food Chain

Climate justice doesn’t stop at national borders. Across the world, agricultural and food chain workers face low pay, dangerous conditions, and the devastating impacts of climate breakdown droughts, floods, crop failures, and displacement.

From the UK to Bangladesh, from Latin America to Africa, the story is the same: those who feed the world are often those most at risk. That’s why international solidarity is essential. Trade unions must work together to demand fair treatment, safe working conditions, and sustainable food systems everywhere.

The same corporations that exploit workers here exploit them abroad. Our response must be equally global, rooted in solidarity and shared struggle.

A Union Vision for Food and Climate Justice

Food justice means decent pay, safe workplaces, public investment, and democratic control over how our food is produced and distributed. It means treating workers not as costs to be minimised, but as experts whose voices must shape the future of the industry.

Climate justice means transforming that system, so it nourishes people instead of exploiting them creating green, secure, unionised jobs that protect both livelihoods and the planet.

That’s why the BFAWU will continue to lead in the fight for a fair food system one that puts workers, communities, and sustainability at its core.

Because food justice is climate justice.

And when food workers organise, we’re not just feeding the nation we’re fighting for the future.