This animated version of a simplified map illuminates the dynamics and the complexity of how fresh produce gets from a farm to you or me.
It is an updated version, made in July 2020, in the light of the impact of Covid-19 and what’s likely to happen because of Brexit after 1st January 2021.
For more info about the supply chain, and an outline of its implications, see also this blogpost in our (pre-Covid) Food System Transformation series #6: The fresh produce supply chain, and this post-Covid blogpost: Future System Shocks: Building resilience through buffer contingency stocks.
NOTE: This video is about how food gets from a farm to a large retail outlet. As many have noticed from the shut-down of the hospitality sector with lockdown on 23rd March 2020, there are several supply systems — and the network supplying caterers, restaurants and the like is separate from that supplying supermarkets. You may also have noticed that the supply system into corner shops is different again.
- See this Covid-19 commentary blogpost written on 28th March: Lockdown impacts on labour and distribution of fresh produce
- Also this one, written on 27th April: The food supply system into the second month of lockdown.