How will extreme weather affect our food?

It has been a difficult year for farmers in the West of England as a result of the five heatwaves that have gripped the UK, scorching fields, plummeting crop yields, and leaving us in drought.

Climate scientists say extreme weather is becoming more likely, posing greater challenges to food production from farm to fork.

With a large farming industry in the region, what does this mean for the food on our plates?

"I think the consumers are going to notice that it's going to cost more money for their food," says farmer Tom Collins from Malmesbury, Wiltshire.

"There's going to be less parsnips, less carrots, less potatoes.

"All the vegetables that grow in the ground have just not had any moisture or rain on them."

It has been an "incredibly tough" summer for Collins, who has been farming for 25 years.

"I've never known a summer like it. Relentless heat every day is just exhausting," he says.

His staff have had to endure long days working in 30C heat, and the prolonged heat and dry weather have caused his spring beans to fail.

"We're probably £30,000 down on our bean income, and we've had to endure the same cost," he says.

Andrew Opie, director of food & sustainability policy at the British Retail Consortium, says extreme weather can affect crop yields and place upward pressure on prices.

"Retailers are experienced in managing supply disruptions and will take all necessary steps, including sourcing from alternative suppliers where appropriate, to minimise any impact on customers," he says.

Pete Falloon, Professor of climate resilient food systems at the University of Bristol, says the biggest challenge for food systems is likely to be the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

He says gradual climate changes can often be adapted to over time through changes in crop varieties or farming practices, but sudden extremes are much harder to manage.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) previously warned there could be a shortage of certain food products if drought conditions continue.

Some foods are more vulnerable than others, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, which have shorter growing cycles.

But staple crops like wheat are traded globally and benefit from storage buffers.

However, the UK imports a significant amount of food from overseas, meaning food prices and availability may be influenced by climate impacts overseas.

"Many of the places we get things like apples, oranges, berries, other vegetable crops, peppers, lettuce, in the wider Mediterranean area are also set to see significant increases in water shortages and high temperature extremes in a changing climate," says Falloon.

"The biggest impacts of things like food prices and food availability due to changing climate are likely to be on low-income groups, those living in poverty and the more vulnerable folks in society."

The UK has already experienced significant impacts from extreme weather in recent years.

This saw record-breaking temperatures, reaching up to 36.7C (98F) in Merryfield, Somerset.

According to Climate Change Committee assessments from 2025, climate-related impacts on agriculture are already costing up to billions of pounds annually.

The impacts of extreme heat extend through the food supply chain, causing stress to outdoor workers, straining refrigerating systems, changing consumer preferences and increasing food safety risks from improper storage.

Livestock suffer significantly during extreme heat, experiencing reduced productivity, health issues, and mortality.

Falloon recalls the effects of the 2022 heatwave, which led to several million premature deaths of housed poultry and increased deaths during livestock transport.

"Chicken meat production was lower partly because of animal heat stress, about 9% lower than the sort of recent average," he says.

It is projected that the UK will see hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.

But wet winters can be just as damaging as droughts.

The exceptionally wet conditions in 2024 caused difficult planting conditions for wheat, problems harvesting crops and reduced access to fields for machinery.

Falloon says these impacts can create a greater variability in food supply and potentially reduce the nutritional quality of some crops.

However, farming adaptation can help manage the impacts of extreme weather.

Debbie Wilkins, who runs Norton Court Farm, says she is learning to adapt to the changing climate.

Growing up as a child on the family-owned farm, she remembers it flooding once every five to six years.

"Now it's every year," she says.

Rather than planting arable crops on fields vulnerable to flooding, she has converted them to types of grass that are more resilient to flooding.

To mitigate the heat, she has planted more trees and hedges.

"I've always tried to be a nature-friendly mixed farm. That's helped us to be more resilient," she says.

"The type of farming I'm operating is a low-input farming, it produces less outputs but is more resilient."

Falloon says there are many practical adaptation measures already available that a growing number of farmers are engaging with.

These include planting crops earlier, using more climate-resilient varieties, improving irrigation efficiency, increasing soil organic matter, and growing deeper-rooting grasses.

"There are lots of reasons to be optimistic if we can use the information we have about future climate change, its impacts on food and farming, and work with farmers and the wider food system to understand what effective ways of building resilience might look like going forward," he says.

Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.