The UK must produce more food to feed a growing population, the Environment Secretary warned today as the government assesses measures to safeguard our future provisions.

The assessment outlining the threats to the security of what we eat showed that future global food supplies could be threatened by the impacts of climate change on where crops can grow, increases in the incidence of animal diseases and water shortages.

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"Local food" may be one way of reducing the carbon footprint of people in the UK. The concept of Local Food offers people four options:

• eat foods that are in season
• eat foods produced near where you live
• grow your own foods, or
• choose foods that do not have packaging

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Britain should grow far more fruit, vegetables and cereals to help feed the extra 2.7 billion people there may be in the world within 40 years, said a powerful committee of MPs in a report published today.

Michael Jack, who chairs the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee, said: "If people go hungry then political stability goes out of the window. This is a key lesson that government must learn from last year's global food price rises when some countries ran short of food. What happened showed just how fine the line is between full supermarket shelves and empty stomachs."

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