Gavin Joins Cambridge Forum for Future Food Supply Chains 2026

Gavin joined colleagues from the Cambridge Industrial Resilience Group at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge, for the Cambridge Forum for Future Food Supply Chains 2026, held at the IfM on 4 June 2026, with a dinner at Peterhouse afterwards.

Although food lies outside his main field, Gavin found that discussions around the event pointed to a clear overlap between critical minerals and food systems. This ranges from the fertilisers and agricultural chemicals used in modern farming to the battery materials and rare earth magnets that new agri-tech approaches will require.

He praised the forum's organisers, Mukesh Kumar and Mariel Alem-Fonseca, and the wider Cambridge Industrial Resilience Group team. He also noted it as an example of capabilities from the Global Supply Chain Observatory, on which he collaborates, being applied to food systems, and looks forward to deeper collaboration between the group and the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials.