A Look Back at the Field Visit to Ascension: The Island Is Accelerating Its Food Security Strategy

Following the food security assessment conducted by the consulting firm K-Ora, published in December 2025, a field mission took place from March 23 to 27, 2026, to turn the report’s findings into concrete courses of action aimed at aimed at strengthening food resilience on Ascension Island.
Bringing together government representatives, key local stakeholders, and community members, this week of consultations and workshops explored several critical aspects of food self-sufficiency, including water management, agriculture, hydroponics, fisheries, retail, and the organisation of the island's food supply chain. These discussions helped establish a shared vision of priorities, grounded in local realities and the island's unique environmental constraints.

Among the avenues identified are expanding hydroponic production, restoring historic agricultural sites, diversifying local food-related activities (poultry farming, food processing, bakery production), and strengthening coordination among the different actors involved in the island's food system.
For Iciar de Liniers Solano (K-Ora), this mission confirmed that food security goes far beyond the issue of agriculture alone:

One of the key lessons from this mission is that food security on Ascension Island, as elsewhere, is not merely an agricultural challenge, but a broader systemic issue involving logistics, water, health, governance, and social resilience. What particularly struck us was the strong commitment of local stakeholders and institutions to work collectively toward concrete and realistic solutions tailored to the island’s unique environmental and operational constraints.
For the Government of Ascension Island, the next phase will focus on implementing the selected solutions. This will require securing funding, mobilising the necessary human resources, and establishing governance arrangements to ensure the long-term sustainability of the initiative.
Aurélien Descieux-Read (GO) highlights the opportunities presented by this unique territory:

This mission to Ascension Island highlighted the challenges of an isolated territory, but also its strong potential for local production. Not so long ago, the island produced enough to supply ships calling at Ascension, thanks in particular to the plantations on Green Mountain. Even today, modest but targeted investments could have a major impact on the island’s food security. We were particularly impressed by the commitment of the local teams, who work every day under demanding conditions to serve the territory. Through the GO program, implemented by Expertise France with the support of the European Union, we are proud to support this initiative.
As with many islands, issues of food sovereignty and public health are crucial and require the local production of fresh, varied, and affordable food. Beyond the technical findings, this mission also marks an important milestone in the commitment of the various stakeholders, facilitating the transformation of technical proposals into concrete actions.

➡️ To read the final report: https://www.ascension.gov.ac/update-community-food-security-workshops