Food insecurity is on the rise in the UK. In 2020, nearly 2 million people turned to food banks, double the number in 2013. One cause was the Covid-19 crisis, as thousands lost their jobs or saw their incomes cut drastically during the pandemic. However, food insecurity has become more serious as Brexit, supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine, inflation, and the rising cost of living have also put pressure on many living in the UK. To put it simply, the UK doesn’t yet have the resources to be self-sufficient regarding food, relying too heavily on imports. It appears Britain needs to take a different approach to food security, depending less on bringing in produce from abroad and turning to more affordable food sources closer to home.
The UK government has taken steps to undermine the Right to Food by cutting and changing the benefit system and offering patchy support for the production and distribution of healthy and affordable fruit and vegetables. However, on a local level, there have been local authorities and food poverty partnerships to tackle food poverty, but even this hasn’t been enough. The UK needs a concerted effort to address food insecurity issues, which may have a solution that can be found locally. It’s a topic the government has also realised is as important as sustainability, bringing in new incentives and opportunities for farmers who can help boost local production through innovation. Read on to see how British farming could help take the pressure off the UK regarding food insecurity and how British farmers can also benefit.
The UK has a flourishing agriculture industry; however, food security in the UK is still affected by domestic and international factors, especially since the country is only 58% self-sufficient. The UK is reliant on imports from across the world, and it has caused a trade deficit of £24 billion in food. Brexit certainly amplified this problem, along with the pandemic, supply chain issues, and even the war in Ukraine.
Approximately 84% of fruit and 46% of vegetables are imported, and while Brexit and Covid-19 were the largest risks to meeting the supply of the UK’s food demands, climate change could also disrupt imports in the future. Turning to UK land for our food needs could help mitigate these import and food security concerns. There is a growing interest for those living in rural locations to grow food and vegetables in their gardens or allotments to help increase their food security. More and more people are growing food at home if possible. While gardening can help on a local scale to improve food security, it won’t meet the necessary percentage needed to improve the 58% self-sufficient rate.
This means there is an incentive for British farms to increase their production or turn to innovative approaches to feed the nation, as there is a market out there ready to buy. By focussing on seasonal produce, food security demands can be met on a local level, more sustainably, and also cheaper.
There is one hurdle where local produce is concerned, as new research reveals that many Britons believe buying local produce costs more. However, it can save up to £136 a week on a family’s shopping bill. For example, some foods are always in season in the UK. The UK and Ireland Mushroom Producers–a partnership existing between British and Irish farmers–found that the British Isles can provide enough mushrooms to supply all the supermarkets in the UK year-round. And it’s not just mushrooms; British vegetables that are in season are also much cheaper when abundant as it doesn’t have to be important or travel great distances. It’s also fresher, tastes better, and is more sustainable.
There are also other financial benefits in the long-term for keeping things local. A UK grower who sells seasonal produce to a UK retailer, which a local citizen then buys, must go through taxes at each step. This tax gets put back into the system, which can support more initiatives in the UK. However, when buying from abroad, the tax for imports goes abroad and not back into the British economy.
The last time Britain was self-sufficient in food production was in the 19th century. However, Britain can become self-sufficient once more, but changes need to occur in what we eat. In 1975, Scottish ecologist Kenneth Mellanby published a short book called “Can Britain Feed Itself?” He concluded that it’s possible, but the population needs to eat less meat. The Land Magazine took Mellanby’s ideas into account. It re-examined them for contemporary life and conditions, concluding that the best way to do this is to pivot away from red meat sources and more towards pigs and eggs, ideally with more households having backyard hens feeding them scraps. For fruit and vegetables, alongside farms, it would be encouraged to have more urban farms in gardens, allotments, and disused urban spaces. Large-scale farming would find more efficiency in taking a more permaculture approach, which takes a different land management approach with natural and renewable cycles, increasing dependence on renewable resources, a localised economy, and more integration with natural processes. When growing crops for feed, even reusing waste–like human and animal waste–as a source of fertiliser (particularly important considering the large quantities of fertiliser farmers depend on from sanctioned Russia). Making Britain self-sufficient will be challenging but rewarding from both a food security perspective and a sustainability one.
The UK government has proposed radical changes to £3 billion a year in agricultural spending, focussing on the climate, ecosystems, and the public. Farming post-Brexit has seen changes to subsidy policies, focussing on sustainability measures through the Environmental Land Management Subsidy (ELMS). Farmers will get subsidies for delivering a “public good,” including sequestering carbon in trees or soil, enhancing habitat with pollinator-friendly flowers, and improving public access to the countryside. However, the government is also planning to include incentives for the agricultural sector and investment in research which will help British farmers harness innovation to boost home-grown food production, especially for fruit and vegetable produce. The UK government will invest £270 million into farming innovation programmes until 2029 to unlock technologies to drive sustainable farming techniques, which will increase productivity and profitability, along with the long-term resilience of the sector. This means that farmers can benefit from this and claim subsidies for sustainable initiatives and innovation and development toward UK food security.
Food security is a pressing issue; in the long term, sustainability will go hand-in-hand with the UK’s ability to be self-sufficient. British farms can seize opportunities for funding to support these initiatives. Even experimenting with sustainable and alternative feed methods, permaculture, or other innovations in farming to support the food supply chain on a local level could mean you are entitled to subsidies; the same goes for any sustainability measures. Talk to our team at Granter to find out if your farm would qualify.