The surge in homegrown crops and meat – which has echoes of the Dig for Victory campaign of the Second World War – is needed to cope with rising global population levels and crop failures and water scarcity caused by climate change.
British officials are increasingly concerned that food supplies will come under strain as a result of rocketing demand from newly prosperous and powerful nations such as China and India. Self-sufficiency has fallen in recent years, and only about 60 per cent of the food British people eat comes from the UK.
Tomorrow, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, will set out the scale of the problem and challenge farmers to raise output rapidly while cutting greenhouse gases. In the search for a new green revolution, he will say new research is needed to develop new crop breeds and techniques. Manufacturers, retailers and households will be urged to cut current massive levels of waste. Households can help by growing more food in back gardens and allotments.
Civil servants described the new food strategy as a "wake-up call" for farmers, retailers and the public.
Farmers who have long criticised the Government for taking a relaxed attitude towards food security will welcome the focus on domestic production. Wildlife groups, however, fear that further agricultural intensification will hit wildlife. Ripping out hedgerows, growing crops on meadows and dousing fields in pesticides and fertilisers have badly affected farmland birds and animals in the past 50 years.
Numbers of farmland birds such as skylarks, yellowhammers and corn buntings have almost halved and many wildflowers have been left on the brink of extinction. Most of England's hedgerows have been lost since 1947.
The Government's new approach is set out in a new document, the UK Food Security Assessment. It says that Britain's position is currently favourable because agricultural production has risen in recent years, with Britain a major exporter of wheat and barley. But it warns that rising population pressures and a likely worsening environmental picture will pose serious challenges in coming decades.
In a list of challenges to UK food security are the changing climate, floods, drought, soil erosion, water scarcities and the breakdown of ecosystems. Global temperatures may rise two to three degrees in the next 50 years, threatening large-scale crop failure in Africa.
"The Government is monitoring the climate risks to harvests and the potential for more volatility in supplies and prices. We will also examine any implications for animal disease and food safety," the document said. "Other areas of climate-change impacts on our food will include further pressure on fish products from increasing ocean acidification; supply strains on water-reliant crops such as fruit from the Mediterranean; and the impacts of increasing episodes of coastal flooding and erosion."
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- JanforGore
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The crisis we will face in food production due in large part not only to population increases but in continuing the status quo way of industrial agriculture that is not sustainable, will require a response along the lines of response to world war. But as this article mentions, we must respond in a sustainable way that respects the Earth and other species as well as our own in order to be able to sustain life on this planet for longer than our generation. So this is about more than just finding an empty piece of land and planting seed on it. This requires a moral will and a respect for the resources that provide for us all. Instead of building coal plants we need to be planting trees and food. We need to be building solar farms and working to hold accountable those that have done nothing but destroy the biodiversity and environmental integrity of our only home. This will be a great task to undertake in providing the necessary food and water for our growing world population. In light of climate change, peak oil, and the social upheaval taking place, this IS the most important issue we will face this century for our survival.
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Interesting article because at one time in the not so distant past of the United Kingdom (and before WW2), the Brits were excellent gardeners and famous for it, who understood sustainability without the term being coined at the time, understood companion planting, could grow great food in their backyards without chemicals and at the same time understand how to assist and support the thriving life of the natural world around them. They respected and understood the importance of all the bugs, birds, and critters and founds ways to give some to nature (allowance and tolerance) and still have plenty for themselves so it all worked out. People who had at least a little plot of land somewhere were not going hungry and malnourished as so many are today, and the farmers still had their markets and could make a living...
Regarding water and veggie gardens - we live in an area with water restrictions, and yet, we still use very little and are way under our quota (we use a third of our allowance). I save most of our grey water (by hand - tubs and buckets - great exercise) and use that to water almost everything, I also discovered to my delight that the small residue of bio-degradable soap left in the water assists with clearing aphids and other little mites (so don't have to add the soapy water in separate treatments), and at the same time we have a beautiful and thriving veggie garden, complete with bees, bugs, butterflies.
and, I wish there was a way I could share more of my seedlings - I always have a lot of extras (and would love to find good homes for them) and the best tomato plants I have all came up early in the season from the compost that I used to feed and condition the soil before planting. A lot of people, if they had the mind to learn or re-learn gardening could be fed by this kind of sharing alone....
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someone needs to tell them to review their farming practices. the digging is jacking up their soil. they should look into more perma-polyculture methods that facilitate healthier food at a fraction of the expense and restore minerals and nitrates to the soil minus the toxins or damage to the college... that is, if they're serious about their commitment to solving the crisis. i doubt they are.
