We cannot continue to take a flippant approach to how we feed the nation
5 min read
Former National Farmers’ Union president Baroness Batters, now a crossbench peer, reflects on being ‘seven meals from anarchy’ during Covid and argues that food production must be made a UK priority. Illustration by Tracy Worrall
In my time as president of the National Farmers’ Union, I worked with four prime ministers. I remember getting a text from a minister in the early days of lockdown, when government thought we were going to run out of food. “You can have as much money and as many people as you want, as long as we don’t run out of food,” it read. For one week the reality of being seven meals from anarchy was real.
Throughout our history we have swung back and forth between embracing and abandoning the principle that producing our own food matters. The Arab Spring was the last time government advisers and scientists gave serious thought to our role in delivering global food security. Post the 2008 financial crash, the markets took off and since then the line given is that the UK is a wealthy nation and can afford to import its food.
With so much change in the last six years, farming and our food security are at a major crossroads. Whether we like it or not, we need to work with the world as it is – not what we think it should be.
We cannot continue to take such a flippant approach to how we feed the nation
Global population is set to rise to 10 billion by 2050, which means we will need to produce 50 per cent more food with half the water and energy we have now. Norman Borlaug, agronomist winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, was an eclectic, goal-orientated scientist, credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation. Without plant breeding pioneers like Norman, we would have needed the equivalent of three earths to meet our needs for food by the year 2000 alone.
Today’s world is target driven. In the UK we have targets for defence, the NHS, housebuilding, education, renewable energy. On land use, there are legislated environmental targets for net-zero, nature, trees, water and air. And yet, in the UK we do not have a target for food production. Instead, we continue to rely on countries like Spain and North Africa to produce so much of our salads, fruit and vegetables.
This situation is unsustainable, both for us and the exporters. As a nation we have faced rationing of eggs due to shortages that were avoidable, if retailers and packers had been prepared to pay prices that reflected the huge costs that emerged during Covid and sky-rocketed in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Then in 2023, due to severe weather events in Morocco, we faced rationing of salads. At the time it was suggested people eat turnips instead of tomatoes. We cannot continue to take such a flippant approach to how we feed the nation.
Firstly, the UK with its maritime climate should be producing much more of its own food. If we don’t set a target, we must set an ambition on how self-sufficient in home-produced food we need to be. There is a critical need to build farming and farmer resilience, and for policies and investment to drive on-farm innovation and optimisation of food production.
But let us not forget the human element amid these discussions of policy, innovation and technology. The physical and mental wellbeing of our farmers is paramount. A healthy farmer is a productive farmer, and we must remember that the strength of our agricultural community is rooted in individual farmers.
The conversation around de-carbonisation must be held through a business lens. All farmers want to cut costs; farm with more biology, less chemistry; increase yields and profit margin.
I would love to see the UK provide global leadership on developing a nitrate and phosphate nutrient charter. Delivering resource use efficiency will achieve so much more than our current fixation with methane.
Second, nature should not and cannot be delivered at the expense of food production – the two must be seen as mutually inclusive. Nature reserves are the jewels in the crown, but they make up less than 10 per cent of land in England. Over 70 per cent of land in England is farmed – and this can deliver on environmental targets. How do we achieve that? The only way is by working with farmers.
The principle of biodiversity net gain is flawed – it should be food, nature and biodiversity net gain. Environmental targets can be delivered in a food-producing landscape. Ideally every farmer would be in a cluster group, allowing them to collaborate on conservation and environmental projects. Much as farmers need nature, and in many cases are already delivering for it, every corporate business in the country should be investing in nature. I’m part of the Environmental Farmers’ Group, a whole catchment farmer co-op trading in water quality and biodiversity credits, which is a brilliant example of farmers and ecologists working together. Green finance options for financial institutions should be rooted in the ground.
Third, the role of education and advocacy. I trained as a chef and ran a catering business for 25 years. I’m passionate about good food and cooking from scratch. Learning how to cook should be as fundamental as maths and English within our school curriculum. In Finland every child has a three-course lunch. The bottom line is, if we don’t teach children about food and nature, how on earth can we expect them to value their importance when they grow up?
There is peer-reviewed science that has long proven how important nature and the beauty of our natural world is to all our lives. Because the principle of a garden city should be available in every single urban area. Orchards, allotments, beautiful green spaces for everyone, everywhere.
