Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming              ECFS0047

Written evidence submitted by Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming

1. Sustain is the alliance for better food and farming. We represent over 110 food and farming organisations. This briefing sets out our response to the Environmental Audit Committee for evidence on UK food security.

Summary

2. We consider multiple factors including agriculture, land use, climate and nature, public health, household food insecurity, nutritional food security, and diet. This summary sets out key issues and policy solutions, but our full submission sets out further details and recommendations.

3. The food sector makes up a third of UK GHG emissions with agriculture making up 10% of emissions. Farming drives 70% of terrestrial biodiversity loss. By 2070, UK summers could be 60% drier and winters 30% wetter, impacting domestic production. The UK imports 46% of the food it eats, with much of that coming from climate-vulnerable countries. The UK Government must design and implement Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes and a Land Use Framework (LUF) that will support farmers to transition to agroecological farming. This will contribute towards tackling the climate and nature emergency, and national food security concerns.

4. Industrial livestock farming is a driver of environmental degradation and poses a serious threat to public health. Factory farms are linked to direct GHG emissions, air and water pollution, deforestation, and land grabbing. Research downstream of intensive pig and poultry units in the UK has found antimicrobial resistant pathogens, and poultry units have been a major driver of the Avian influenza crisis. The UK Government and all local authorities must impose a moratorium on new factory farms.

5. British farmers receive less than 1 pence of profit on their produce from the supermarket chains. The UK Government must strengthen fairness regulations, invest in local infrastructure and partnerships through Levelling Up, and introduce mandatory reporting on retailer costings, the operation of their supply chains, and their environmental impacts.

6. Before the cost-of-living-crisis, four million UK households were experiencing food insecurity. Over 800,000 children who need a free school meal, miss out. The UK Government must expand access to Healthy Start, make Free School Meals universal, and bolster the School Fruit and Veg Scheme, to help children and young parents access healthy, hot food.

7. Intensive livestock farming poses a serious threat to climate change and food security. We use 85% of global farmland to rear animals. Much of this land is used to grow crops to produce animal feed. We must take a less and better approach to serving meat and dairy in public procurement. Local authorities and public services can use dynamic procurement systems to supply their food from local, sustainable small and medium (SME) farms. By doing so, food procurement can play a role in reducing emissions and creating routes to market for sustainable producers.

Climate change and food security: projected effect, risks, and mitigation

What are the main risks posed to future UK food security from projected climate change and biodiversity loss pathways? Where does the UK’s food come from? On the current climate change trajectory, how will these regions be affected by climate change and what will the impact on UK food security be?

8. Some of the key risks to UK food security include:
1. Extreme weather – particularly drought and flooding – causing crop failure and disrupting supply chains in the UK and globally.
2. The viability of agriculture in certain parts of the planet that are most vulnerable to climate change. UK food supply is reliant on importing food from climate vulnerable countries (as explained further below).
3. War and conflict will likely increase with the impacts of climate change which will put further pressure on the food system—both costs and food shortages (as we are experiencing from the war in Ukraine).
4. Tipping points will place pressure on the food system as they increase. For example, collapse key ecosystem services like pollination, soil health, and others, that are needed to produce food.

9. 54% of food consumed in the UK is produced domestically (mostly meat, eggs, milk, and grains). The remaining 46% is mainly imported from four European countries (39% from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Republic of Ireland) and a complex array of Asian, African, South American, North American, and other European countries.[1]

10. The UK imports 32% of its fruit and vegetables from climate-vulnerable countries, as reported by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.[2]

11. Climate change and fossil fuel prices have increased food inflation in the UK by 12.2% this year. The average household monthly spending has increased by £33.90; £14.23 of which is estimated to climate change related and £19.66 due to energy price with links to increased costs of artificial fertiliser. Shopping bills have increased in 2022 by more than £400 per household, a total annual UK food shopping bill increase of around £11.4 billion.[3]

12. Extreme drought has led to difficulties with planting in many parts of the planet and there is less food on the global market because of this.[4]

13. Extreme weather in the UK is affecting yields for British farming[5] and exposing the fragility of more intensive forms of farming. The Met Office predicts that UK summers will be 60% drier and UK winters 30% wetter by 2070.[6] This will impact the ability of farmers to produce food as we experience more drought and flooding. UK livestock currently experiences 2-3 days of heat stress on average per year, but this is expected to increase to 29-30 days per year by 2070, also posing serious pressures on animal welfare and the ability of livestock farmers to be viable. Therefore, it is critical to support farmers to shift to diverse, agroecological farming systems that both mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as being more resilient to extreme weather.

14. The shocks caused by COVID-19 demonstrated that shorter supply chains adapted better to the short-term disruption[7], whilst supermarket chains struggled in the first two weeks, leading to waste and empty shelves.[8] Climate change will make these issues worse. One credible solution – which also helps deliver good jobs – is investing in local and regional food economies and infrastructure.

How self-sufficient is the UK in producing food? How do existing UK food production, import, and export practices contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss?  What practices could the UK adopt to become more self-sufficient while reducing the emissions associated with agriculture?

15. The Government’s 2021 food security report[9] shows the UK produced about 60% of its domestic food consumption by economic value, part of which was exported. The UK imported 46% of the food it consumed.

16. The UK is largely self-sufficient in meat, eggs, milk, and grain, but largely not self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables. 84% and 50% are imported, respectively. However, domestic production of meat, eggs, and milk relies heavily on overseas land and importing inputs (i.e. animal feed), so arguably, we are not self-sufficient in those items. 38 million hectares of land is used to feed the UK population, with 53% of that being land overseas that is mostly used to grazing livestock and produce animal feed, with a significant chunk also being used to produce fruit, vegetables, and salads.[10] Much of that land is directly linked to deforestation and land grabbing.[11] In general, we suggest the UK is not producing a balanced, healthy diet from its own land.

17. Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions have plateaued in recent decades, contributing 10% of total UK emissions. More importantly, the food system contributes 30% of total emissions—at both the UK and global scales. Globally, agricultures drives 70% of terrestrial and 50% of freshwater biodiversity loss.[12] In the UK, biodiversity has declined sharply since the agricultural and industrial revolutions[13] by losing diversity in the field and landscape by going monocultural, using more artificial inputs (fertiliser and pesticide), putting more land towards intensively producing animal feed, made fields larger to accommodate modern machinery, and increasing the number of industrial livestock units. For example, since the 1950s, the UK has lost over 90% of its species-rich wildflower meadows in favour of monocultural grasslands. Agricultural run-off of slurry, fertiliser, pesticide, and soil erosion is the largest contributor to water pollution.

18. Environmental Land Management (ELM) – The post-Brexit agri-environment schemes must support farmers to transition to nature-friendly farming systems (i.e. agroecology). The Sustainable Farming Incentive and Local Nature Recovery schemes must be design and implemented accordingly, paying farmers to take a whole farm approach to sustainable, good food production that is resilient to economic and climate shocks in the future. This should include placing soil health and biodiversity at the heart of farming systems that also deliver a reduction in the use of inputs (fertiliser, pesticide, and animal feed) and help farmers meet net zero targets. These schemes must be rolled out at pace with a plan to ratchet up their ambition over the agricultural transition period (2021-2027).

19. Land use framework (LUF) – The Government must remain committed to implementing an LUF, as set out in their food strategy. It must place multifunctional land use at its heart and ensure there is comprehensive community engagement. To work effectively, it needs to bring together all land use needs from food and nature to energy and housing, and everything in between. The UK Government should provide national strategic direction while creating space for local shaping. We hope to see the UK Government work cross-Departmentally on this (especially between Defra, BEIS, and DLUHC) and to take up the recommendations from the House of Lords Land Use Committee report (published on 13th December).

20. Levelling Up and food systems – If farmers are expected to change their practices in line with environmental targets and ambitions, they must have markets that support them. The supermarket chain is poorly placed to do so.[14] The UK Government can use Levelling Up funds to catalyse investment in local and regional food systems by investing in infrastructure and networks. Analysis shows these types of supply chains and enterprises deliver much great economic, social, environmental returns,[15] as well as better jobs and fair prices to farmers.

21. The UK requires large amounts of land to feed our demand for meat, because livestock and poultry (especially pigs and chicken) require large amounts of imported grain. This is problematic for climate change and biodiversity loss. UK imports of grain and soya cause deforestation and prevent local communities from accessing the resources to produce and buy their own food. The government must do two things to tackle this:
1. Reduce factory farming, help reduce meat in diets and phase out factory farming on our land.
2. Adopt better practices for the food we import – especially soya and other feeds. The international agreements will help.

UK preparedness: Government and market

How has the prolonged heatwave and drought in 2022 affected food growing in the UK?

22. More generally, farmers and growers are finding it increasingly difficult to plan and predict weather conditions. The record-breaking heatwave and the prolonged drought are examples of this.

23. A 2019 survey by Sustain with English farmers, revealed three key challenges to adopting more climate-friendly farming methods: a lack of access to capital; market uncertainty; and increased weather volatility caused by climate change. 41% of farmers experienced lack of access to funds and 41% struggled to make changes due to Brexit. Weather volatility is hitting horticulture (75%) and arable farmers (51%) the hardest.[16]

24. As a result of drought this summer:

1. Horticultural farmers had produce rejected by supermarkets due to stunted growth. Growers had to plough perfectly edible produce back into the soil creating wastage in the system and costing them money. While drought is an issue, the unnecessarily strict requirements that are placed on size, shape, and look, is an added problem.
2. Livestock farmers experienced a lack of grass growth. This forced many to start to using silage that is supposed to be saved for the winter months. This could create knock-on effects this winter if there is a lack of silage available to farmers.
3. In addition, because of rising energy and input costs, farming’ unions are reporting that farmers are opting to produce less food.[17]
4. Allotment holders and community garden growers supporting food banks and community fridges were included by some water companies in the hosepipe bans.[18]

25. Scottish law requires local authorities to produce food strategies which has led to Scottish councils having better food growing policies in place compared to their English counterparts.[19] This requirement to produce a food growing strategy should be extended to the whole of the UK.

How can the UK ensure that enough water is available for crop growing while preventing unsustainable levels of abstraction that can impact the ecology and resilience of our rivers, wetlands and aquifers?

26. The National Food Strategy highlights that the UK is relatively water secure, although not in every area. Intensive farming contributes to water pollution from fertiliser, pesticide, soil erosion, and slurry run-off. Nitrogen fertiliser and slurry leads to high levels of eutrophication, algal blooms, and increased PH levels. In England, just 16% of the surface and ground waters meet the criteria for “good ecological status”, and none of the lakes or rivers meet the criteria for “good chemical status”. The UK has some of the most polluted waters in Europe.

27. The southeast and eastern regions of the UK are particularly water insecure during drought conditions. As mentioned earlier, the UK is currently expected to experience summers that are 60% drier by 2070. These two areas currently grow a substantial amount of the UK’s fruit, vegetable, and salad crops, as well as grain and oilseed. The UK Government must help farmers invest in water saving measures, like modern irrigation systems and improving soil health. Equally, a land use framework (LUF) must identify opportunities to increase the production of sustainable horticultural produce across other parts of the UK; this will help distribute and mitigate risk.

28. Globally, farming uses 70% of all the fresh water abstracted and the UK contributes to the impact of this – ranging from water shortages to drought, harvest failure, famine and even war – by importing foods from climate-vulnerable and drier regions.

29. To ensure sufficient quality and amount of water Sustain would recommend limiting the spread of intensive livestock farms, not least as antibiotic resistant bacteria have been found downstream of a number of UK factory farms.[20]

How will food-producing regions of the UK be affected by climate change?

30. The Government’s own food security report[21] suggests that climate change impacts on land could reduce the proportion of ’best and most versatile’ arable farmland (from 38.1% of agricultural land on a 1961 to 1990 baseline to 11.4% by 2050) “with consequences for food production and meeting Net Zero.”

What can the UK do to support adaptation efforts in the countries and regions most affected?

31. The UK must set core environment, animal welfare, and food safety standards for food imports. This is compatible with international trade law as it would be non-discriminatory and would prevent the UK from exporting harm in food production to other countries. By importing food with no core environment standards, the UK risks giving incentives to environmentally harmful practices overseas. It is also disincentivises UK farmers who find themselves undercut by food produced to lower standards.

What is the Government doing to prepare for disruption to the UK’s food supply resulting from climate change impacts or biodiversity loss?

32. There is little sign that the UK Government is proactively investigating these issues, nor putting policies and mechanisms in place to deal with them. The COVID-19 pandemic was a good example of the UK Government having a lack of measures to deal with food insecurity linked to supply chain disruption, as tackling problems was essentially left to supermarkets and other large supply chain actors, who struggled to adapt in the first couple of weeks.

33. There is no clear UK Government plan to invest in the types of infrastructure that could build resilience into the UK’s food supply chain. This could include local storage and distribution capacity. Equally, there is very little being done to tackle food waste. The UK wastes about a third of food at all levels of the food system – farm, manufacture, retailer, household. By tackling waste, the UK can build resilience into the system.

Does the Government’s Food Strategy address the risks of climate change and biodiversity loss adequately? Does it prepare the UK to adapt to a world affected by ecological crises?

34. It does not address these serious issues. However, the commitment to a land use framework (LUF) could play a role if done properly. It is critical that a LUF places multifunctional land use and landscapes at its heart, and brings together all the pressures of land (e.g. food, climate, nature, housing, energy, development, recreation, timber etc.). A successful LUF will be one that has national strategic direction and local community shaping and implementation.[22]
35. The Government Food Strategy promised to consult on mandatory reporting for food businesses via a Food Data Transparency Partnership. Mandatory reporting for retailers, foodservice companies and supply chain operators over a certain size would improve transparency and responsibility and help identify threats to food security. To do so, companies must report on factors relevant to food security as outlined in this response, including waste through the supply chain, worker wages and producer pay, as well as the amount of food sold which contributes positively to food security (ie agro-ecologically produced food, UK-sourced fruit, veg and pulses), and that which is a risk to food security (industrial meat, produce from water-stressed countries).

How effective would the market be at securing the UK’s food supply in a situation of major food insecurity world wide? To what extent could Government intervention be needed?

36. In general, the market is not well equipped to ensure a secure supply of healthy food now, let alone in a situation of major food insecurity worldwide.

37. The war in Ukraine is an example of how a geopolitical shock can have widespread impacts on the global food system. In the UK, it has had significant impacts on the cost of production – rising gas prices and economic sanctions on a country that is a major exporter of fertiliser. The UK is self-sufficient in grain, but globally, the war has led to the cost of grain going up and food shortages in countries who rely on importing grain from Ukraine and Russia.

38. UK food price inflation recently rose to a record annual rate of 12.4% as staples and fresh produce became more expensive, data from the British Retail Consortium has shown. Sitting alongside this are tracker reports from the Food Foundation that found one in four households with children (four million children) experienced food insecurity in September 2022. Pre-pandemic, 22% of people were already living in poverty, so despite global events, there is a pre-existing poverty crisis. Therefore, the UK’s food system is already struggling to secure healthy food for all.

39. Farmers and growers have warned of low prices effecting their ability to produce food. Most recently, British Apple and Pears have warned of a crisis in their sector as retailers have cut their payments.[23] The egg shortage crisis is another example of low farmgate prices creating supply issues. Other UK crops are at risk as soaring energy costs mean that using heated greenhouses has become increasingly unprofitable.

40. Our recent report ‘Unpicking Food Prices’ found that after intermediaries and retailers take their cut, farmers are sometimes left with far less 1% of the profit from their produce. Local supply chains pay farmers more. The Government must: strengthen supply chain fairness regulations; use Levelling Up funds to invest in local infrastructure and partnerships; and introduce mandatory reporting so that retailers publish information on their costings, supply chain operations, and environmental impacts. Farmers need to keep more of their profit if they are to invest in the transition to more nature and climate-friendly farming. An emergency support package could help farmers survey this very difficult period.[24]

41. Government could also intervene by supporting Local Authorities to set up local food partnerships, the potential of which were recognized in the Government’s food strategy. Bringing together public agencies, community groups and businesses, local food partnerships can help areas be more ‘response ready’ in the face of food insecurity shocks, as evidenced during the pandemic.[25] Food partnerships can play a key role in building the resilience of food producers and businesses; they create relationships, build confidence and reduce risk.

Could the UK’s land be better used to secure our domestic food supply? What role should the Government take in ensuring that land is available to secure the UK’s food supply in the context of a changing climate?

42. Meat and dairy only accounts for one third of our calories but 85% of agricultural land use. Intensive livestock is a significant contributor to climate change.[26] We are pleased that the Government has committed to bringing forward a land use framework (LUF) in 2023. We would like to see more of that land used to grow crops that are more beneficial to our food security and to restore nature. The LUF should include supporting farmers in transitioning to producing more of our own protein using a fraction of the land, such as beans, pulses, legumes, nuts, and grains. Livestock should be integrated where this supports soil fertility, for example into diverse crop rotations, with livestock numbers reduced overall. Land freed up by reducing industrial farming can be used for nature habitat restoration and GHG sequestration

43. The LUF must put multifunctional land use at the heart of its vision and ambition. There is strong and robust evidence that this is possible to both feed the country healthily while delivering considerable outcomes for climate and nature restoration.[27] A framework must encompass rural, peri-urban and urban land, such as opportunities to increase horticultural production on urban fringes or increase community food growing spaces within cities.

44. The Government needs to take a joined-up approach with other policies like the Horticulture Strategy, Net Zero Strategy, trade policy, Levelling Up, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, and any health strategy. If there is a disconnect, for example trade policy conflicting with the land use framework objectives, that could undermine the ambition and deliverability of a land use framework.

45. The UK’s net zero plan includes an increase in the UK production of biofuel. While it is currently only 121,000 hectares of agricultural land,[28] this is set to increase and is an inefficient use of land that could otherwise by used to produce healthy food and contribute towards restoring nature. Similarly, the UK uses far too much land domestically and internationally, to grow crops to produce animal feed, which is equally inefficient. This land could also produce healthy food and recover nature.

What role could community or urban food growing play in increasing the UK’s resilience to food shortages caused by environmental change?

46. The Government’s horticulture strategy needs to deliver a major increase in access to affordable and diverse fruit and vegetables, as well as beans, pulses and legumes. Support for farmers adding horticulture to their land, supporting the infrastructure, and procuring of local and sustainable fruit and vegetables, would all help. More market gardens on the urban fringe could also provide a major boost, providing good agroecologically produced food on underutilised land, as well as enterprise and training near huge urban markets. Sustain’s Fringe Farming report details how this can be delivered and provides case studies.[29]

Securing a sustainable food supply

Does the Government’s Food Strategy put the UK on a path to a secure and sustainable food supply?

47. The simple answer is that the Government’s food strategy does not achieve this. It has very little in it on food supply chains and does not provide a holistic, comprehensive approach to the food system.

48. The National Food Strategy, led by Henry Dimbleby, had clear analysis researched over two years and a set of 14 recommendations. The Government response looked painfully thin by comparison. It accepted just three of the original recommendations in full: create a land use framework, extend the Holiday Activities Fund, and introduce health mandatory reporting on companies. Others, such as guaranteeing budgets for agricultural and environment schemes, and creating core standards for food imports, were rejected. It contained nothing on how to ensure people could afford to eat well and pushed all consideration of the impact of the junk food cycle into a future health disparities white paper, which Therese Coffey reportedly scrapped during her period as Health Secretary (Sept-Oct 2022).[30]

49. Some of the better proposals, such as supporting the horticulture sector and including more local food in public procurement contracts, were not underpinned by legislation. There was an absence of any support for a transition to more agroecological farming, and supporting a shift to shorter, fairer and more resilient food supply chains, both of which would have helped towards a more secure, sustainable food supply. A Sustain grid of the measures included in the government’s food strategy and their accountability mechanisms shows how weak it was.[31]

50. One proposal in the government food strategy – to review public procurement – could help. Healthy, sustainable public sector food would directly support more food-secure supply chains and help normalise a good diet. The government must bring forward mandatory standards for public sector food to ensure meals are healthier, more sustainably sourced, support local food economies and omit produce most responsible for deforestation.

What are the most environmentally friendly ways of producing a secure supply of nutritious food?

51. Nature-friendly farming (i.e. agroecology) can help the UK meet its Net Zero and biodiversity targets.[32] It has the potential to reduce agricultural GHG emissions, sequester carbon (in soil, trees, and plants), reduce synthetic input use (fertiliser, pesticide), cut down on land used to produce animal feed, increase nature within the farming system, free up some land for nature recovery, all while maintaining a strong level of productivity[33] and creating significantly more jobs.[34]

52. Industrialised animal production (‘factory farming’) impacts negatively on air[35] and water quality,[36] as well as the economy. It provides the perfect breeding ground for new and more deadly strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and other potential pandemics.[37] In the last 12 months, to curb outbreaks, 94.2 million farmed poultry have been killed and disposed of. The Government could help by using planning frameworks to restrict the building of any more industrial meat factories.

What role could a reduction in meat and dairy consumption play in improving food security and what measures could the Government take to capitalise on the trend to plant-based diets?

53. Reducing meat consumption and production is a must if we are to tackle the pressing threat of climate change to food security. Globally, the food system is associated with approximately 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with industrial livestock farming a major contributor.

54. Producing meat and dairy takes up a large amount of land. Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture with more than three-quarters of this used for livestock production (85% in the UK) while contributing only 37% of the protein in the global food supply. In short – we need some of that land back for nature recovery and carbon sequestration if we are to have any hope of tackling the urgent nature crisis and climate change. The UK could produce more protein on a fraction of the land by growing more legumes, pulses, high-protein grains, vegetables and beans.

55. The Government’s Committee on Climate Change has said that to stay on the pathway to Net Zero we need a 20-50% reduction in meat and dairy by 2030 and 35% reduction for meat by 2050.[38] The Dimbleby National Food Strategy recommended a 30% reduction in the consumption of meat and dairy.

56. Considering new approaches to producing meat and dairy and the amount we eat would help improve our food security by reducing the damage to our environment and climate. This does not mean giving up all meat and dairy eating but we can phase out damaging, industrial livestock farming and scale up agroecological and regenerative practices.

57. Reducing industrial livestock production and consumption would reduce the use of grain for animal feed. This is a wasteful way to feed people when the grain and land could be used to feed people directly. Importing large amounts of grain make the UK vulnerable to oversees food price shocks.

58. Displacing the most intensive meat from diets and replacing it with plant proteins such as beans and pulses would be beneficial for the environment and good for diets.

59. Dietary shifts could also provide economic opportunities. According to the Food Foundation if everyone in the UK started eating seven-a-day and our current import and home production ratio remained the same, UK horticultural production would need to grow by 84.3% to meet demand (considering food waste at current levels), creating £1.18 billion in value to the British economy.[39]

60. The Government could support sustainable UK horticulture via several existing schemes, such as: opening more public sector food contracts to British food and farm SMEs, increasing the value of Healthy Start vouchers, increasing the funding for the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme and extending it to all children in primary school.

What role do food technologies have in mitigating the risks that environmental changes poses to UK food security?

61. Developing and manufacturing alternative proteins in the UK rather than importing them could create an estimated 10,000 new factory jobs and secure 6,500 jobs. The UK food company Tofoo, which reportedly produces 52% of all tofu bought in the UK, has grown annual sales from £426,000 to £18.6m in the last six years.[40] Plant-based proteins produce, on average, 70 times less greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent amount of beef, and they use more than 150 times less land.[41]

62. Technology also includes innovative, agroecological farming systems, that put a priority on soil health and biodiversity within the farming system. For example, diverse crop rotations that include pasture breaks; the use of herbal leys and pasture-fed livestock systems; the use of ecological Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches; no and minimum-tillage in arable and horticultural systems; cover cropping and intercropping; agroforestry (silvoarable and silvopastoral); mechanical weeding; mob grazing or rotational grazing; and native livestock that are adapted to local landscapes. All these whole farm approaches, plus others that fit into this type of technology, are best placed to mitigate environmental challenges to food security.

December 2022