Food security fears as arable harvest one of the worst ever

Food security was found to be highest in the East, South East and South West of England, where 92 per cent of households were food secure.

The latest figures, for the 2022-23 year, follow Richmond and Northallerton MP Rishi Sunak using his return to the House of Commons after becoming a backbencher to question Environment Secretary Steve Reed on food security, saying in an increasingly volatile world it was “of growing importance to our national resilience”.

Following a visit to the Great Yorkshire Show in the summer, Mr Reed said it was clear from meeting farmers and growers they had “been neglected for too long”, and that a new deal for farmers in Yorkshire and across the country would be offered by the government “to boost rural economic growth and strengthen Britain's food security”.

However, local and Westminster politicians across Yorkshire have in recent months underlined concerns about food security in recent months in response to a host of planning applications, and in particular over solar farms across top quality farmland, highlighting the UK only produces about 60 per cent of the food that is eaten in the country.

The government figures confirmed the country's third lowest production for wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape since records began in 1984.

The figures show a final estimate for the harvest of Yorkshire’s most widespread crop, wheat, which in 2023 covered 220,000 hectares in the region, drop across the country by some 20 per cent on the previous year.

Oilseed rape, which covered 58,000 hectares of Yorkshire in 2023 and made up 17 per cent of the country’s production of the crop, fell by an estimated 32 per cent, due to declines in both area and yield.

The statistics emerged as the government’s 2024 UK Food Security Report warned there was a “pressing risk” to national food security, which it stated was being exacerbated by climate change, which threatened the resilience of food production.

Non-profit research organisation the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit saidthe harvest data figures confirmed government food security warnings, saying unprecedented volumes of rain had hugely hit production.

Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesman Tim Farron said the food security figures represented a stark reminder of just how important farming communities are to the rest of the country as producers of food and the stewards of our countryside".

He said: "The failure of both the Conservative and Labour governments is that their agricultural policy actively disincentivises the production of food. This is as outrageous as it is foolish.”

Yorkshire-based NFU leaders have stated a secure and resilient supply of homegrown food can only be built on a fair and transparent supply chain that shares the risks involved in food production evenly and gives farmers confidence.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said government policies were risking food security and emphasised the need to overhaul payments to farmers.

Meanwhile, the Soil Association called for a “rapid and radical” transformation of the UK's food system.