Like Jeremy Clarkson says it’s time to take the threat of falling farm yields seriously - Yorkshire Post Letters

The director of the World Food Programme’s global office has said: “Droughts and flooding have become so common in some of the poorest places on Earth that the land can no longer sustain crops”.

Farmers are going out of business; families cannot feed themselves and whole populations are being forced to move.

We are fortunate that our temperate maritime country is not in the direct line of fire for climate change. But even Jeremy Clarkson is worried that we may only have 60 harvests left from UK farmland if we continue with intensive farming methods.

True food security, or even managing to grow as much as 50 per cent of the food the UK needs, cannot be achieved if farm productivity crashes. It’s time to take the threat of falling farm yields seriously everywhere.

In Europe the food and farming lobbies have just hammered out a joint report with green groups and other stakeholders on a shared vision for the future of farming.

It calls for urgent, ambitious and feasible change in farm and food systems. It addresses the need to reduce the amount of meat we eat: to consume less, not none.

The authors agree that a major rethink on subsidies is needed to help farmers adopt sustainable practices. It recognises that all the parties have a shared interest in both meeting the climate and environmental goals and keeping farmers in business.

The UK needs to start talking in a more constructive way too. Agriculture is a big part of protecting ourselves from the effects of climate change.

Getting our agricultural policy right is as important as getting energy policy right and reducing debate to a shouting match about food security is missing most of the important issues.