UK 'risks sleepwalking into food crisis' without changes to production policies, warns Julian Sturdy

The York Outer MP told a Westminster Hall debate that he is worried about complacency over the issue given the global need to increase food production by 70 per cent by 2050.

He said Britain was "uniquely placed" to lead the world in the area of sustainable agriculture.

"The world needs to increase food production and availability by 70 per cent by 2050 to keep pace with the food needs of a rapidly increasing and expanding global population in the face of climate change and the increasing pressures of the world’s finite natural resources," he said.

"With its good soils, temperate climate, professional farming sector and world-leading research and development, Britain is uniquely placed not only to optimise its capacity for sustainable and efficient food production, but also to become a global hub for agriscience excellence and innovation, exporting technological solutions, attracting inward investment, and fostering international research co-operation. Outside the EU, Britain has a unique opportunity to lead in those fields and to put significant vigour and evidence at the heart of UK policy development."

Mr Sturdy welcomed Government plans to introduce "more science-based and proportionate" regulations around gene editing, which uses technology to mimic the natural breeding process in a faster way.

But Mr Sturdy said that he was "concerned about the direction of travel of the Government’s future vision for agriculture".

"We cannot afford to be complacent with something as fundamental as food security. The global food supply and demand balance remains as precarious today as 11 years ago, when Sir John Beddington’s Foresight report urged Governments to pursue a policy of sustainable intensification in agriculture to meet future food needs in the context of population growth, climate change and the finite national resources of land, water and fossil fuels."

He added: "We have a responsibility to optimise our capacity for sustainable, efficient food production and to not offshore our food system’s impacts to regions of the world that are more vulnerable to the production-limiting effects of climate change.

"Concerns are mounting that, without clear vision and a definition of what is meant by 'sustainable agriculture', the UK is at risk of sleepwalking into its own food crisis.

"Writing in Food Policy, Robert Paarlberg of the Harvard Kennedy School recently highlighted the transatlantic policy tensions between the EU’s farm to fork strategy, referring to the plans to expand organic farming, reduce synthetic chemical use and reject modern biotechnology and the United States’ approach, which is to emphasise agricultural innovations based on the latest science, articulated through its global coalition on sustainable productivity growth."

Mr Sturdy said he had written to the Prime Minister in September urging the UK to sign up to a US-led global coalition for sustainable productivity growth alongside other countries such as Australia, Canada and Brazil but had not received a reply.

He said he was also worried about "a shift away from science and evidence-based policy making in the Department, towards an over-reliance on voluntary and campaigning non-governmental organisations to support the Government’s vision for sustainable agriculture" - highlighting particular concerns about the involvement of the Sustainable Food Trust.

Mr Sturdy said: "Nowhere is that more apparent than in Defra’s approach to the issue of sustainable metrics in agriculture. While Gideon Henderson suggested to us in January that the Government are a long way from having a mature policy on metrics, correspondence that I have received on this issue from Defra Ministers suggests that one particular model, the Sustainable Food Trust global farm metric, is firmly embedded in the Government’s thinking.

Not only is the Sustainable Food Trust an activist pro-organic NGO that openly campaigns against technologies that the Government are seeking to enable, such as gene editing, but the model itself is designed to reward less productivity and more extensive farming systems by favouring a whole farm or area-based approach to measuring resource use and the ultimate environmental impact."

Responding to his remarks, Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said food production is "at the heart of the levelling up agenda".

She said: "The 'United Kingdom Food Security Report' set out that we produce 60 per cent of our food supply need, and 74 per cent of foods we can produce for all or part of the year.

"We are almost 100 per cent self-sufficient in certain things, including poultry, eggs and - weirdly - swedes. We have a very good track record. As we work to deliver our rightly ambitious and world-leading commitments to halt the decline of nature - something to which we are legally committed - and reach net zero, it is critical that we are mindful of food security. However, we need to look at our land and land use strategically.

"Our thinking has evolved with the evidence, and it is clear that we need to pursue a sensitive approach to this matter. As such, we will invest in new research on land use and agricultural systems as a major strand of the £75 million allocated to research and development in DEFRA sectors announced in the net zero strategy.

"We need to combine sustainable intensification and regenerative approaches to agriculture to meet the objectives of our 25-year environment plan while maintaining the secure and healthy food supplies that we need."

Ms Pow defended the involvement of NGOs in the policy-making process.

"All of Defra’s policy programmes in the agricultural transition plan are informed and supported by evidence generated by and developed in partnership with our world-leading UK research institutes, as I am sure my hon. Friend is aware. Alongside our stakeholders - including, as he said, environmental non-governmental organisations, whose expertise, knowledge and passion we value - we also engage with academia, the science community and industry in developing programmes to ensure that our policies are supported by robust evidence; of course, that includes the chief scientific adviser."

Ms Pow said the Government was "looking at" the US initiative.

She said: "We have started a dialogue with Washington to identify the best way the UK can bring knowledge to the roundtable that he mentioned."

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