The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has today (Wednesday, August 9) called for more resilient food supply chains in the face of “global shock” and extreme weather.
President of the NFU, Minette Batters, called for the UK government to “take an active interest in the UK food chain resilience”.
“It starts and ends with our food security. We need to be able to produce more of our own food at home, regardless of what else is going on in the world,” she said.
“Today puts that into context as it marks the day of the year we would run out of food if we only had access to UK produce.”
Batters said the UK cannot become over-reliant on imports when other countries are also facing “significant changes” economically and climatically.
“That’s why the Prime Minister needs to put words into action from his recent food summit and legislate to ensure the UK’s self-sufficiency does not drop below its current level of 60%,” she said.
“Now is the time to build ensure policies are in place to support the production of quality, climate friendly, home-grown food.
“This government has statutory targets for the environment and Ministers need now to give the same status to our food production.”
Problems for food security
The NFU warned that global instability caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine, a year of rising food inflation and recent bouts of extreme weather are all highlighting the frailties of the UK’s food system.
“I have never known such volatility in the global food system,” Batters said.
“Climate change is wreaking havoc on food production across the world, with farmers in Southern Europe literally fighting fires while farmers here are despairing as they now must spend thousands of pounds to dry sodden grain.”
At the same time, she said, the conflict in Ukraine is putting pressure on the global grain market and ongoing inflation of input costs, like energy and fertiliser, have made for an exceptionally difficult year.
For many farmers and growers, this year has already been incredibly expensive to produce food and now the weeks of wet weather mean more money is needed to dry the harvest that’s been gathered, Batters said.
“On top of the domestic weather records that have been broken this year – the driest February in 30 years and the hottest June ever recorded, followed by a remarkably wet July – I would also add the most expensive arable harvest in generations,” she said.
