Food for thought. Henley Standard June 2024.

Climate and the environment have been making the headlines recently. Well at least before the Prime Minister decided to see how waterproof his suit was. Now it’s all about who governs us next.

There were various news reports about how every political party in the UK was failing to address the depletion of wildlife. An annual report, released in September by the National Biodiversity Network entitled the ‘State of Nature Report 2023’ was referenced. In this report it looks in detail at the continuing decline in flora and fauna since 1970. Major contributors are development, industrialization, climate change and agriculture. In my new role I travel up and down the country talking to farmers and growers. Every town and village that I pass through has evidence of recent housing developments. Not very long ago these were fields of grass, crops, hedges and trees, home to a diverse range of wildlife and often a source of local produce. Having moved out of our farmhouse and joined those looking for new accommodation I totally get the need for affordable housing. However, with it comes consequences for our biodiversity. Loss of habitat cannot be made up with a planning requirement for a few areas left for nature around these developments. The same comments apply to industrialization, although we seem to have less of that as our economy changes. Don’t forget though, that exporting our manufacturing industry abroad just moves the problem elsewhere, often with much less regulation. This is then replaced by massive warehouses built on green belt to satisfy our online shopping habits. Modern agriculture must take some of the blame, but since the 1970s we have made huge efforts to undo some of this damage. Encouraged by government policy changes through grants and subsidies the ratio of food production to environmental work is changing yet again. This latest change is because we have left the European Union and has been discussed here in greater detail in the recent past. From 1^st June, The Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) estimates there will be 59,700 live agri-environment agreements, across more than 41,400 farming businesses in England.

Hot off the press, or should I replace that with ‘as seen on the internet’, comes a report on the winter storms and climate change. The BBC website led with ‘Climate change made UK’s waterlogged winter worse’. From my own data, this was one of the wettest winters I have experienced in my farming career. With a near record number of named storms this year, global warming has been blamed for these events. The frequency would have been once in every 80 years before the industrial era. Now with emissions from human activity raising global temperatures these are expected to be four times more likely. So once in every 20 years. During the worst of the storms, rainfall has increased by 20%. Unless we can get to net zero this will only get worse.

 Analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a non-profit climate advocacy group, found that UK arable farmers could lose almost £1bn in revenue because of the wet months of 2023-2024. Some farmers and growers this year will have little or no crop to harvest. Others will have greatly reduced yields with the national average for wheat likely to be 20% down. Having said that, there are some cracking looking crops around where fields were sown early enough to avoid the heavy rain and then escaped the flooding.

The northern hemisphere is a mixed bag in terms of the forthcoming harvest. Northern Europe is expecting an average tonnage, whilst Russia is currently struggling with drought affected crops and therefore looking at a lower yield. Often the world balances itself out with the southern hemisphere harvesting crops 6 months later. It’s too soon to tell yet what will happen down there, but their weather patterns are just as unpredictable as ours.

It’s not too late for us all to change what we do and reduce our combined emissions. Some difficult choices must be made by policy makers, consumers, suppliers and producers. The latest inflation figures show a further decline, mostly from reducing energy costs and food prices also falling, however we are still not valuing our food highly enough and wasting too much. The food industry cannot continue to fool us with ‘shrinkflation’ either. Claiming a jar or packet is still the same price without telling you it is now 10% smaller is nothing short of dishonesty. A tonne of wheat, whatever its cost to produce and final sale price, is still a tonne of wheat and not 900kgs.