Why This Project Matters

One of the biggest threats to our existence on this planet is the crisis in our global and national food systems.

 

Just last year, the governor of the Bank of England warned that we have reached ‘apocalyptic’ level food price rises. The latest IPCC Report described the irreversible damage climate change has done to global agriculture; decreased yields and deaths of millions of farmed animals are happening as we experience floods, heatwaves, wildfires and accelerated habitat destruction. The UK is not immune to this, and farming productivity is forecasted to shrink as our climate changes and ecological systems breakdown.

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People across the country are resorting to food banks due to supermarket policies as the cost of living crisis pushing up prices. Fragile trade links and the shocking lack of food self-sufficiency in the UK (60% for all foods and only 23% for fruit and vegetables) will see the empty shelves we witnessed during the Coronavirus pandemic become a regular event. The National Food Strategy recommendations laid out in detail how our broken food system is and the devastating impact agricultural policy has on our natural environment. The government, however, watered down its eventual policy.

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The only way we can overcome the challenges ahead in our food system is to have a strong farming sector that can respond to the crisis. Instead, farmers have been persistently pushed to breaking point over the past few decades by a government only interested in cheap imports and a food sector pursuing ever lower prices.