Soilman

There’s an interesting incipient thread at Fluffy Muppet’s site about the UK’s food self-sufficiency – or lack of it. Topical, too, because of the government’s Future Food ‘strategy’.

Essentially, the question is: How could the UK produce enough food to feed itself? Is this even remotely realistic? What’s the least damaging, least scary set of changes necessary to achieve it that stands even the slightest chance of being politically acceptable?

So here’s my challenge.

I’d really be interested to hear from proper scientists (or others), with proper knowledge of the subject, who could suggest real, evidence-based solutions to this problem.

Do you know anything about it? Do you know anyone who does? I’d love to hear from you or them here.

Only one reminder for this thought experiment, based on the above rubric: Your solution must be vaguely politically acceptable (which rules out ‘solutions’ like Shoot Half The Population).

To kick you off, here are a few thought-provokers:

• The total area of rural land lost to urban use between 1945-1990 was 705,000 hectares – an area the size of Greater London, Berkshire, Herefordshire and Oxfordshire combined.
• The loss of agricultural land to development is continuing with about 15,000 hectares developed from 1996 – 2004 (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2007)
• The government plans to build 4 400 000 homes by the year 2016
• The average age of UK farmers is 54
• Full-time farmers earn an estimated average £13,300 a year. 25 years ago the figure was more than £26,000 at today’s prices

Sources:

• DEFRA data
  
• RuSource

So… we have fewer, older farmers earning less than ever on a diminishing hectarage of farmland. You don’t have to like farmers, or the ways many of them farm (I don’t) to see that this is, er, a strange way of improving the quantity and quality of our food.

And what’s the role of supermarkets in all this? And their customers (ie us?)

Discuss.