CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE UK AGRI-FOOD SYSTEM

 Book review - uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2023 

Net Zero, Food and Farming

Climate Change and the UK Agri-Food System

Neil Ward

This is an important book that examines the complex implications of the proposed net zero transition by 2050 for UK food and farming and how these can be managed to avoid catastrophic climate change in the crucial decades ahead.

Revolutionary change is needed. Fortunately, revolutions in food and farming have happened before; beginning with the historical transition thousands of years ago from hunter gatherers to farmers. There was then in Britain from 1750 to 1850 seismic productivity improvements resulting from crop rotation, plant and animal breeding and improved farming techniques.

In the 20^th century the US pioneered a dramatic uptake, which eventually swept across the world and took in Britain after WWII, of chemical and mechanical technologies that boosted agricultural productivity whilst reducing the need for farm labour. 

For Ward, a fourth 21^st century revolution is “required, and the urgency of climate change means this revolution will need to be swift … embracing technologies of farming practice… patterns of land use for agriculture and forestry and energy crops … and the way food is processed, distributed and sold.’ For this to happen it will be healthy and instructive to see the world through food.

UK emissions from the food system accounts for 23% of our gashouse emissions and whilst those from agriculture fell between 1990 to 2009, they have not fallen since. The 2020 Climate Change Committee identified changes where the agri-food and land-use system can help dramatically cut transmission levels.

They include everyone reducing their demand for meat and diary products; reducing food waste; changing land-use to grow more trees and bioenergy crops; restoring peatlands and adopting a range of low-carbon farming practices to ensure agriculture remains food productive on less land – the Climate Change Committee that just 77% of today’s agricultural land will be used for food production in 2050 - whilst contributing to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

There are chapters in the book on all these subjects. This brief review concentrates on the continuing need for planting more trees, stopping deforestation, soil carbon sequestration and restoring peatlands with the UK having 15% of Europe’s total peatland area. 80% are in poor condition and Ward tentatively proposes that the damaging practice of grouse shooting on them should be banned.

The UK has an annual target for planting 30,000-50,000 hectares of new trees, which, of course, capture CO2, until 2050. As trees mature the uptake of carbon capture declines but when chopped down, they can also be used as an alternative source to fossil fuels for biomass electricity generation with the emissions captured using carbon capture and storage facilities that are being developed internationally and need much greater government backing here. Of the 23 large-scale Carbon Capture and Storage (CC&S) projects worldwide, none are in the UK.

Woodland cover across the UK has grown from 11.7% to 13.3% between 2008 and 2021. Forests are popular with almost 70% of people having visited one in recent years. People enjoy the habitat including hedgerows, many of which have been lost since WWII. Restoring them and planting bioenergy crops such as miscanthus, short rotation coppice and forestry will when gathered deliver massive emission reduction when used alongside CC&S practices.

Ward makes various proposals on how to encourage more landowners to plant trees. It is an issue that has, thanks especially to all Unite reps in the forestry sector and soil scientist Charlie Clutterbuck, been regularly aired in this magazine and it is an issue of vital concern because as Ward states in his conclusions ‘in the short term, afforestation looks to be the most straightforward way to reduce net emissions, and the Climate Change Committee assumes afforestation to be the UK’s most significant contributor to net emission reductions.’

This is a book rammed with ideas and Unite branches everywhere should buy a copy, debate the issues raised and consider inviting Ward along to one of their branch and/or stewards meetings.