Is being green a luxury?

Ecologists, farmers and the government gathered at our Nature, Food and Farming Symposium last week to explore how, with 70% of UK land dedicated to food production, farmers can be supported to deliver (much) more for nature.

As Roz Savage MP, proponent of the CAN Bill, said in her talk, ‘Farming is very obviously the most important way to get on track with the nature and climate crisis in this country.’

The challenges – system change

Keynote speaker Tony Juniper CBE , Chair of Natural England , quoted Henry Dimbleby ’s National Food Strategy, saying that our food system is both a miracle and a nightmare.

‘Structurally, it’s gone badly wrong.’ said Juniper. ‘How can we have people who can’t afford to buy food, farmers who can’t make a living making food and people in the middle becoming billionaires? It’s broken.’ 

Anant Jani from the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health echoed this, describing the food system as lose-lose-lose-win.

So, who were identified as the losers?

1. Consumers. UK children eat the most processed meat of any age group according to findings from the Food Foundation’s Meat Consumption report, shared by their Director Anna Taylor .
2. Environment. The food system is responsible for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 70% freshwater use. Pollution from agriculture is another major issue; Gareth Morgan from the Soil Association highlighted that half of all added nitrogen is lost into the environment.
3. The public sector. Treating food-related conditions costs EU governments 700 billion euros a year, treating non-communicable diseases, 70% of total healthcare spending.

And the winner is…

Multinational food corporations that make billions from this system. The fast-food industry has an ironically healthy profit margin of 13%.

What about the farmers?

After decades of being incentivised to produce ever-increasing quantities of food, farmers are now seeing yields plateau. Research presented by Dr Lisa Norton from UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) showed how, despite intensification, yields haven’t increased in the last 20 years.

The thing about unsustainable systems is that they end.

But farmers looking to transition towards less intense, more nature-friendly systems face several barriers. Without the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) – controversially paused this year without notice by the UK Government - Tom McVeigh , who farms in Suffolk, told the symposium audience that he couldn’t have afforded to take the risk to switch to nature-friendly farming without SFI payments.

Tatiana Chapman from the RSPB echoed this, explaining how the agency of many farmers is constrained by debt and financial margins, leading to an idea that there is limited space for nature in agricultural systems. Tatiana quoted a farmer saying, ‘It’s a luxury being green, got to be rich to be green.’

‘The thing about unsustainable systems is that they end’, warned Juniper. ‘This can either by transition to something different or collapsing. The status quo is simply not an option.’

Solutions – yes, we know them all

‘Our response options are not new, we just need to find the best ways to do them and then just do them.’  observed Sebastian Dunnett from the UN Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Juniper saw no issue in repeating these response options to the audience of experts. ‘You’ve heard these solutions a thousand times before. But I’m going to say them again because they’re correct.’

He summarised that evidence alone wasn’t sufficient to drive change, telling the room that we must invest in genuinely interdisciplinary research, including behavioural economics and use the tools wielded so effectively by existing junk food markets.

He also championed the need for effective science communication and connecting the scientific community with the advocacy and campaigning spheres (look out for more on this from the BES CASCADE Network).

Changes to food

It is accepted that a dietary shift towards more fibre, fruit and veg and less meat and junk food will benefit both human and environmental health. And if the Symposium delegates were to be believed, the future looks set to be full of beans. Healthy, sustainable, affordable, and already acceptable to people, beans were seen as win-win, getting shout-outs in multiple talks and proving popular during the lunch breaks.

Changes to farming

A change to regenerative farming methods (the benefits of which are highlighted and evidenced in our latest report) will need wide-scale uptake. And we heard how farmers, given the right support, want to do this.

Dr Vincent Walsh told us about how he’s been working with an upland farmer in Yorkshire to transition towards nature-friendly farming using agroforestry underpinned by hydrology. ‘Working with an older farmer, you have to start where they start from.’ Said Vincent. ‘Understand what’s precious for them and use that to open the door to slowly open the door to change.’

To help further the transition towards regenerative agriculture in the UK, our report draws together key policy recommendations that require the combined effort of ecologists, farmers and policymakers to achieve.

1. Increase support and advice to help farmers make the transition to regenerative agriculture
2. Ensure farmer-led innovation is placed alongside scientific evidence to inform agricultural policy and practice
3. Use regenerative agriculture principles to co-design impactful and measurable agricultural policy
4. Advance innovation in regenerative agriculture
5. Ensure the credibility, transparency and consistency of regenerative agriculture initiatives across the whole supply chain

With the right will, open communication, and collaboration, we can achieve these and ensure there are more winners in our food system.

And our next steps? We’ll be continuing these conversations tomorrow at Groundswell Agriculture . We hope to see you there!