Memorandum submitted by The Woodland Trust
(SFS 06)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. The Woodland Trust supports the need
for a thriving viable and sustainable agriculture industry in
the UK, able to support national food security. Productive agriculture
relies on a stable and thriving ecosystem to provide the services
for planned agricultural production. Woodland and other natural
habitats are vital in securing those services.
2. Despite the UK's self-sufficiency ratio
having fallen in recent decades, it is our view that food security
should not be simply increasing national food self sufficiency.
In the medium to long term the greatest risks to food security
in the UK are likely to result from issues around oil supply and
climate change rather than other factors which have received disproportionate
attention such as for example, land going out of agriculture to
other uses.
3. A package of measures to address food
security should consider:
— Identifying issues relating to energy
supply, particularly oil.
— Mitigating and adapting to the impacts
of climate change.
— Robust supply and distribution chains.
— Consideration of dietary change—particularly
a switch from high meat and dairy diets.
— Where appropriate increasing food
self-sufficiency.
4. Adapting to climate change will require
resilient systems able to support a human population in additional
ways to food production. This includes ensuring adequate and clean
water, biodiverse systems able to support agriculture in the long
term, timber and other forest commodities, cities with adequate
shade, shelter and resilience against flooding, as well as cultural
values associated with the natural environment, including woods
and forests.
SECURING FOOD
SUPPLIES UP
TO 2050: THE
CHALLENGES FOR
THE UK
5. The Woodland Trust welcomes the opportunity
to respond to this consultation. We are the UK's leading woodland
conservation charity. We own over 1,000 sites across the
UK, covering around 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) and
we have 300,000 members and supporters.
6. Our particular interest and concern relating
to the terms of reference of this consultation is the way in which
land is farmed and managed; achieving food security whilst ensuring
sustainable production. In particular that any increase in domestic
food production reflects an understanding of the importance to
agriculture and to wider ecosystem services of a healthy and thriving
natural environment.
7. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) forecasts a decline in global food production.[45]
Limiting factors include changing rainfall patterns, loss of water
supply for irrigation, increased pest and pathogen outbreaks,
greater fire risk and increasing levels of ground level ozone.
8. Greater frequency of extreme weather
events such as storms, flooding and droughts are likely to increase
the uncertainty of food production, and lead to years in which
there is serious global undersupply.
9. Modern agriculture is dependent on oil,
not just as a fuel source but in the production of pesticides
and fertilisers, and in processing, packaging and distribution
of food. Oil represents about 43% of the world's energy use, but
dominates transport, with over 96% of transport fuel coming from
oil.[46]
Food security in the UK is strongly associated with issues around
energy security, illustrated dramatically when supermarket food
stocks began to run out after just one week of the fuel tanker
driver strikes in 2000. In our view in the medium to long term
the greatest risks to food security in the UK are likely to result
from issues around oil supply and climate change rather than other
factors which have received disproportionate attention such as
for example, land going out of agriculture to other uses.
10. Waste in the food chain also has a major
impact on both food security and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The UK currently wastes a third of all food bought for home consumption.[47]
Improved understanding of the impacts of waste through all parts
of food production, processing, distribution and consumption,
could increase food self-reliance and reduce GHG emissions.
11. Despite the UK's self-sufficiency ratio
having fallen in recent decades to around 60%, it is our view
that food security should not be thought of simply as increasing
national food self sufficiency.[48]
Food security encompasses a robust and responsive domestic food
industry, reliable food imports, effective food distribution systems
and consumer behaviour, particularly around waste, which reflects
the value and importance of food.
12. A package of measures to address food
security should consider:
— Identifying issues relating to energy
supply, particularly oil.
— Mitigating and adapting to the impacts
of climate change.
— Robust supply and distribution chains.
— Consideration of dietary change—particularly
a switch from high meat and dairy diets.
— Where appropriate increasing food
self-sufficiency.
13. The Woodland Trust supports the need
for a thriving viable and sustainable agriculture industry in
the UK which is able help deliver national food security. Food
and agricultural commodities are an important part of a trading
system of which we have a long history.
14. Productive agriculture relies on a stable
and thriving ecosystem to provide the services for planned production—clean
and plentiful water, pollinating insects and a balance between
crop pests and their predators, healthy soils, clean air etc—and
to provide the genetic resources for future development.
15. Food, whilst clearly immediately critical
to life, is not the only element of a liveable environment. Adapting
to climate change will require resilient systems able to support
a human population. This includes ensuring adequate and clean
water, biodiverse systems able to support agriculture in the long
term, timber and other forest commodities, cities with adequate
shade, shelter and resilience against flooding, as well as cultural
values associated with the natural environment, including woods
and forests.
16. Woodland and other natural habitats
and resources should not be seen as luxuries to compete against
the needs of food production in a battle over use of land but
rather as essential and fundamental in securing ecosystem services
which support food production.
17. This includes an increase in the area
of woodland in the UK:
— As part of the development of habitat
networks for biodiversity conservation.
— To help mitigate and adapt to climate
change, in particular in water management.
— To adapt towns and cities to changing
climate and weather patterns.
— To provide the resources we need,
including the provision of timber and bioenergy where appropriate.
January 2009
45 http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf Back
46
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4079 Back
47
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/08/ccfood108.xml Back
48
Defra (2006) Food security and the UK: an evidence and analysis
paper. Back
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