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 We must act now to prevent a rapid decline in U.K. farming! |
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Extracts from DEFRA's paper: Food Security and the UK (Dec 2006)- Food security involves diversifying supply options. The UK is able to source efficiently foods from a wide variety of stable countries, especially from other EU countries.- (Referring to World War Two): It is very difficult to envisage a recurrence of such extreme circumstances. - Food security should not be confused with national security, which is a pure public good. Food itself does not have public good characteristics. - Poverty and subsistence agriculture are root causes of national food insecurity. National food security is hugely more relevant for developing countries than the rich countries of western Europe. - Trends in the self-sufficiency ratio are a misleading indicator of underlying food security for the UK. Nowadays, certainly, the UK is well-placed to secure international supplies in times of shortage. - A defensive, nationalist, protectionist view of food security may also have diverted attention from the question of how the trading system could be used to prevent short-term concerns of disruption. - The UK's membership of the EU itself suggests that if domestic sourcing is assumed to be 'reliable', so should European sourcing. Most UK food imports are indeed sourced from Europe. - Imported produce is reliant on shipping. air freight and ports. It is very difficult to envisage in the current geopolitical climate any future conflicts or events which would recreate the spatial circumstances of WW2, and if so, what the contingencies might be, although there are some lessons from history. - Since most UK imports come from mainland Europe (and Ireland) within the framework of the European Union and its Single Market, the probability of EU shipping routes being severely disrupted appears extremely remote. - For now we can say that it is a question of risk management rather than self-sufficiency: it is more efficient to manage risks directly rather than through the indirect means of a drive for self-sufficiency. - Self-sufficiency makes little sense in today's world of inter-related international markets. - But the analysis in this paper suggests that there is little logic in having fixed minimum targets for self-sufficiency. - Arguments used after the war in favour of high levels of self-sufficiency are no longer relevant. - Considered globally, the UK is, and has long been, 'food secure'. - The self-sufficiency ratio is a poor, even misleading, indicator of food security. These conclusions suggest that a discourse centred on 'UK food security' or 'UK self-sufficiency' is fundamentally misplaced and unbalanced. The real issues extend beyond the UK, beyond agriculture, beyond food. |
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enquiries@foodsecurityltd.com Food Security Infoline: 0800 1388570 Registered in England and Wales No. 5747694 Registered Office: 18 Denney Road, Hardwick Industrial Estate, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE30 4HG |
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