Should we bet the farm on this?
CUTTING meat and dairy production by a third by 2030 and by 50% before 2050—suggested by the WWF’S new Land of Plenty report —was never going to go down well in the farming community. Furthermore, ‘with more than 90% of UK households still wanting to buy high-quality red meat and dairy, British products are often the most sustainable options,’ says NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts.
‘Our farmers can deliver the necessary environmental and climate benefits as well as maintaining domestic food production… and it’s important that we do so,’ he continues. ‘Emissions from home-grown beef and dairy are less than half the global average. If we reduced sustainable production here, it would only export our carbon footprint to countries that don’t meet our own high environmental standards and risk seeing food imports produced to standards that would be illegal here. This… could be devastating for global climate ambitions.’
The report claims that implementing various sustainable farming practices could be equivalent to taking 900,000 cars off the road— far greater than previously estimated by the UK’S Climate Change Committee—adding that the Government needs to properly get behind incentivising a ‘green transition’ for the sector if it wants to ‘slash greenhouse-gas emissions from farming by more than 35% by 2030 and make UK land a net carbon sink no later than 2040’. It sets out 10 steps, which include legally binding strategies, ‘world-leading’ payment schemes, reducing our global food footprint, halving nitrogen waste, promoting more plant-based seasonal diets, and aligning all this with biodiversity recovery. Pig herds and poultry flocks could also be reduced, because of their dependence on imported feed.
As part of its criticism of the sector, the report states that 70% of the UK is used for agriculture, responsible for 12% of the UK’S territorial carbon emissions, but if this is the case, as George Dunn, chief executive of the Tenant Farmers Association, points out, ‘the remaining 30% produces [almost] 90% of the emissions. Every acre of land in agriculture is already less polluting by a factor of 20 in comparison to every acre of land in another sector… In fact, we should be eating more meat and dairy products from UK sources to offset what we import to reduce our carbon footprint.’
‘If we are serious about tackling the twin threats of climate change and Nature loss, farming and land use can’t be an afterthought,’ attests WWF chief executive Tanya Steele. ‘Ahead of COP27 [in November], the UK has the chance to lead the way, and solve another piece of the climate puzzle, by driving the transition to greener farming, both at home and overseas.’ ‘We have already set out ambitious plans that will see farmers rewarded for actions that benefit the environment, supporting sustainable food production alongside vital Nature recovery and work towards net zero,’ responds a Defra spokesperson. ‘More than 3,000 farmers are testing and trialling our new approach, which will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, halt the decline in species, increase woodland, improve water and air quality and create more space for Nature.’