The Soil Association has set a target of 2050 for all UK agriculture to be organic to ensure food security and improve sustainability.
The association is pushing for the UK to change its food and farming system to a more resilient, climate-friendly, organic, local model that is less vulnerable to external shocks and challenges.
With 30 per cent of an individual's carbon footprint made up of their food choices, food is the single most important, everyday means for tackling the challenges of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and future security of our food supplies, said the body.
Soil Association campaign director Robin Maynard told freshinfo: “These are challenging times that could potentially carry benefits for sustainability.
“We are very dependent on oil in UK agriculture, for machinery and also for oil-based pesticides and we can all see how finite a resource oil is.
“Hopefully studies like those done by Professor Robert Watson (DEFRA’s chief scientific adviser) which suggest the need for agro-ecological approaches in the future will be taken on board.”
Addressing the issue of food security, Maynard said: “The government has been alarmingly complacent about just importing globally because we are wealthy and most of our imports come from stable, EU markets.
“The global food market is no less stable than the global financial market - our reliance on overseas producers is worrying, as it seems we think we’re too wealthy for it to be a problem.”
The Soil Association's overall campaign goal is to make a rapid transition from a food production dependent on chemicals, global commodity markets and heavy use of oil, to a more resilient, localised, organic food and farming system powered by present day solar power, rather than one reliant on climate-damaging fossil fuels made from ancient sunlight.
The association also has concerns over fertiliser. The production and use of artificial fertilisers globally are the largest single source of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 310 times more damaging than carbon dioxide, said the Soil Association.
To make one tonne of artificial fertiliser takes 108 tonnes of water, emits 7t of carbon dioxide, and uses 1t of oil. Organic farming typically uses 26 per cent less energy to produce the same amount of food as non-organic farming, something that may help the bid for completely organic farming by 2050, said the Soil Association.
“It’s a complete stereotype that organic farming is old-fashioned. We’re not in any way anti-science or luddite and we do need to research things such as soil science to prevent degradation. Use of chemicals has left soil in this country susceptible to flooding, and soil is the biggest retainer of carbon there is,” said Maynard.
He also delivered a message to the consumer: “Food is the simplest thing everyone can do to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s where we can make direct choices and can push for local, seasonal, unprocessed food. We need a system to grade food with a carbon rating - the existing carbon labelling is fraught with difficulties.”
The Soil Association’s report: An Inconvenient Truth About Food is available online and outlines the organisation’s standpoints on the issues of food security, climate change, healthy eating and food policy.
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