The UK may have a key role in providing food for export across the globe in the coming decades, but horticulture is unlikely to play a significant part in this, according to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).
At a Westminster summit on the issue of food security, a high-powered panel of government officials and representatives of the NFU and Sainsbury’s agreed that the UK should help provide for a shortage of food as the world looks to feed a potential population of nine billion by 2050.
But fears over the future of horticulture, in terms of developing young talent and declining investment in research and development, may mean the UK industry has little or no role to play in this, the NFU warned.
Martin Haworth, NFU director of policy, pictured, told freshinfo: “As little as 10 per cent of fruit in the UK is grown here and there is a long-standing decline that comes back to a loss of a skills base, as well as the decline of mass production in the UK.
“It is not necessarily the case for the rest of agriculture - there may be a significant role we can play there. But we are very unlikely to feed other countries with our products, with the possible exception of field vegetables.”
Dr Jo Bray, who is set to head up DEFRA’s Food Policy Unit work on food security, said the government would deal with the matter by using a risk management framework to create supply chain resilience and reduce post-harvest waste, as well as linking the strategy to sustainability in using water and oil reserves.
“We have held numerous meetings on the subject and had more than 100 written submissions in response to last July’s paper on Food Security, and will be releasing our strategy in the autumn,” she said.
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