Cymraeg Our new report ‘Share The Land’ models a vision for land use in the UK which is grounded in an agroecological land-sharing approach to farming and food production, exploring the trade-offs that arise between more localised production, dietary change and meeting climate and biodiversity targets.
In line with their manifesto promise, in February this year the Labour government published a consultation on their proposed land use framework, which will lay the foundations for how decisions over land use are made in England. This will affect areas such as housing and infrastructure, but it will also impact food production and environmental planning.
The UK is a densely packed set of islands with a dense population, so we have to be smart about how we use our land. In this context, productive farming and forestry are often seen to be competing for land with green spaces, wildlife habitats and biodiversity-rich ecosystems, and this may be true for the industrial farming and land use model (which is one of the biggest contributors to global warming and biodiversity decline). However, if we were to adopt an agroecological approach to farming and land use on a national scale, we could produce the food, timber, fuel and fibre we need through methods that also regenerate ecosystems, promote biodiversity and care for the soil.
The land use question should not be framed as a competition between humans, farms, forests and nature, but rather a question of how we farm and manage our landscapes so we all work together.
To this end, our report presents five scenarios which use a modelling approach to show how UK agricultural land use would vary depending on UK population, food imports, diets and the way we farm.
Labour has recently come under fire for proposing that 9% of farmland will have to be taken out of cultivation to devote to nature restoration and carbon sequestration. But our report shows that with a land-sharing approach to farming, and with the right dietary changes and trade rules, this needn’t be the case.
We show how by making changes to our dietary habits – including less meat, dairy, oils and sugar, and more fruit, vegetables and pulses – we could produce the majority of our food here in the UK through localised, nature-friendly, agroecological food webs, without the need to alter the area of productive farmland. We’d still have the same amount of farmland, but farms would instead shift towards being diverse mixed farms, which incorporate forest areas, layer production systems and introduce innovative agroecological approaches to land-use such as agroforestry.
Land-sharing
The UK needs land to be able to grow food, but it also needs to consider land for nature and climate. Some argue that to address these two needs we should adopt a ‘land-sparing’ approach to land use. This approach would leave more areas untouched for wildlife and re-wilding by concentrating food production into a smaller area, propped up by more intensive farming methods. But this approach is incompatible with the values of agroecology. A land-sparing approach would require greater use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, more intensive and lower-welfare livestock farms and economies of scale which would mean fewer people would be employed in farming.
Instead, we are proposing a ‘land-sharing’ approach, which adopts agroecological farming methods, such as mixed farming systems, agroforestry and recycling nutrients, to produce food in a way which cools the planet, regenerates natural systems and promotes biodiversity. Without making any other changes to our food system, adopting a land-sharing agroecological approach to farming would mean that land use goes up, as agroecological yields are lower per hectare, and this is something that we explore in Scenarios 1 and 2 of our report.
Localising food systems
Localising food systems is one of the key principles of food sovereignty. This is why our model has sought to intentionally reduce the amount of food the UK imports, and instead prioritise local food systems. Scenario 3 of our model shows how much land would be needed if we were to produce the vast majority of our food here in the UK using agroecological methods. This would mean reducing the amount of domestic-type foods that we import from overseas, but still importing goods that cannot be grown in the UK, such as rice, coffee and tropical fruit, putting an end to the export of animal products such as milk, lamb, beef, pork, eggs, and poultry meat and instead distribute them through regional food webs in the UK.
This shift away from global supply chains towards agroecological local food webs would enable the UK to have a more secure and reliable food supply, but it will require a significant upscaling of the local food sector in the UK. Our recently published “Local Food Growth Plan” report lays out a clear action plan for upscaling the local food sector in the UK; through better investment in local food infrastructure, cross sector collaboration, and ambitious public procurement policies.
Dietary change
Reducing imports without making changes to our diets, would also mean that the land area needed for food production would go up. So, in order to make our land use vision for agroecology and food sovereignty a reality, our model shows clearly that our diets will need to change. The recent Climate Change Committee report has said in no uncertain terms that if we want to transition to more climate-friendly diets we need to look at our meat consumption – setting targets for 25% less meat by 2040, and 35% less by 2050.
In our report, we go further by also taking into account food sovereignty and prioritising local British food systems, suggesting in our final two scenarios reduction of between 40 – 66% less meat in our average diets by 2050. This would also be accompanied by 33-66% less sugars, fats and oils, and doubling of the amount of fruit, vegetables and plant-based proteins (such as peas and beans) we eat compared to current levels.
These figures may seem daunting, but these changes wouldn’t be as scary as you might initially think. Our model suggests that we wouldn’t need to import any meat from overseas, and the meat we do eat would be produced solely by UK livestock farmers on diverse mixed farms, using agroecolgical farming methods such as conservation grazing, recycling food waste and layering production systems. Dietary change targets are also based on ‘average diet’, meaning that the extent to which people will be willing and able to change their diets will vary, allowing some people to eat more meat and dairy than others, for example.
Meeting climate and biodiversity targets
We acknowledge that shifting towards more sustainable and healthier diets will be a necessary change, but our model also acknowledges that in order to meet country-level climate and biodiversity targets some land may need to be freed up for carbon sequestration and wildlife. Therefore, Scenarios 4 and 5 represent two points on a spectrum of potential trajectories for UK land use, reflecting the trade-off between minimising the need for dietary change and freeing up more land to help meet nature targets.
It’s important to note that the final scenario which prioritises using land to meeting climate and nature targets still falls under a land-sharing approach, because while the woodlands and wetlands are sequestering carbon and providing space for wildlife, they are also being managed to produce timber, firewood and thatch, creating more jobs, and improving the resilience of these important ecosystems.
Holistic vision
Land use in the UK is a highly complex issue and requires a nuanced approach. This is why ‘Share The Land’ has been several years in the making. We’ve consulted with members, tweaked our model, and tried to ensure that it aligns with the numerous reports we’ve published over the years advocating for agroecological land use and local food systems. These have included ‘The Promise of Agroforestry’, ‘Horticulture Across Four Nations’, ‘Soy No More’ and ‘Vocal for Local’, among others.
‘Share The Land’ is an attempt to combine the findings and recommendations of these reports to present a holistic vision for an agroecological farming and land use system across the UK.
We know that there is no silver bullet fix for our farming and land use system, but we do know that we need to be bold and see wide systemic shifts in how we farm and manage land. Our report presents an honest picture of the real changes that need to be made, not only to how we farm and manage land, but also to what we eat and where this food comes from.
We will be working with Sustain to coordinate a collaborative response to Defra’s land use consultation and present our collective vision for an agroecological land-sharing land use system in the UK.
We will also be submitting our own LWA response, so if you are an LWA member and would like to input into our response then please join our online workshop on April 19th at 6pm (register here).
Heading image: Alex Toogood
