Sustainable
agriculture in the UK
Summary
UK farmers
are struggling to adapt to their markets and to become economically sustainable
but there will probably never be a state where ‘sustainability’ is achieved and
the fall in their numbers stabilises. They
have always worked to maintain and improve the environment and government
policy changes will help them to do more of this in future. Farmers are so few
nowadays that they have little effect on the social sustainability of rural
areas but as they are mainly responsible for the landscape and how it looks
they have social impacts on tourism. The
growing importance of issues around food miles and the interest in local and
seasonal food will produce business opportunities for farmers, help to combat
greenhouse gases and have social impacts by improving diets.
Introduction
This
paper explores the economic sustainability of agriculture and its impact on the
environmental sustainability of the countryside. Agriculture also impacts on rural social
sustainability but less and less as the number of farmers falls. It has wider indirect social impacts though,
for instance, through the landscape, on tourism and, through the food industry,
on the quality of our diet.
Is UK farming
sustainable now?
The
government doesn’t think so. In its
“Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food - Facing the Future” [1]
it states that farming is underperforming in all three arms of
sustainability:
Economically
Profitability is low – farmers’
incomes have fallen to their lowest levels since the 1930s, the number of full
time farmers has fallen by around 40% since the 1980s and the number of farm
workers is down by over half[2]. Fewer farmers means less business for those
who supply goods to them and who buy their produce and so there are knock-on
effects affecting the rest of rural life.
Environmentally
On the plus side around
75% of Britain
is farmed so farming is responsible for creating and maintaining the wide diversity
of landscapes that surround us.
On the other hand farming
can be a cause of problems like water pollution from pesticides and fertilisers
and reductions in wildlife populations (biodiversity).
And farming could
increase the efficiency of its energy use to save fossil fuels and make a
greater contribution to reducing greenhouse gases.
Socially
Farming affects tourism
through its impact on landscape and its produce provides jobs in food
manufacturing.
Farming people are part
of rural communities and as their numbers fall the character of rural life
changes. Many of those living in rural
communities are urban-born and their ideas of how the countryside should be are
different to those of locals. They
increasingly affect the shape of the countryside and farmers have less and less
influence on it.
Low profits and a poor
public image have affected the self-esteem and quality of life of all those
involved in farming. Because there are fewer farmers, and because those
remaining are under pressure they are less likely to participate in community
life and there is now a serious disconnection between farmers and non- farmers
with neither understanding the point of view of the other.
So
what is sustainable farming?
“Sustainable” is a well
used word. The Strategy for Farming and
Food, mentioned above, for instance, uses it or ‘sustainability’ 67 times in 51
pages! Like all over-used words its meaning tends to vary and it can become
little more than a politically correct platitude. So it might be instructive to explore a
couple of definitions.
The Chambers Concise
Dictionary says:
Sustainability:
from the verb to sustain meaning: to hold up; to bear; to support; to
provide for; to maintain; to sanction; to keep going; to keep up; to
prolong; to support the life of.
The
most widely accepted definition of sustainable development is that offered in
the Brundtland report[3]:
"Sustainable
development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
From
these definitions farming needs to work in a way in which it is economically
sustainable – so that farmers have a long term future in the business whilst
maintaining (and improving) the environment and contributing to the social
success of rural communities and the success of the countryside as an area
which the rest of us want to enjoy. This
does not necessarily mean that the current number of farmers can be sustained,
or even that there is a particular number of farmers which is sustainable in
the long term. Economic forces will probably continue to reduce their
numbers. Neither is there some fixed
future ideal of a sustainable environment.
For instance no one seems to be thinking much about how much
biodiversity there should be long term. (See the section ‘Some problems’, below)
Farming’s
impact on the social sustainability of rural areas will get less and less as
farmer numbers fall and become a lower proportion of rural populations and
especially as more and more urban people move out to the countryside. (The rural population of England is
rising by around 100,000 a year[4]).
There
are worries that the changes in EU support for farming which are currently
coming in, because they encourage less extensive farming, will produce less
food. This will have with impacts on the food industry and produce changes in
the landscape which might affect the tourist experience. It is early days to know yet but farming may
not be sustainable at all in some of our tougher areas and it may revert to
wilderness with consequent reduction in farming populations and less appeal to
tourists.
Key
principles for sustainable farming and food
A
vision for a sustainable European agriculture
argues that agriculture
should be:
o
internationally
competitive without reliance on subsidy or trade protection;
o
rewarded
by the open market for its outputs including safe and good quality food;
o
rewarded
by the taxpayer for producing benefits that the open market cannot deliver -
like the work farmers do to maintain and improve the environment;
o
environmentally
sensitive, maintaining and enhancing landscape and wildlife and tackling
pollution;
o
socially
responsive to the needs of rural communities;
o
producing
to high levels of animal health and welfare; and
o
not
distorting of international trade.
Farmers are doing what they can to
achieve these goals already…
… after
all they need to be economically sustainable to stay in business. With hard farming times at least half of them
find income from other sources than farming, for example by developing and
letting surplus property on their land. This contributes to a sustainable rural
sector by providing homes and places of work and to the landscape because used
buildings are better to look at than derelict ones.
They also
get involved in farm shops and farmers’ markets which allows them to produce
what the market wants and get better prices. Farm shops and farmers’ markets
only take up a small share of the overall food market but they have wider
impacts as they help farmers to reconnect with non farming people. These
changes and the increasing demand for local and seasonal food are seen as a
major opportunity for farmers unable to compete with cheaper produce from
abroad.
Local
foods produce more local jobs and money remaining in a locality does
more work for that community than if it leaks away to external economies.
One outcome of the
growing centralisation of the food chain is the increase in unnecessary
movements of food, both within and between countries. Local food reduces damage
to the environment through fossil fuel emissions during transport and
congestion on the roads.
Farmers
are stakeholders in the countryside and work at maintaining and improving it. A recent report from the CPRE (Council for
the Protection of Rural England) and the NFU (National Farmers Union[7]
estimates that they do an estimated £400 million worth of unpaid work a year
for the environment. This is equivalent
to about £2,400 a farm.
Also fertiliser use has been decreasing steadily
since the 1980’s.[8] Crop
production has increased over the same period. So UK farmers are using fertilisers
more efficiently. Reducing fertiliser
use contributes to sustainability by saving the energy costs of their
manufacture and transport and reduces the risk of polluting streams and rivers.
Over recent years the quantity of pesticides used in
agriculture has remained largely unchanged but many of the more environmentally
damaging products are no longer used and the industry has developed a programme
of voluntary measures to encourage best practice[9].
Better use of pesticides means that they
are more effective at reducing the damage done by pests and diseases and do
less harm to non-target species.
Numbers of farmland birds are a good way to measure
biodiversity because they are fairly well up the food chain. If they are in good shape then so are the plants
and insects they feed on. Farmland bird
populations fell heavily from the 1970’s onwards as farming went all out to
maximise yields. Measures farmers are taking
nowadays are having an effect and the latest statistics show that farmland bird
populations have stopped decreasing.
Also[10],
since 1992 English and Welsh farmers have planted over 70 million trees and
woodland cover is nowadays double what it was in 1920. The reduction in the
length of hedges and walls which took place up to the end of the 1980s has
stopped and the number of lowland ponds is on the increase.
New arrangements from the EU for support of
agriculture brought in last year also encourage biodiversity. Farmers must farm to what is called Good
Agricultural Practice and there is extra support available from Environmental
Stewardship schemes to contribute towards the costs of environmental
investments.
What
more can farmers do?
Stewardship schemes
There are two new schemes[11]
Entry Level Stewardship and Higher Level Stewardship.
Entry Level Stewardship aims to encourage a large
number of farmers to improve the environment beyond what they are already doing.
It supports hedgerow management and stone wall maintenance for instance. The scheme has been used with enthusiasm by farmers
and over 2,700,000 hectares are now under agreement.
Higher Level Stewardship aims to deliver more
focussed environmental benefits in high priority situations and is flexible so
that plans can be tailored to support key characteristics of particular
areas.
Better farming systems
Organic farming and Integrated Farm Management are both
farming systems which adopt more sustainable methods.
Organic
farming[12] uses
resources produced on the farm itself as far as possible and aims for extensive
production which uses man-made inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and
animal medicines as little as possible.
Instead there is stress on crop rotations which balance soil fertility
and management which minimises disease risks.
Organic farming needs more labour and so produces
more jobs than conventional farming. It
also encourages biodiversity which in turn has social benefits.
.
Three
years ago it was reported that approximately half of consumers were buying organic
food. That figure has now risen to 65%[13]. However many of these purchases are
occasional and the main market for organic products is concentrated within only
about 7% of UK
households[14].
So whilst organic producers might argue
that their system is closest to truly sustainable farming they do not currently
have a big enough share of the food market to have a very significant overall
impact.
Integrated Farm Management[15]
may have a larger impact than organic in the long term. It combines traditional farming methods including
crop rotations with modern technology to ensure the highest standards of food
production whilst enhancing the environment. Pesticides and fertilisers are
used only when absolutely necessary to keep animals and crops healthy.
Some problems
Economic
1. Changing support for
agriculture will mean moving from a taxpayer-supported agriculture to one
driven by markets. It will produce
wholesale changes to the way farming is practised. Some areas, like our hills and uplands may
not be farmable this way and may be abandoned.
This will produce social impacts as farming people leave and
environmental impacts as ungrazed landscapes change to brush and scrub.
Visitors to these areas may not like this wilderness - we don’t know. If they stop visiting there will be further
knock on effects on local economies and social structures.
2. A good illustration of
the complexities that beset the struggle for more sustainable food production
is that of poly-tunnels. These have enabled British strawberry farmers to
extend the growing season from its original six-week period to one which goes from
early June to mid-August so saving imports and food miles. However, they are
considered by some as blights on the landscape.[16] How do we decide on complexities like this?
3. Small scale, localised
production should be more sustainable because it gives farmers better prices,
makes fresher, tastier food available to consumers and saves food miles. But as it becomes more common will producers
find it just as difficult to get satisfactory prices from big buyers as they do
with mainstream products now?
Environmental
4. No one has got to grip
much with the idea of managing wildlife.
Because 75% of our land area is farmed, mostly for food production we
need to consider how much biodiversity we need and what we need and where. Our present course of just more of everything
everywhere is not sustainable in the long term and will ultimately affect the
amount, quality and cost of our food.
Farmers are already worried about burgeoning populations of some species
like badgers and foxes which have no predators.
5. Another problem is if we
move to less intensive systems of agriculture we will produce less food. This will impact on jobs in the food industry
but, more important, with world food demand expanding will it mean we have to
destroy wild environments elsewhere to help feed everyone?
Social
6. An advantage supporters
of less extensive farming promote is that it produces more jobs. But in many rural areas there are difficulties
finding labour. And many of the jobs are
pretty menial, in unpleasant working conditions and for low pay.
7. Quality assurance, food
safety and other regulation is costly to supervise in small businesses.
Problems with heart versus head
8. Local food, small family
farms, organic - all seem right. They should be more sustainable than
intensive, large scale systems – we all agree that small is beautiful, but is
it inevitably? For instance supermarket
logistics are so efficient and move such huge quantities of food around that
their energy use may often be more efficient than local food moved small
distances but in relatively small quantities.
The answer to this question is not known and it and many others need
more research.
Sources
[1]Defra Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food -
Facing the Future http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/newstrategy/index.htm
[2] Commission for Rural
Communities, State of the Countryside
Report 2006 http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/
[3] Reading University, Agricultural Policy and
Development website – Environmental
challenges in farm management. http://www.ecifm.rdg.ac.uk/sustainable_agriculture.htm
[4] State of the Countryside
Report (see above)
[5] HM Treasury/ Defra report A Vision for the CAP http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/documents/international_issues/global_challenges/the_common_agricultural_policy.cfm
[6] Royal Agricultural Society
of England, Differentiation – a
sustainable future for UK
Agriculture http://www.rase.org.uk/activities/publications/articles/differentiation_report.pdf
[7] Council for the
Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and National Farmers Union (NFU) Living
Landscapes: hidden costs of managing the landscape http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/pub/pdfs/farming-and-food/agriculture/living-landscapes.pdf
[8] Environment Agency, Environmental facts and figures, fertilisers http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/yourenv/eff/1190084/business_industry/agri/fertlisers/?version=1&lang=_e
[9] Environment Agency, Environmental facts and figures, pesticides
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/yourenv/eff/1190084/business_industry/agri/pests/?lang=_e
[10] RuSource briefing
224 Agriculture protects the environment
[11] Defra
website – Environmental Stewardship Schemes http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/es/default.htm
[12] There
are many sources of information about organic farming. See for instance University of Aberystwyth, Organic Centre Wales. http://www.organic.aber.ac.uk/organics/define.shtml
[16]Royal Agricultural
Society of England, Differentiation, see above.
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