Recent evidence from a major US-EU study concludes that innovation-led productivity growth has been the single most important factor limiting agricultural emissions globally, enabling more food to be produced with less environmental impact. Meanwhile, Defra’s National Security Assessment warns that biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse threaten global food supplies, making UK reliance on imports increasingly risky. And research led by Professor Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge further shows that farm policies which reduce UK food production can displace environmental damage to more biodiverse regions overseas, worsening global biodiversity loss. Together, this evidence reinforces the APPGSTA’s 30:50:50 mission – harnessing agricultural innovation to produce 30% more food with 50% less environmental impact by 2050 – as the basis for a radical reset of UK farm policy to deliver improved outcomes for food security, climate resilience and nature conservation, argues APPGSTA vice-chair Charlie Dewhirst MP.
With mounting pressures on currently farmed land, stalled agricultural productivity growth, and escalating global environmental risks, the UK faces a future in which domestic food supply may shrink just as climate shocks, geopolitical instability and biodiversity loss make global food systems more fragile.
Central to this agenda is the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture’s (APPGSTA)30:50:50 mission – a plan to harness the latest advances in agricultural science and innovation to raise UK farm output by 30% by 2050 while halving environmental impact, underpinned by a statutory target of 75% food self-sufficiency, up from 60% at present.