Country overview
Agriculture in the United Kingdom comprises 70% of total land area, employs 1.5% of the workforce and contributes 0.6% of GDP. Despite high levels of skills and technology, fertile soils and subsidies, farmers’ incomes remain comparatively low. These low earnings, as well as high land prices and a shortage of available farmland, have discouraged young people from joining the industry. Agriculture also accounts for 11% of greenhouse gas emissions and is the biggest cause of wildlife loss, with a 67% decline in the abundance of priority species since 1970 and 13% of these now close to extinction.
The United Kingdom’s “food production to supply” (or self-sufficiency) ratio is estimated to be 61% for all food in 2018 and 75% for indigenous types of food. Decades of policy to produce cheaper food have led to environmental degradation and spiralling ill-health. Farm gate prices remain low: of the £121 billion agri-food sector in 2017, only 8.5% of this (£10.2 billion) was returned to agriculture, of which about £3 billion came from public subsidy. The United Kingdom has the third-cheapest food among developed countries, but the highest rates of domestic food insecurity in Europe (a function of wealth distribution and the ability of individuals to access healthy food). Meanwhile, issues of how best to use land are often a source of contention and polarisation.
The cost of one diet-related illness – Type 2 diabetes – to the National Health Service (NHS) is nearly £10 billion a year. Costs to the NHS attributable to obesity are projected to reach £9.7 billion a year by 2050, with its wider costs to society estimated to reach £49.9 billion a year.
The case for serious, urgent and systemic reform of the food and land use system is clear. The government’s commitment to a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, as well as its draft Environment Bill, includes ambitious goals for food and land use (which the National Farmers’ Union in England and Wales has accepted and brought forward to 2040). England has commissioned a year-long consultation exercise to establish a National Food Strategy, while Scotland has proposed a Good Food National Bill.
Learn more about the UK: Read our global report or the United Kingdom country pages.
FOLU in the United Kingdom
In the UK, we work in partnership with the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. The FFCC is an independent enquiry, chaired by Sir Ian Cheshire, into the future of the UK’s food system. Its Commissioners were drawn from farming and food businesses, public health and citizens’ groups, think-tanks and universities, all committed to tackling the challenges faced by the sector. Having published two flagship reports – ‘Our Future in the Land’ and ‘Field Guide for the Future’, which were widely praised, the Commission is now starting to implement some of its recommendation.
The Food and Land Use Coalition is also contributing to the National Food Strategy, led by Leon restaurant founder Henry Dimbleby, and is developing long-term pathways for sustainable food and land use systems through the work of the FABLE Consortium, led by FABLE members the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the University of Oxford.
FABLE in the United Kingdom
Participating institutions: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH); University of Oxford
Team members: Charles Godfray (University of Oxford), Jim Hall (University of Oxford), Paula Harrison (UKCEH), Nicholas Leach (University of Oxford), Alison Smith (University of Oxford)
Publications: 2019 Report of the FABLE Consortium. Pathway for the United Kingdom.