At the recent Agri-TechE’s ‘Challenge Convention’ event, former science minister George Freeman MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture, delivered a stark warning and a call to action for UK agriculture. He emphasized the need for a dramatic policy shift to harness the cutting-edge science and innovation happening in Britain’s research institutes and universities. This reset, he argued, is crucial for helping British farmers produce more food with fewer resources, against a backdrop of increasing global uncertainty and volatility.
Freeman highlighted the urgent global challenge of feeding a world population projected to exceed 10 billion by 2050, using the same amount of land and half as much water and energy. He cited the impacts of climate change, the war in Ukraine, and ongoing geopolitical instability as exacerbating factors that make this mission even more urgent than when it was first outlined in Sir John Beddington’s Foresight report on Global Food Security nearly 15 years ago. Freeman painted a grim picture of potential mass migration, civil unrest, malnutrition, and famine if the world fails to rise to this challenge.
The UK, Freeman argued, is falling behind in this global race. He pointed to stagnating wheat yields, slower agricultural productivity growth compared to other countries, and record-high import reliance in key sectors like vegetables, fruits, and oils. He criticized the current orthodoxy of de-intensifying agricultural production and re-wilding productive farmland, describing it as “plain wrong and out of kilter with these global ambitions.” He also noted that even the EU has shifted its stance, launching a new Vision for Agriculture and Food to bolster its productive capacity. The US, too, has set an ambitious goal to increase food production by 40% by 2050 while halving its environmental footprint.
To address these challenges, Freeman outlined the 30:50:50 vision, a policy reset aimed at increasing the UK’s domestic food self-sufficiency from 60% to 75% over the next 25 years. This involves increasing food production by 30% by 2050 while reducing farming’s environmental footprint by 50% per unit of output. The vision focuses on three key areas: sustainable efficient production, data integration for a single SEP Index metric, and joined-up policy support across farming, regulation, and R&D.
The All-Party Group plans to advance this vision through three roundtable meetings, each focused on one of the three steps outlined in the 30:50:50 document. The outcomes of these meetings will inform policy actions needed to deliver on the Innovation Agenda for UK Agriculture. The recommendations will be presented to ministers at an APPG Agri-Science Summit in the summer. Freeman encouraged input from across the sector to build cross-party and cross-industry consensus around these urgent issues and the way forward.
