Do UK wheat farmers have a moral responsibility to increase yields?!

This week I went to a conference with Dad organised by a fairly large UK agronomy company which sells seeds and chemicals and provides on farm agronomy advice to farmers.

We were told on more than one occassion that as British wheat growers we had a moral responsibility to increase our wheat yields. Because population is going to be 10 milllion by 2050 and we have to feed the world / Britain (whilst 1.1 million tonnes of wheat is needed for bioethanol production in the UK every year).

This was a powerful statement. I agree that we as a world population (not just British wheat farmers!) have a moral duty to ensure that we can feed everyone, good food, forever. And take this into consideration at all stages of the supply chain, as growers, consumers, corporate sector and policy makers.

However, there is a number of reasons this got my goat!

1. If we are trying to feed ourselves - how much wheat are we going to eat?! Admitedly wheat is a highly (perhaps overly) consumed part of our diets - and crops up in lots of different forms in processed food. However,  surely if UK food security is the objective we should be looking at our total food / nutrient production in this country and would likely consider reducing wheat production and producing other products we are currently reliant on importing? Fruit and vegetables for a start! At present we import the majority of our fruit and vegetables (and thus water and soil nutrients), reducing the ability of the counties of origin to feed themselves. The objective should be to be producing a varied diet for our own population on our own shores (there are many debates about whether this is possible - see Simon Fairlies article on 'Can Britain feed itself?'.

Admittedly - if we were to increase wheat yields on some of the land, this would open up more land for production of other foodstuffs needed for a nutritious diet. However it feels to me that this is not on the current agenda (EU policy does not encourage or support small-scale farming and horticulture).

2. If we really are being awfully compassionate about global food security - then increasing our wheat yields, (some of which will inevitably then be exported, after all its the balance of payments  the EU really care about here!) we are in effect, exporting subsidised (by CAP) grain onto the global market, which can actually undercut local production in other countries and compromise their own food sovereignity. That is the peoples right to feed themselves. Further increasing vulnerability of poorer nations to feed themselves.

3.  Increasing yield does not necassarily decrease hunger. Some people lack access to food regardless of the supply. It is a hugely complex issue, which has been incresasingly complicated by the inclusion of agriculture in the World Trade Organisation and the creation of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs. Opening the stock market up to food has opened it up to speculation, which also further complicates the issue with manipulation of supply and demand. It is a gross simplification to tell us that increasing our yields is going to feed the world and in many cases it may do just the opposite!

4. There is a limit to how much we can increase yields! We have already hit a yield plateau - the green revolution is loosing its might! A fuel and resource hungry agriculture is unsustainable in the long term and will inevitably create its own limits. We need to start learning more about our key resource; soil. Soil is a very under researched element of modern agriculture as most investment goes into developing new resistant seed varieties and chemicals that can create marketable products. There is evidence across the world to show that working with the soil and using agro-ecological methods works. Surely we should be looking at resource efficiency as much if not more than increasing yield.

5. Also is there really a problem with yield? We live in a world where 1 billion are hungry, yet 1 billion are obese. We waste 1/3rd of our food between field to fork. We feed over 30% of global grain to animals and then use some more to produce fuel!  If we really want to set out to feed everyone good food forever, then we need to change tact. We need to change what we eat (a little bit of meat, a lot of fruit and vegetables and maximum variety is the suggestion from scientist Colin Tudge).

6. To me this is clearly manipulation by the agri-business lobby to brainwash farmers (and consumers / policy makers) into thinking there is no choice but to increase yields. That we have to use their chemicals, buy their improved seeds and rely on genetic technology to do so. Because we have a moral duty.

It also feels like this lobby is undermining farmers confidence to produce food in the way they always have - because they are not producing enough. That their traditional knowledge of their land is not enough and they must rely on outside input. It feels a bit like this has already happened in much of Western Europe, but I hope that farmers of other parts of the world can manage to hang on to their agricultural wisdom and initimate knowledge of their soils, seeds and environments. It may well be that we need it!

Other elements of the conference included a poo pooing of the evidence against the impact of neo-nicotinoids on bee population and a general ridiculing of EU compliance policy!

On the bright side, I was really pleased to hear some more sensible perspectives; including Integrated Pest Management / Push -Pull factors, intercropping, green cover crops, weeds and pests as indicators of problems in the farming system, focus on soil biology and care (which always seems to get forgotten in the world of conventional farming!) and no till.

I was also, albiet controvesially, interested in some of the potential possibities for genetic technology, which if it were possible to lie outside the control of the seed and chemical industry (is that realistic?!), could potentially be an opportunity to reduce our dependency on chemistry to grow our food (or have I been brainwashed too?!)