A new consultation on the strategic approach to managing land use in England has been launched today. Despite reassurances that “This Government has a cast-iron commitment to maintain long-term food production” and that “The primary purpose of farming will always be to produce food that feeds the nation” we worry that farmland that is considered marginal and less ‘productive’ will be a target for changing use.
In an interview on national radio prior to the launch, we heard Henry Dimbleby citing an estimate that “20% of our farmland produces about 3% of our calories.” But this is surely the wrong metric to be judging land use on. We should be looking at the relative nutritional value of what’s produced on that land, for example sheep meat from hill farms. We also note that government emphasises the protection of “our highest quality agricultural land.” We hope that the measure of quality is not too narrowly focused on one metric like calories.
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