Introduction
The current simply answer to that question is, ‘not under current practices. However simple answers are always the best approach to complex issues and the WEU will explore over 2 articles the problems being faced, why farming is so important to England and some ideas to improve the situation.
Brief overview to the problem of producing food
Despite our countryside, our history of farming, and our advanced economy, England today cannot feed its own population without relying heavily on food imports. We have let land be lost, supply chains be outsourced, and domestic food production fall below 60%. If our external food supply was disrupted, even for a few weeks, the consequences could be immediate and severe.
However, with serious reform, England could become 80–100% food self-sufficient. That doesn’t mean total isolation, and it doesn’t mean banning bananas or chocolate. But it would mean being able to feed every person in England from English land if we had to. It would mean keeping supermarket shelves stocked and prices stable, even in a global crisis.
So, what has gone wrong? Why is a country with millions of hectares of farmland now so dependent on imports? What are the real risks we face? And what can we actually do to fix it?
The WEU wants our members to be informed and understand the full picture:
- The real problems with our food system, including the numbers most people never see.
- The solutions that could make England food-secure again, if we act now.
(* the following information has been taken from a wide range of media outlets and sources. The figures are varied across these research / media sources and as such can only be taken as a guide)
Part One: The Crisis We’re Not Ready For?
England is walking a food security tightrope. Most people don’t realise it, but our food system is dangerously exposed. We import nearly half of our food. If the boats stop coming, the shelves could empty within weeks or days.
In 2023, the UK produced only 54% of the food it consumed. Back in the 1980s, it was around 78%. For England, which is densely populated and heavily urbanised, the situation is even worse.
The Numbers You Need to Know
- Food import reliance: 46% of UK food is imported
- Fruit imports: 84% of fruit comes from abroad
- Vegetable imports: 46%
- Fruit self-sufficiency: 18%
- Vegetable self-sufficiency: 55%
- Potato self-sufficiency: 71%
- Food waste: 9.5 million tonnes thrown away every year
- Total food energy needed for England: 47.9 trillion kilocalories per year
- Available farmland: 8.9 million hectares
When viewing these figures, you can see we are not producing enough, we are wasting too much, and we are burning land on inefficient uses.
The Land Problem
Over 60% of farmland is used for livestock. Beef alone takes up 40% of farmland, yet it provides only a small percentage of intake. That is not sustainable. And to make matters worse, government land use plans could see us lose another 10% of farmland by 2050. However, this policy is being hotly debated at the moment!
Riverside land is being taken out of use to meet environmental targets. Urban sprawl keeps creeping over fertile fields. Yet there is no plan to protect the land we actually need to survive and produce food on.
Understanding Global Dangers and Local Consequences
When we rely on other countries for food, we expose ourselves to problems beyond our control:
- Climate issues are already disrupting harvests across Europe and Africa
- War and geopolitics can block trade, as we saw with Ukraine and grain exports and now an unstable world.
- Oil price shocks drive up costs across the food chain and transport costs
- Export bans from big producers can appear overnight
If any of these hits hard, or at the same time, we don’t have the reserves, farms, or supply chains to cope. That comment isn’t meant to alarm you but to make you ponder why this has been allowed to happen.
Understanding The Economic Impact
The food and farming sector is not just about farmers. It supports over 4.4 million jobs and adds £146.7 billion to the UK economy. Any disruption doesn’t just hit your dinner table, it also hits your job, your bills, and your community.
Farmers themselves are declaring that they struggling. Nearly 1 in 5 mixed farms ran at a loss between 2020 and 2023. About 1 in 4 earned less than £25,000. And if 5% of farmers left the industry, we’d lose over 10,000 farms. That would be a massive impact for rural areas and a direct threat to national food security. However, it has to be acknowledged that there is currently two very different perspectives on this.
This Clash of Cultures is highlighted by a growing divide between urban and rural perspectives. Some see farming as old-fashioned, unprofitable and farmers as just complaining and essentially rich. Others see that without farmers, there is no food and they are essential to stability within our community, Limited food, limited selection in supermarkets, restaurants struggling to offer choice. That view often highlights that ‘the land doesn’t plough itself’.
The next part of these articles will explore even further some of the challenges and potential solutions.