We know that diversity generates resilience, but our current system of agricultural land management and food production seems to have forgotten that fact.
In a rush for streamlined efficiency and the concentration of power and resources into fewer companies, fewer crop varieties and fewer farmers, we have put ourselves at greater risk of the impacts of climate change, political instability and future pandemics. Rebecca Laughton, horticulture campaigns co-ordinator at the Landworkers’ Alliance, explains how a bold new model of food production and distribution, including scaling up horticulture in and around our cities, could be the solution.
Diversity generates resilience, right? School geography lessons taught us about how mixed farms spread risk, so that if one crop fails there will be others that are likely to succeed. Biology taught us how species that are part of diverse food webs, rather than reliant on just one or two other species for food, are more likely to survive.
Recently the value of diversity has been ignored in a rush for streamlined efficiency and concentration of power and resources into fewer and fewer companies, fewer crop varieties and fewer farmers. Today we need resilience more than ever, as we adapt to climate change, political instability and future pandemics. Yet we are in danger of eroding the very diversity that will provide that resilience.
In the 19th century, as urban populations boomed as a result of the industrial revolution, UK horticulture flourished thanks to an ecosystem that included market gardens around towns and cities and specialist fruit-growing counties and glasshouse areas. A succession of diverse seasonal produce became available throughout the year as a result of the range of early, mid-season, late and storable varieties of produce coming from regions with different microclimates.
Now, we rely on imports for 46 per cent of vegetables and 85 per cent of fruit. Existing UK growers are struggling financially, due to the low prices they are paid by supermarkets, as well as and difficulties in securing labour. Nearly half (49 per cent) fear they may soon go out of business (according to a 2023 survey by Riverford Organics), further increasing our reliance on imports.
This is a risky strategy at a time of climate change, as many of the countries we import from – Spain, Morocco, Kenya – are already experiencing water scarcity and climate instability. At the same time, we aren’t eating enough vegetables and fruit. According to Henry Dimbleby’s 2021 National Food Strategy, over three quarters (77 per cent) of adults eat less than the government’s Eatwell Guide recommendation of 5-7 per day, while a third of children eat only one portion per day. Diet-related ill health is already costing the NHS billions.
It doesn’t have to be this way. A horticulture strategy with diversity, equity and domestic production at its heart could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, build the resilience of our food supply improve public health – thus saving the NHS billions – and help create a more highly skilled UK workforce.