Health

Science helps us to produce cheap and plentiful food | Letters


Caroline Lucas (Farming with nature helps wildlife, and humans too, Journal, 18 July) accuses agrochemical companies of “seeking to undermine the transition to environmentally friendly farming”. This statement could not be further from the truth. We are on the brink of the next agricultural revolution; advances in science and agricultural technology are helping to ensure a supply of plentiful and affordable food while reducing the impact on the environment. Our member companies play a critical role in supporting farmers on this journey by providing biological, seed-breeding, data, robotics and pest management solutions that go beyond chemicals.

To help fight climate change, we aim to be as productive as possible on the land we have. By using crop protection products, farmers are able to maximise the productivity of existing farmland, resulting in more land for nature. An organic and low-yield farming system would require more land to be brought into production for yield levels to be maintained, having significant impacts on nature. Indeed, researchers from Cambridge University recently found that high-yielding farming delivered better outcomes for biodiversity, compared with low-yielding systems.

The RSA Food Farming and Countryside Commission report warns that climate change will continue to cause diet-related ill-health, yet scaremongering about pesticides is only likely to exacerbate the problem, discouraging consumers from making healthy choices by making them fearful of conventionally produced fresh fruit and vegetables without reason.
Sarah Mukherjee
CEO, Crop Protection Association

Caroline Lucas, in opposing high output farming, risks the very outcomes she rails against. She is wrong to claim that farmers who neither control the seasons nor the weather do not work with nature. She is also wrong to suggest that modern farming contributes to an unhealthy diet. In the past, some farming practices have been damaging, but it is also the case that modern farming is rapidly adopting more sustainable production systems and continues to deliver many benefits – not least a wide variety of good-quality, affordable food.

It speaks volumes that the RSA report she cites is silent on the issue of food prices. She implies that under her proposals food would remain affordable. Having worked on these issues for more than 40 years, my calculations suggest that if we adopted her approach to farming the cost of food and drink for a household with two children would rise by about 20%.

Has she considered the social consequences for the 8 million Britons living in food poverty? Some of the largest increases in price would be for fresh vegetables and fruit. As for social equality, her manifesto would see a severe reduction in livestock populations, resulting in only the rich enjoying meat in their diets.

Independent research is clear; the only way to solve the trilemma of delivering affordable food, a more sustainable farming industry, and mitigating climate change is to adopt the fruits of science and technology to increase output per hectare.
Séan Rickard
Newton Blossomville, Bedfordshire

Garden Organic, the UK’s leading charity supporting organic growing and gardening, strongly endorses Caroline Lucas’s article. Lucas urges the need for agroecology and, by definition, organic approaches to growing (and gardening), which will address all the key issues raised in the RSA report.

Private gardens, allotments, school gardens, playing fields and community growing spaces amount to over half a million hectares of land in this country. This gives enormous opportunities for ordinary people to contribute to these recommendations, and help save our country’s wildlife. Not using pesticides, encouraging biodiversity and feeding the soil life are all tenets of organic growing. This is not simply the responsibility of the farming community. We can, and should, all make a difference.
James Campbell
Chief executive, Garden Organic

Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.