ARTICLE
KICKING THE HABIT: FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- 16
- SEP
- 2021
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
What about the bigger picture? The current food system seems hard to justify against a backdrop of climate change, biodiversity loss and an ever-growing population presenting both malnutrition and obesity. TheCovid-19 pandemic demonstrated the fragility of our food supply where a high dependency on foreign imports operated. Many have advocated for agricultural intensification in maximising unit productivity of land, with private sector market forces prevailing. That prescription appears not to be working, even exacerbating declines is soil health, a rise in pesticide resistance, and in driving ever greater impacts on the environment of the UK and overseas. As the new words of ‘resilience’ and ‘regenerative’ pervade, and with the UK Government moving to reward farming practices that deliver environmental and wider societal outcomes, can we achieve better diets and environmentally benign, productive agriculture?