Sustainability in UK Agriculture: Challenges, Opportunities, and Insights

In recent years, the agricultural sector has seen growing pressure from an increasing number of sources to become ‘more sustainable’. However, with so many interested parties, many of which have very valid but sometimes competing objectives, it can be very difficult to implement change.

Yet, as an industry, we know we must continue to strive towards a more sustainable future for UK agriculture. What that is and how it is measured is the subject of the latest CPM Real Results Roundtable where BASF Public and Governmental Affairs Manager, Jon Williams brought together the farm manager of the Raby Estate, Philip Vickers; AIC head of sustainability, Vicky Robinson; and Professor Paul Wilson from the University of Nottingham to share their insights on the subject.

“Facilitating these types of discussions and bringing them to the fore is crucial for progress,” says Jon.

“Sustainability is an incredibly complex topic – underpinned by the cycles and interconnected webs of nature, but with added layers of economic and societal needs.”

In the CPM Roundtable the contributors acknowledged just some of the challenges - discussing the pros and cons of measuring carbon footprints at various levels of production – farm, hectare and functional unit such as a kilogram of wheat.

“If you’re a low-input system, are you more environmentally sustainable than a farmer producing vast quantities of calories per hectare?” asked Jon.

They also highlight some of the unintended consequences of focusing on just one on aspect of sustainability. Considering emissions alone, doesn’t account for the impacts on biodiversity, for instance and then there are the two other pillars of sustainability which cannot be ignored – economic and social.

The breadth of the conversation didn’t end there. Jon, Philip, Vicky and Paul also talked about who is best placed to define sustainable practice, quantity versus quality of data and the need to produce affordable (as well as sustainable) food, were also discussed.

While there are undoubtedly challenges Jon was keen to remind contributor that the food system isn't broken. “It's feeding vast quantities of people and doing it in a responsible manner – environmentally-minded as well as production-minded,” he said.

north_east To read the full article, check out the November/December issue of CPM.