Climate Change: Food Supply Resilience

Lord Trees Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

One of the things the Government are doing is working to promote more sustainable farming, because sustainable farming will turn this around and make the difference. We must support our pollinators by looking at how we farm and what we spray on our farms. That is why I am very pleased to have recently been given the pesticides brief, and I will be working to see what we can do in that space.

Also, we have threats from non-native invasive species—the yellow-legged hornet is causing all sorts of problems. We are working very hard to tackle that as well, because there are threats from all sides, as the noble Lord says.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, at the moment there is little we can do to mitigate climate change and severe weather events, which this year are likely seriously to deplete our UK food production, both for arable crops and livestock. In these circumstances, does the Minister agree that the policy proposal in the Land Use Framework, published in March, to take 9%—a tenth—of our agricultural land out of food production is inconsistent with the Government’s avowed commitment to food security?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

It is also important to point out that in the Land Use Framework, the Government did make a clear long-term commitment to maintain overall food production in England by increasing farm profitability and productivity, and to develop particular sector plans, which is what farming was asking for. Through those sector plans, we can better underpin our food security and drive economic growth. We have a number of things in place to support that ambition. We are going to start with horticulture and poultry on the sector plans. We have set up, as the Batters review recommended, a farming and food partnership board. We are also looking at agricultural land classification data to protect our most important agricultural land.