Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage (a) growth and (b) production of food in the UK for the domestic market.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government published ‘The Path to Sustainable Farming: An Agricultural Transition Plan 2021 to 2024’ on 30 November. As we set out in this document, by the end of the agricultural transition we want to see a renewed agricultural sector, producing healthy food for consumption at home and abroad, where farms can be profitable and economically sustainable without subsidy.

‘The Path to Sustainable Farming’ provides detail on our plans to support farmers to increase their productivity in an environmentally sustainable way, including through the Farming Investment Fund. This will provide targeted support to businesses so that they can invest in equipment, technology, and infrastructure that will improve their productivity and deliver environmental and other public benefits.

The document also describes our plan to hugely increase the money available to farmers and land managers to invest in the environment through our Environmental Land Management scheme. These measures will ensure that food production today, does not come at the expense of food production tomorrow and that by having healthier soil, and cleaner and more plentiful water, we will have a more resilient base for food production.

This country has a proud agricultural heritage, and is fortunate to have the climate, landscape, and entrepreneurial farmers and growers to enable production of a diverse and delicious range of fruits and vegetables all year round. We produce 64% of our entire food supply need, and that increases to 77% for indigenous food that we can grow or rear here in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have been steady over the past 20 years.

Consumers also have access to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis, through international trade. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK’s overall security of supply.