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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the number of farms that have stopped growing food crops in the last 12 months.

Defra does not hold any data on the number of farms that have stopped growing food crops in the past 12 months. We produce statistical estimates of national crop areas each year but we do not track changes in land use on individual farms. Changes in national/regional areas can be seen in our annual publications but these could be due to weather, prices and numerous other factors. In addition, information is not collected on the intended end use of the crop so we cannot quantify for certain which crops are grown for food use. Our land area statistics are available at (Agricultural land use in England - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)).