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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the proportion of food (1) grown, and (2) consumed, in the UK.

The Government has a manifesto commitment that 'we want people, both at home and abroad, to be lining up to buy British'.

To increase both domestic and overseas demand, we will use the UK's growing reputation for high-quality food and drink produced to high standards of food safety, animal welfare and sustainability.

We are working with the public sector to encourage them to buy seasonal and local produce, encourage variety in diets and support local businesses. This includes promoting the high standards of British produce.

We will always champion our farmers and producers, supporting them to grow more of our great British food, and to provide a reliable and sustainable food supply to the British public.

Farming efficiently and improving the environment can go hand in hand. This does not have to be a trade-off, as many land management activities will benefit the environment as well as productivity. Our future farming policy will not only reward a range of environmental improvements, but also support investment in technology and research to improve productivity – helping farmers to produce the high-quality food we are renowned for.

The new Farming Investment Fund will provide grants to farmers, foresters and growers (including contractors to these sectors) so that they can invest in the equipment, technology and infrastructure that will help their businesses to prosper, while improving their productivity and enhancing the environment. These grants will help producers to focus on more efficient production methods that will reduce resource costs, improve yields, and give them a better return.

These initiatives together with our new Farming Innovation Programme, a farmer-led funding programme for research and development to boost innovation and improve the productivity and prosperity of England’s agricultural and horticultural sectors, will provide a catalyst for growth for all regions of the UK.

Our food security depends on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable export routes. Overall, we produce 60% of all the food we need. That figure increases to 74% as a percentage of the food which UK conditions allow us to grow or rear in the UK, for all or part of the year. These figures have changed little over the last 20 years. UK consumers have almost constant access through international trade to food products that we cannot produce here, or can only produce for some of the year; this also supplements our excellent domestic production. Importantly, this also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.