How we can improve food security in Britain | Letters

Richard Harvey and Joy Webb respond to an article by George Monbiot on the fragility of the global food system in light of the Iran war Although I agree with George Monbiot’s analysis of the serious risks that we face from a breakdown in the UK food supply chain, there are two important points we need to recognise (We’re letting big corporations gamble with our lives. Act now, or the food could run out, 25 March). First, we must seek to increase food production on UK farms because this has been falling for several decades. Food self-sufficiency in the UK fell from 78% in 1984 to 62% in 2024. The decline is largely due to the loss of farmland to non-farming use: buildings, roads and railways, conservation and wildlife schemes, solar farms and recreation. We need to plan for a scenario where imported food may not be readily available. Second, while we must encourage a more plant-based diet for health and environmental reasons, it is wrong to believe that this necessarily uses less land and resources than cow and sheep meat. Beef cattle and sheep are raised in the UK extensively on both improved and semi-natural grassland and mountain heath and bog. This land category makes up 38% of