Climate change making food prices more volatile, campaigners warn
Climate change is making the price of food more volatile and British households are not equipped to cope, campaigners have warned.
Speaking ahead of the Government’s Farm to Fork summit, Food Foundation executive director Anna Taylor said the “failures” of the current food system were impacting both farmers and consumers.
She said: “Inflation may be out of the news but a basic food basket remains 25% higher than it was two years ago and wages have not kept pace.
“The result is eight million adults and three million children living in food insecurity and struggling to put food on the table. But it’s not just citizens who are struggling. At both ends of our supply chains, the failures of our current food system are felt."
The Farm to Fork summit, hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Downing Street on May 14 will discuss food production and security.
It comes against a backdrop of challenges for farmers, from an “unprecedented” wet winter, to Brexit trading delays, and ongoing high costs such as fertilisers.
According to the Met Office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell from October 2022 to March 2024, the highest amount for any 18-month period in England.
This has led to farmers’ fields being so waterlogged that they cannot be planted, or too wet for tractors to apply fertilisers, leading to poor crop condition.
Tom Clarke, farmer and chairman of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) cereals and oilseeds sector council, told the briefing: “It’s been a hell of a year. Farmers across the UK are really on the brink.
“This year the country is going to be growing, and therefore very likely harvesting, less food.
“I’ve had fields that will remain uncropped for the first time this year. Those crops that have gone in are in very bad condition, there is high levels of disease, fertilising is late or has been missed.”
David Blacker, a farmer from York, said weather conditions over recent months were “unprecedented”.
He said: “In my farming life I have never known it be so wet for so long.
“Those who didn’t plant before autumn have not had an opportunity at all to plant a crop. Normally you get a chance in autumn or spring. There was a window in September, but by October it had gone.”
Analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) estimates that the production of wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape may be down by four million tonnes compared to 2023, a reduction of 17.5%.
The ECIU said there was also a risk that the price of staples such as bread, beer and biscuits could increase as the poor harvest may lead to higher costs.
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