Britain faces food shortages and rising prices due to extreme weather | Agriculture

The UK is facing food shortages and rising prices as extreme weather events linked to climate breakdown lower yields from farms here and abroad.

Record rainfall has left farmers in many parts of the UK unable to plant key spring crops such as potatoes, wheat and vegetables. The quality of the planted crops is poor and some rot on the ground.

Continued wet weather is leading to higher mortality rates for sheep on British hillsides and reducing milk production as some cows are unable to return to pasture.

Farming groups said Britain would become more reliant on imports, but wet conditions in European countries including France and Germany and drought in Morocco could mean there would be less food to import. Economists have warned this could lead to increased food inflation, which could lead to higher supermarket prices.

Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers Union, said markets had collapsed as farmers were unable to produce food in poor conditions. He said: We plan to import a lot more products this year.

One large retailer said that the wholesale price of potatoes had risen by 60% compared to the same period last year because potatoes were rotting on the ground.

Potato supplies have also been affected, with area planted falling by 10% last year as farmers switch to crops that are less dependent on the weather and more financially secure. Industry officials said they expected seedings to decline further by 5% this year.

Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, said: There are concerns we will never get that amount. [of potatoes] We have been in the past and in the future.

He said wholesale prices were too low for farmers to earn enough to cope with high fuel, labor and machinery costs, as well as the impacts of climate breakdown. We are not in a good position and we are not 100% sustainable.

Supplies of carrots and parsnips, which are left in the ground and affected by waterlogged soil, are also much lower than usual, leading to higher prices.

Martin Lines, CEO of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said: The impact in the UK this year will be significant for potato and salad crops. Farmers are already experiencing delays in planting operations and many fields are in poor condition. If you plant any at all, it's likely to be late, and you're likely to run out of root vegetables and potatoes this winter.

Some farmers have stopped planting plans altogether, choosing instead to leave fields fallow or switch to alternative crops. There may also be shortages of wheat, barley and legumes because the late season and low expected prices make growing them currently unprofitable.

Guy Singh-Watson, founder of organic vegetable box company Riverford, said he had planted very few vegetables until now. Some overgrown plants cannot wait any longer to get into the ground and must be discarded.

While retailers often turn to imports to fill gaps on shelves, farmers across Europe are enduring a similarly difficult start to the year, struggling to develop winter crops and sow spring crops.

France has had its worst start to the wheat growing season since 2020 due to cold and wet weather, while fruit and vegetable production in Morocco is being affected by drought. Morocco's second-largest reservoir will dry up, making it difficult to irrigate crops.

Amber Sawyer, an analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said last year almost a third of Britain's tomatoes and more than two-thirds of its raspberries and Brussels sprouts came from Morocco.

As climate change worsens, threats to domestic and international food supply chains will increase, Sawyer said.

Scientists say this is just the beginning of the food supply chain shock from climate breakdown and that the current system is unsustainable without rapid action to reduce emissions by stopping burning fossil fuels.

Dr Paul Behrens, Associate Professor of Environmental Change at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said: We should all be extremely concerned. We must make every effort to reduce emissions while transforming our food system.

He added: If we don't do that, we can expect massive disruption and rising prices in the next 10 to 20 years. When food prices soar, we always expect political instability. I hope people understand the urgent climate threat to near-term food security.

Fortunately, we know many ways to increase the resilience of our food systems while reducing food emissions. The biggest opportunity in high-income countries is to reduce meat consumption and find more plants in their diets.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/16/uk-facing-food-shortages-and-price-rises-after-extreme-weather The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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