More than 10% of farmland in England is set to be diverted towards helping to achieve Net Zero and protecting wildlife by 2050, the Environment Secretary will reveal today. The Telegraph has the story.
Swathes of the countryside are on course to be switched to solar farms, tree planting and improving habitats for birds, insects and fish.
The move is part of a consultation being launched by Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, on how the competing priorities of food production, Net Zero and nature should be reconciled in England.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates that 9% of farmland would need to be removed from food production by 2050 to meet green targets, the Telegraph understands. A further 5% is expected to be mostly taken out of production owing to a decreased level of food output, and another 4% will share space with trees.
Mr Reed will insist that his framework will not impose changes on landowners, but the figures are likely to reignite Labour’s row with farmers who expressed concerns that the strategy could lead to the Government telling them what they can grow and where.
The Government will say that the land use framework consultation, which was first promised under the Conservatives, will protect the most productive agricultural land.
In a speech at the Royal Geographic Society in Kensington, Mr Reed will say: “Using the most sophisticated land use data ever published, we will transform how we use our land to deliver on our Plan for Change. That means enabling the protection of prime agricultural land, restoring our natural world and driving economic growth.”
The Government has ambitious targets to increase woodland in England by 20%, or about 265,000 hectares, by 2050, accounting for a third of the change in farm use. It has also set a target to build 1.5 million new homes, install hundreds of square miles of solar panels and onshore wind turbines, and protect 30% of the land for nature.
The UK is committed to reaching Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, meaning as much carbon is removed from the atmosphere as is produced. Tree planting targets are expected to be a major contributor to this, as is the restoration of peatland.
Some 70% of England is farmland, and a 9% reduction would bring this down by 760,000 hectares.
Farming groups have warned of growing threats to food security, expressing concern over the implications in the Government’s analysis. “Whenever the state gets involved, its tendency is to only become ever more prescriptive,” said Victoria Vyvyan, the President of the Country Land and Business Association.
“Government must build safeguards into the policy to prevent mission creep, or else it is entirely possible that, in years to come, the man from the ministry will be telling farmers what they are and aren’t allowed to grow, plant and rear on their land.”
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