A complicated relationship

The relationship between farming, nitrogen, and the environment is a complicated one. On the one hand, nitrogen is an essential component of healthy plant growth and is often a limiting factor in the growth rate of crops. As a result, for centuries farmers have made efforts to artificially increase the level of nitrogen in their soils to produce more food from smaller areas of land.

However, too much nitrogen can create huge problems for the wider environment. Nitrous oxides are potent greenhouse gases, with a warming effect 300 times greater than that of CO₂, it is a significant contributor to global warming. It can also be a serious pollutant and cause severe disruption to ecosystems, particularly freshwater, estuarine, and coastal habitats, by creating an imbalance in nutrient availability.

The 20^th century saw both the development of synthetic chemical fertilisers and the rapid intensification of agricultural systems in the UK. The result - a huge increase in the amount of nitrogen applied to our landscape and the dominance of farming systems which relied on additional inputs to maintain high levels of food production.

At the same time, we have witnessed terrible wildlife declines that have decimated our countryside in recent decades. The UK is in the bottom 10% of countries globally for biodiversity. We have witnessed a 41% decline in our wildlife species since the early 1970s, largely driven by damaging agricultural practices, and 15% of our species are threatened with extinction.

This is bad news. A healthy and thriving natural world is essential for supporting a resilient food system. Healthy soils, clean water, and thriving populations of pollinating insects all provide crucial ecosystem services which underpin sustainable food production. Declines in these life support systems have led to a regressive cycle of even further reliance on synthetic chemicals to replace the services provided by nature, but the cracks in this system are already starting to appear.

A perfect storm

We are now seeing that rather than increase food security, the reliance on inputs has only served to undermine food system resilience in the UK. The intensification of agriculture in the 20^th century, coupled with the degradation of the life systems which underpin sustainable farming, has left food production in the UK more exposed to shocks in global market supply chains.

The ongoing crisis in Ukraine has seen synthetic fertiliser prices sky-rocket, meaning that farming systems which rely on these chemicals are not only environmentally unsustainable in the long term but also uneconomic. The conflict is also resulting in global shortages in grain and wheat, putting further pressure on our food systems in the UK, particularly intensive livestock farming which relies on feedstocks.

Resilience to future system shocks

This is not a one-off. The increasing effects and impacts of climate change over the coming decades will cause further disruption to global supply chains - we should not see the current global supply chain crisis as an exceptional event. Last year, the UK Food Security Report 2021 identified climate change and biodiversity loss as the two largest threats to food security in the UK in the mid to long term.

The IPCC’s most recent report on the impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability to climate change makes for stark reading, and sets out not just the scale of the challenge we face in addressing the climate crisis, but the world we are heading into and risks that we face if we do not act now. Without meaningful action to address the dual climate and biodiversity crises, the risk to our future food security will only increase.

Repairing the relationship

Today’s announcement by Defra goes someway in recognising that farming’s reliance on artificial inputs is strained, but addressing this issue requires more than short-term interventions - what is required is a more fundamental and widespread shift away from conventional agriculture policy towards one which sees farming and the environment as interdependent.

Field studies have shown that by working with nature rather than against it, we can ensure that crops are provided with the nitrogen they need to produce nutritious food. Planting legumes, plants which “fix” nitrogen into the soil, has been shown to provide over 400kg of nitrogen per hectare. This not only reduces reliance on synthetic fertilisers, it also avoids the environmental cost of applying high levels of concentrated nitrogen and improves overall soil health.

A food and farming transition

Now that the UK is free from the Common Agricultural Policy, which governed payments for farmers in the EU, there is the opportunity to move towards a system in which farming and nature are recognised as mutually beneficial. Instead of paying for farmers to farm, public money will instead reward them for the provision of “public goods” which aren’t rewarded through consumer markets – such as restoring soil health, protecting rivers from pollution, and planting hedges to support insect populations.

If the government can get the detail of delivery right, this approach has the potential to truly reform the way we farm in this country. The government must recognise that supporting farmers to work with nature will not only halt wildlife declines in the UK, but will also create more resilient and sustainable farm businesses as we adapt to a changing climate. Short term support to maintain current systems of intensive agriculture will only entrench a reliance on inputs which are not only vulnerable to supply chain disruption, but also makes the wider food system more vulnerable to other shocks and stressors going forward.