The first priority of any government is the safety and security of its citizens. This issue has come into sharp focus in recent months. The unprecedented wet weather means production of major crops in the UK are down 21.2% this year. The wheat harvest is expected to be down 26.5%. The record-breaking temperatures in the summer of 2018 saw onion yields down 40%, carrot yields down 25%, and potato yields down 20%.

Climate change is no longer an abstract threat confined to a post-apocalyptic future. It is a painful reality that many farmers are grappling with every day.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. The UK Government’s 2021 Food Security Report identified climate change and biodiversity loss as the greatest threats to UK food security. But UK Government appears blind to this risk, with no representatives from the conservation sector invited to this key summit.

Simplistic targets around maintaining or even ramping up the amount of food we produce in the UK are superficially attractive. Increasing the “productivity” of farmed land may seem like a sensible approach to improve our national security, but one which is ultimately rooted in the same mistakes that have led us to our current ‘polycrisis’ of supply challenges, climate change, nature loss, and obesity.

More tech, increased capital spend, and a dependence on fossil-fuel based inputs – the very ones which are fuelling the climate crisis which is making life difficult for so many farmers – are not the answers to a resilient and profitable farming sector. Intensive agriculture might increase food production in the short term, but its practices erode the natural capital that underpins long term sustainable production – those essential services provided by healthy soils, clean water and beneficial insects. Continued intensification has not even delivered good incomes for farmers, as farmgate prices remain catastrophically low.

Continuing on this path will drive further decline and only mean the problems created by climate change are intensified by degraded habitats, poor soils, and polluted waterways. There are no winners in maintaining this status quo.

If ever there was a time for a decisive transition towards food security policy rooted in a thriving natural world and free from dependencies on fossil fuels, this is it. A Land Use Framework that sets out a progressive plan for sustainably producing food in the UK whilst securing 30% of land for wildlife must be the starting point.

Nutritional food security is dependent on nature’s recovery and a stable climate – it’s time politicians recognised it.