Sustainability of food dependent on adapting to the changing climate, according to UK Government

10 August 2009

Environment, food and rural affairs secretary Hilary Benn claims the UK needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate in order to maintain food security and sustainability.

In the country’s first food security assessment, Benn suggests the UK faces challenges to ensure the sustainability of healthy food. The assessment also states that the UK needs to adapt to the changing economic situation in order to ensure a secure food system for the future.

Benn stated, ‘While we know the price of our food, the full environmental costs and the costs to our health are significant and hidden. We need a radical rethink of how we produce and consume our food.

‘Globally we need to cut emissions and adapt to the changing climate that will alter what we can grow and where we can grow it. We must maintain the natural resources – soils, water, and biodiversity – on which food production depends. And we need to tackle diet-related ill health that already costs the NHS and the wider economy billions of pounds each year.

Also highlighted in the assessment is the availability and effective use of water to produce food – the need to get more crop per drop – and the depletion of fish stocks.

Benn concluded, ‘Our food strategy will need to cover all aspects of our food – production, processing, distribution, retail, consumption and disposal. And that includes the impact on our health, on the environment and future productivity, and on how we deal with food waste.’

Read full report here.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: policy

This story was published on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Europe, energy efficiency, knowledge, policy. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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