From Africa to South Asia, everywhere around the globe, climate change is putting pressure on agriculture. A phenomenon also observed in the United Kingdom.
2 mins
With our correspondent in the United Kingdom, Sarah Menai
Faced with climate hazards, British farmers say they are extremely vulnerable. For the second year in a row, the harvests were not good. In terms of yield, Great Britain is experiencing the second worst year in its history with catastrophic yields which raise fears of the worst for 2025. Wheat harvests are down 21% compared to 2023 for losses estimated at more than 700 million euros. And while European aid allowed British farmers to benefit from nearly three billion euros in aid each year for forty-six years, the agricultural world in United Kingdom believes today that since the Brexit the government no longer makes food production and security its priorities.
Heavy rain and cold
The record rains and the cold which settled in the United Kingdom from last autumn until the beginning of summer, have severely impacted the British agricultural world, which says it is on the front line of climate change. Freed from the CAP since the effective exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union in 2020, farmers find themselves all the more vulnerable as the British government has since concluded trade agreements with countries such as Australia or New -Zealand.
It is now estimated that only 52% of the food British people eat is produced locally. Figures in continuous decline since the 1980s worry James Small, a farmer who took over his parents’ cattle farm in the southwest of England: ” There is a real danger, we should be able to produce our own food. We must turn the tables and try, why not, to achieve self-sufficiency closer to 90%. »
Starmer, what agricultural policy?
Like James Small, many British farmers are worried about their future. Last March, some demonstrated in front of the British Parliament to raise awareness about their situation and call on the government to do more to support national food production. They are now waiting for Keir Starmer to present his post-Brexit agricultural policy to them.
Also readUnited Kingdom: British farmers rage against variable geometry standards