Since Labour came in to power, Rachel Reeves has been under pressure to close a £22 billion hole in the budget. In early March this year, the government stopped any new applications to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). This left would-be ecological farmers in the lurch, their plans to sow wildflowers, apply green manures, and build hedgerows abandoned amidst a funding crisis. The scheme is under review. But should politicians view nature friendly farming as an investment, rather than spending?
Unlike most other government spending, the SFI could produce a return. Payments to farmers to use less chemicals and create more habitats for nature means the food that they produce is often organic. Organic food prices are too high because supply does not meet demand. More organci food means that markets in organic food will grow. Greater consumption of organic food means greater health and wellbeing and less health costs to the NHS. In 10,000BC I present the potential savings to the NHS and wider society that could be created through a real food economy. Poor diet costs the UK around £75 billion every year, which means the government could afford to spend £15 billion and gain a return on investment of 5 to 1.
How would we spend the money? More farmers would be encouraged to embrace ecological farming and farmers would be paid to engage with their customers. Ecological farmers embrace diversity as a way to outwit pests and disease; a diverse planting plan means a diverse diet. Investment in leadership and entreprenuerial talent in the organic sector with support for more mainstream organic brands would help to break the luxury, high end association with organic foodstuffs. Tax breaks on organic farm income would support organic farmers further. Equity relief would encourage investment in organic farming. Under the SFI there would be a longer conversion period of ten years, rather than two, for conventional farms to transition to certified organic, allowing for organic yields to match conventional. Organic certification would be funded. Academic research into plant guilds and livestock would develop organic varieties. Marketing costs and direct sales schemes could also attract funding. TV advertising, billboards, signage in supermarkets, free tasters, community cooking classes, meet the farmer days, pick your own, farm cafes and farm shops would all help to reconnect the consumer with where their food comes from and to embrace whole foods.
In 10,000BCI argue that a real food economy is worth investing in as as much as mobile phone technology was in the 1990s. With enough political will, and vision, real food could revolutionise our relationship to farms, and food. Britain is the worst consumer of ultraprocessed foods in Europe, our health costs are soaring, we need a revolution.
Further investment in agriculture would be raised through new farmers. Britian’s farming population is in decline. Could it be that agroecological farming that embraces creativity and a relationship with the land is a more inviting propect than industrial, chemical farming? If half the number of farmers who studied agriculture went on to becomes farmers, there would be a million new farmers by 2055. 30,000 new farmers a year, I argue in 10,000BC could raise a minimum of £250,000 each in start up capital, land and housing. That amounts to an investment of £7.5 billion annually in the rural economy. Each farmer would come to employ farm labourers amounting to circa 90,000 new jobs in farming every year.
An agroecollogical model does not just feed people well, but it also, sequesters carbon, protects waterways, nourishes the soil, creates wildlife habitats and, little mentioned, has the potential to stimulate the economy. Farms become places of recreation inviting the consumer to “get on my land”, not “get off my land”. Intensive horticulture and agroeforestry systems maximise the produce gained from the land. Fertility of the soil builds naturally.
Overall, billions are saved via the health economy, further tens of billions are saved in natural capital, and yet more billions are raised in private equity invested in a new wave of ecological farms. The SFI was a step in the right direction, More ecological farms means more organic food means more people able to buy organic food. With greater funding the SFI could be the key to providing “organic food for all” while bringing billions to the UK economy in savings and investment.
Read more about “Organic Food For All” in Chapter 6 of 10,000BC here
10,000BC 