Building on our food security

Building on our food security

Posted on Aug 23, 2023 by jsw

CPRE Cambridgeshire and Peterborough continues to be concerned about the ever-present threat to our farmland.  The DEFRA national land classification map shows just what a high proportion of Grade 1 and Grade 2 agricultural land – the “best and most versatile” -   is in Cambridgeshire.  In fact, the East of England has more Grade 1 and Grade 2 land than any other region in England.

View map

Despite this, and the food shortages experienced last winter as a result of climate change, the government, the unelected Greater Cambridge Partnership, some councils, and Cambridge University, continue to press for more building around Cambridge including on its Green Belt and on some of the best farm land in this country.

CPRE believes that the appropriate identification, protection and use of our most productive land for food production will be a vital part of our national food security. The Government Food Strategy published in June 2022 stated that: “We have some of the best performing farms in the world, with 57% of agricultural output coming from just 33% of the farmed land area”.

We need to preserve our most productive agricultural land from long-term loss, but the evidence shows that, in practice, our national policies do not achieve this; recent years have seen substantial losses to housing development that could have been accommodated on suitable brownfield land instead. 

To read CPRE’s report, Building on our food security, go to https://www.cpre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Building-on-our-food-security.pdf