The Guardian view on food and farming: climate chaos hits crops hard – and that should worry everyone | Editorial

BRits farmers are of course not the only ones to suffer from the effects of heat waves this summer. Through Europe and the Middle East, record temperatures threaten lives as well as livelihoods. France has known its largest forest fire since 1949, while across Europe, around 500,000 hectares of land have burned.

But farmers are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather conditions, which has a direct impact on crop yields. Thus, reports for a second consecutive year in which food producers in certain parts of the United Kingdom see dramatic falls in production should concern the British public. Access to food is frequently taken for granted in the richest nations in the world. But the increase in food insecurity is among the dangerous effects of the climate crisis, as well as the worsening of Trump prices, and geopolitical instability, including war in Ukraine.

Last year, the problem for British farmers was too much summer rain, leading to fields full of water and lost crops. This year, the challenge was the opposite: a prolonged and intense warm weather, leading to a large part of England officially declared in the drought. Dramatic local and regional variations complicate the image. While some farmers warn against small vegetables in supermarkets after disappointing early harvests, others have behaved fairly well. It is too early to draw firm conclusions or make decisive comparisons with previous years. What is already out of doubt, however, is the immense challenge to adapt to a modified reality.

During a recent water peak organized by the National Farmers’ Union, Steve Reed, environmental secretary, suggested that the government could support a change for rules planning, which facilitates the construction of tanks on their land. Ministers should work with experts in nature as well as farmers to develop this, and other proposals to stimulate resilience, in an environmentally friendly manner. Although tensions between the priorities of environmentalists and farmers are not part, there is also common ground, for example around the need for a stronger long -term water infrastructure and the planning of flood risks. Last month, a survey carried out by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit revealed that more than 80% of British farmers are concerned about the climate crisis.

These fears, as well as the falls of yields and income of cultures, also help to explain the furious reaction to the changes of successions introduced last year by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, restoring an exemption for agricultural land. Last week, the independent center for tax analysis proposed changes to the new rules that the Treasury should consider with care. The chancellor is right to target rich land owners and taxes. But ministerial antagonism towards rural communities is useless and plays only in the hands of populist law.

While farmers are the first to record the drop in yields and the smallest broccoli heads, productivity and resilience of agricultural land affects all those who are not isolated by the richness of higher food prices. Last month, a thinkank, the Institute of Autonomy, argued that the United Kingdom is particularly exposed to “climatflation” because of its high dependence on food imports. Extreme weather conditions could increase food prices by more than a third by 2050. In this spirit, the government should seek constructive commitment with farmers, while promoting healthy food policies.

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