A Roadmap at last – but does it go far enough?

The Government's recently published Farming Roadmap is, on its face, a welcome (if long-awaited) development. After years of uncertainty for British agriculture – from the post-Brexit subsidy transition to the cost-of-living squeeze on farm incomes – having a clear direction of travel matters. Farmers, food producers, and the wider supply chain have been calling for long-term policy certainty, and a roadmap is at least a step towards providing it.

There is a fair bit to be cautiously optimistic about within the Roadmap, but a closer look reveals a gap between the issues the document identifies and how it suggests they can be addressed. The Roadmap rightly acknowledges that geopolitical instability and supply chain disruption places "greater strategic weight on domestic food production" and that maintaining current output will require "consistent output growth" as land is repurposed for environmental objectives. The analysis is sound; the level of ambition in the response falls short.

British farmers currently produce only around 65 per cent of the food we consume. We are not, by any reasonable measure, a self-sufficient nation. Yet the overarching goal set out in the Roadmap is merely to "maintain domestic food production", not to grow it. In a world of fractured supply chains, volatile commodity markets, and increasing climate risk to global harvests, this feels like a missed opportunity when the case for greater food self-sufficiency has never been stronger.

The counter-argument is familiar: increasing production sits in tension with nature recovery, water quality, and emissions reduction. These are real challenges. British farming must play its part in meeting environmental targets, and the industry is working hard to do so.  The transition to more sustainable land management where possible is both necessary and, in many cases, overdue.

Yet the Roadmap itself offers the rebuttal. In the Government's own words, "the most resilient farms are profitable precisely because they work with the environment, not against it." If that is true – and the evidence from regenerative agriculture, precision farming, and integrated land management increasingly suggests it is – then a sustainable increase in production is not only possible but desirable. Higher yields through better soil health, improved water management, and smarter technology need not come at the expense of environmental progress. Indeed, many of the practices that boost long-term productivity are the same ones that deliver for nature.

What is missing is the confidence to say so. Rather than framing food production and environmental stewardship as competing priorities, policymakers should set out an integrated vision in which both advance together. That means greater investment in research and development, support for new technologies and regenerative methods, and a subsidy framework that rewards farmers for producing more food more sustainably. Greater domestic production would provide additional choice and resilience as an integral part of our diversified supply chain.

It also means being honest about the strategic dimension. Food security is national security. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine demonstrated the fragility of international supply lines. High oil prices and continued geopolitical tension means that relying on imports for more than a third of our food is a vulnerability, not merely an economic statistic. A serious farming policy should treat it as such.

None of this is to suggest the Roadmap is without merit. Its emphasis on long-term environmental land management, its recognition of pressures facing farm businesses, and its commitment to stability in the transition away from the Basic Payment Scheme are all positive. But a roadmap is only as good as its destination. On food production – the most fundamental purpose of farming – the destination offered here is too modest.

British agriculture has the talent, innovation, and land to feed more of its own population. What it needs is a government willing to back that ambition. This Roadmap was the moment to do so, and it falls short. Hopefully, there will be opportunities to revisit that as the Roadmap is implemented.