Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the use of grade 1 to 3A agricultural land for growing (a) biofuels and (b) animal feed on food resilience; and if he will make a statement.

The UK has a high degree of food security which is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 61% of all the food we need, and 74% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year, and these figures have changed little over the last 20 years. For the cereals crops that are produced domestically – such as for human consumption and animal feed – the UK is 88% self-sufficient.

The first UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) was published in December 2021. The UKFSR covers food security in the widest sense from global food availability and sustainability to domestic supply chain resilience, household food security and food safety. The report describes trends in land use in the UK to have been generally stable over the past 30 years. Defra will continue to monitor these trends in light of competing pressures on land use.

In 2020, 121 thousand hectares of agricultural land in the UK were used to grow crops for bioenergy. This area represents just under 2.1% of the arable land in the UK. 30% of land used for bioenergy was for biofuel (biodiesel and bioethanol) for the UK road transport market with the remainder mostly used for heat and power. Within the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation there is a cap on the total amount of crop derived biofuels that can be used. In 2022 this currently stands at 3.67% of total fuel under this scheme.

The demand for biofuel crops such as wheat and sugar beet is subject to global market prices and supply. For farmers, the opportunity to sell into biofuels offers a secondary market for their surplus or lower quality crops and associated agricultural residues. Growing crops for the biofuel sector offers farmers more routes to market for their harvest and flexibility in their crop rotations. However, consideration must also be given to land biodiversity and carbon-store value.

For the livestock sector, and meat production, animal feed is a vital input. Cereals and oilseeds make up a significant proportion of animal feed, many of which are grown by our great British arable farmers. Resilience for animal feed is supported by the ability to access global markets to buy and sell cereals, alongside other necessary feed ingredients.