Net Zero, Food and Farming: Climate Change and the UK Agri-Food System

This book examines the implications of the net zero transition for food and farming in the UK and how these can be managed to avoid catastrophic climate change in the crucial decades ahead.

For the UK to meet its international obligations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, nothing short of a revolution is required in our use of land, our farming practices and our diet. Taking a historical approach, the book examines the evolution of agriculture and the food system in the UK over the last century and discusses the implications of tackling climate change for food, farming and land use, setting the UK situation in an international context. The chapters analyse the key challenges for this transition, including dietary change and food waste, afforestation and energy crops, and low-emission farming practices. This historical perspective helps develop an understanding of how our food, farming and land use system has evolved to be the way that it is, and draws lessons for how the agri-food system could evolve further to support the transition to net zero and avoid catastrophic climate change.

Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will be essential reading to students and scholars of food, agriculture and the environment, as well as policymakers and professionals involved climate change policy and the agriculture and food industry.

Neil Ward is Professor of Rural and Regional Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, UK. He was UEA’s Deputy Vice Chancellor (2014–2021) and was formerly the Director of the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University (2004-2008). He has worked on 50 funded research projects examining agriculture, environment, food and rural development, served as a Cabinet Office advisor on agriculture and rural affairs and has appeared before numerous parliamentary select committees.