Policy research
Resource depletion
Our report reveals that supplies of phosphate rock are running out faster than previously thought and that declining supplies and higher prices of phosphate are a new threat to global food security. A rock and a hard place: Peak phosphorus and the threat to our food security highlights the urgent need for farming to become less reliant on phosphate rock-based fertiliser.
Sustainable animal feed
Our report, Feeding the animals that feed us, opens the urgently needed debate on how we can move away from feeding our farm animals grains and imported proteins, and promotes more sustainable alternatives such as increased grazing and use of home-grown feed.
Soil carbon and organic farming
Research from the Soil Association reveals that if all UK farmland was converted to organic farming, at least 3.2 million tonnes of carbon would be taken up by the soil each year - the equivalent of taking nearly 1 million cars off the road. The full report is a review of the biological factors and agricultural practices that determine soil carbon levels, from the benefit of the wider perspective of organic farming.
Strategies for change
Our current food systems are precarious and vulnerable to external ‘shocks’. A combination of one or more external factors, such as extreme weather conditions, global conflict or trade disputes could easily disrupt the continuity of food supplies unless we make fundamental changes to the way we farm, process, distribute and eat our food over the next 20 years. That’s the stark message behind our Food Futures report which outlines what we believe should be a blueprint for a more sustainable approach to food and farming.
Food security
At the end of 2008 the Soil Association published An inconvenient truth about food, a report on Britain's food security. This report summarises:
- UK food self-sufficiency has declined over the past decade and we have become more reliant on imported food.
- Government faith in global markets is undermined by recent events revealing their volatility and unreliability.
- The vulnerability of both the UK and EU food and farming systems to the new fundamentals of Climate Change and scarcer, costlier oil is underplayed in current policy.
- There is little awareness of the lack of resilience within UK based food and farming especially in terms of sufficient, skilled labour and the supporting regional infrastructure that a healthier diet and 'a low-carbon, more resource constrained future' necessitates.
- There is no overall, future-proofed 'Food Plan for Britain'.
- Read more about food security
Access a full list of our policy reports