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Farmers are warning that Britain could face food shortages within days if the current dry spell continues, with crops failing to ripen and water companies imposing hosepipe bans across large parts of England.
But for many readers responding to The Independent’s coverage of the crisis, the weather is only the trigger – not the real cause.
Across hundreds of comments, our community argued that decades of policy choices have left UK food production exposed, long before this summer’s heat took hold. They pointed to farmland lost to solar panels and housing, water rules loosened since Brexit, and family farms squeezed by inheritance tax changes.
Others highlighted a deeper structural problem: Britain's reliance on imports for up to half its food, leaving the country badly placed to absorb any shock to global supply chains.
While many readers pointed to the cause of this crisis, othes offered solutions, from desalination plants to hydroponic farms and growing produce closer to home.
Here's what you had to say:
We cannot afford to wait
The most alarming aspect of this crisis is not that experts have failed to warn us. Scientists, climate researchers, food security specialists and emergency planners have been raising the alarm for years. The problem is that governments of all political colours have repeatedly failed to translate those warnings into meaningful action.
Food security is not simply an economic issue; it is fundamental to the stability and wellbeing of society. We cannot afford to wait until shortages, displacement and social breakdown force governments to act. Governments react to crisis, and often badly – prevention and preparation must begin now.
We should ban livestock farming on arable land
Eat local and in season. Avoid empty calories and ultra-processed food. Don't buy more at the supermarket than you need – it just gets wasted. Learn how to cook economically, turn leftovers into a good meal, and bake your own bread. Grow some veg in your garden, window box, or get an allotment if possible. Eat less meat.
I was a small beef farmer with about 15 cows, but we farmed on the uplands, rough grazing not suitable for crops. We should ban livestock farming on good arable land, which should be reserved for food crops and horticulture. Livestock should be confined to the uplands, where native breeds can do well and also bring environmental benefits.
Resilience means growing more ourselves rather than importing exotic produce flown halfway round the world, much of it grown on cleared rainforest.
Brexit has cost us on food and water security
So leaving the EU has reduced the number of people working on our farms, leading to lower production and waste. It has also complicated the purchase of fresh food from the EU due to the new bureaucratic rules that Johnson insisted that we adopt. On top of that, our water industry no longer has to adhere to the EU rules on water purity, so they do what they want without fear of facing EU fines. Hence, the current situation where we have serious water shortages in some areas and the highest levels of water contamination in decades.
Still, at least we've “taken back control”!
This is a complex problem with multiple causes
This is a complex problem with multiple causes. Climate change, government policy, large-scale conflict, the cost of living crisis, the nature of UK food supply chains, Brexit, the natural unwillingness of people to face up to difficult things, mistrust of the elite – all these play a part, and I think we have to tackle them all. Plus Trump's war with Iran, which is going to deliver a significant additional food shock before long.
The shortage was inevitable
This problem has been mounting for years. The UK only grows 65 per cent of the food it consumes. A growing world population and the effects of climate change plus our own farming policies mean food shortages will be inevitable.
There is nothing worse than the threat of severe food shortages to destroy governments and society.
Time to invest in desalination
We don't have the room for massive reservoirs but are surrounded by the sea. Time we invested in desalination plants around the country.
Solar panels are eating up farmland
Nothing surprising in this. This government has been busy covering a large amount of productive farmland with solar panels that should be on the roof of buildings, over large municipal and supermarket parking areas, factories, and the plethora of warehousing that has been built in recent years to satisfy our demand for cheap imported goods. Further productive farmland continues to be lost to re-wilding projects, and of course new housing to home the ever-growing population.
We need to defend our own shipping
Britain has been dependent on food imports since the Industrial Revolution. That was never a problem when we had good relationships with the Commonwealth and the best Navy in the world to defend our shipping. Now we are still dependent on imports but we would not be able to defend our shipping, or indeed anything else, in the current geopolitical climate. So, we need to (1) stop setting aside arable land, and (2) ramp up our Navy and merchant fleet.
Hydroponics could be the answer
We need to start doing as they do in Spain, and The Netherlands. Hydroponic farms, built vertically and not by square footage of land. Sure, the flavour isn't quite the same as when grown in earth, but it is abundant, and controllable. We're already eating tomatoes grown this way.
Farmers have been let down
Was horrified Labour messed with family farms and wealth taxes [OK with really really wealthy landowners like Dyson] but most family farms are ripped off and struggling – Labour just didn't see the value of farms and farmers here, which is why they're forced to cover land with solar panels to make ends meet, when we have so little land, we need it for food security. And Brexit has been a disaster for our food supply and costs. Most British kids haven't even got a clue what fresh food is, how to cook, or where it comes from. I don't waste a scrap of food, unless I really have to.
We're living off the kindness of strangers
There is another aspect to this problem. We have been running a chronic balance of payments deficit for years. We keep trading by borrowing or selling assets. We have been living off the kindness of strangers. When the crisis hits and these strangers conclude we are unable to repay all the money we have borrowed, the value of Sterling will plummet and importing food will become prohibitively expensive.
Even my allotment isn't safe
Well I'm trying by growing in an allotment, but already I have had my broad beans stolen. I can imagine stealing from gardens/allotments and fields will all increase as people go hungry – and then will I continue to put in the effort? Sadly my one garden is minute so not really feasible to turn into a veg plot.
Leaving the single market left us exposed
Leaving the single market has left us weaker on food security. Raising inheritance tax on family farms was very wrong. With climate change and heatwaves, food security will be more fragile. During WW2, rationing meant a mostly plant-based diet, with land turned over to crops rather than rearing animals – it uses less water too. I have always felt that countries need to be able to feed all their people off their own land if necessary. Our population has ballooned, so no doubt we are way over that possibility. This country needs a plan for food security, but with the ridiculous, self-indulgent revolving-door PM situation in the UK, I am beginning to wonder if anyone will be in the job long enough!
DEFRA makes it profitable not to farm
We have shortages because DEFRA makes it more profitable for farmers not to farm in the U.K. We shall starve while looking at meadows with butterflies and pretty flowers.
The UK is too insular on desalination
Time for the UK to stop being so insular in its thinking. If you look to the Arab peninsula you'll find that about 70 per cent of their drinking water comes from desalinating sea water. If the UK produced such levels, then that water could be used for human consumption or for watering farm fields.
Sorry, just realised. Such a solution requires forward thinking and a lot of money. Not going to happen in the UK then.
Stockpiling could make things worse
If households stock up, it creates shortages on the shelves. That causes a degree of so-called “panic buying”. It may also fool stores/wholesalers/manufacturers to believe demand is up and so adjust manufacturing (the so-called “whiplash effect”).
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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