The UK is facing a food crisis but it’s not due to the climate change effects as you may think but in actual fact it is directly a result of the measures being promoted to stop the effects of climate change.

 

Britain’s farmers have warned the government that the rapidly rising costs for fuel, stock food and fertiliser are about to cause a food supply crisis.

 

With all of these issues combined with the lack of available competent farm workers, agriculture is facing rapidly rising costs of production and significantly lower levels of production.

 

There is currently a shortage of eggs in the UK but it is quite likely that there will also be shortages of those crops that are labour intensive to produce such as fruit and vegetables (e.g. tomatoes, strawberries and lettuces).

 

So… why are fuel, feed and fertilizer costs rapidly rising and labour intensive crops plummeting to their lowest yields on record?

Climate Change policies are to blame!

 

For a start, energy prices are rising in every country that’s relying on wind and solar as their main source of power generation. As a fossil fuel, gas production has been subject to attack from the climate lobby and as countries began to stop using coal-fired and nuclear power generation, gas has become a critical fuel to make up for the shortfall from unreliable, intermittent “renewables.

 

The cost of synthetic fertiliser, necessary for growing many crops and grass, has gone through the roof since the price of gas required to produce it began to rise steeply.

 

The war in Ukraine has not helped but the cost of fertiliser started rising long before Russia invaded parts of Ukraine, due to climate policies.

 

Prices for both agricultural fertiliser and feed have risen significantly over the past year. Figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) have shown that in May 2022, the price of UK-produced ammonia nitrate fertiliser in Great Britain had increased by 152% since May 2021 and imported prices had increased by 171%. The price of potassium chloride fertiliser (potash) had increased by 165% and phosphate fertilisers had increased by between 120% and 128% depending on the type.

The more scarce natural gas that is used to keep the lights on in Britain and Germany, the less there is for making fertiliser.

 

Rises in gas prices have increased the costs of fertiliser production. Ofgem figures show that wholesale gas prices on 26 April 2022 were up 284% in 12 months. Natural gas is used as both a raw material and energy source in fertiliser production. Jacob Hansen, director-general of Fertilisers Europe, told Euronews in late May 2022 that gas now represents up to “90% of the variable costs in fertiliser production”.

 

The situation has only been “exacerbated” by the Ukraine war because Germany made itself dependent on Russian gas. A perilous strategic mistake they were warned about for years, but blithely ignored.

 

But, hey, at least they’re “saving the planet”.

(All of the above is based on an article published on the BFD website)

So does any of the information in the article above remind you of our own situation here in New Zealand, because it should? We are facing the same crisis and for the same reasons; “Climate Change Actions”.

 

Our government has put restrictions on further exploration for oil or gas, virtually closed down coal mining and made a commitment to transfer to sustainable generation of electricity and conversion to EV’s from ICE vehicles.

 

We are rapidly reaching the end of our current natural gas reserves and having to import dirty coal from Indonesia to keep the lights on. We imported approximately 1.8million tonnes of coal last year.

 

We have closed down the Marsden Point refinery and one outcome of that decision is the shortage in supply of Carbon Dioxide (which was produced during the refining process) for food production.

 

Our government is in the process currently of putting restrictions on farming to reduce the output of greenhouse gases from agriculture which will also have the side effect of reducing food production for both export and internal markets.

 

We are currently suffering from a severe shortage of competent staff in the agricultural sectors which is seriously affecting the ability to harvest crops and consequently supply fresh fruit and vegetables, and as is the case in

Europe we are facing costs for fertiliser that have more than doubled in the past year which is affecting the cost of production and inflating the sale prices for fresh food products.

 

On top of all of these factors we also have a plethora of unworkable regulations being enacted to try to control our emissions of greenhouse gases from agriculture which are going to force farmers off the land.

 

By their own figures the current regulations being bought into play will take 20% of Sheep and Beef farmers and 5% of dairy farmers out of business.

 

The worst part of this whole scenario is that the government is fully aware that when these farmers are forced out of farming, the drop in production from our farmers will be replaced overseas by farmers who will be working under much less stringent environmental conditions and therefore the end result of this is that globally the emissions are more likely to rise than decrease.

 

Our government is fully aware of this possibility but are determined to carry on with their policies even though they are, in reality, nothing more than virtue signalling. But they allow our Prime Minister to trip around the globe and shout to the world how wonderful her government is by reducing our emissions in line with the COP 26 recommendations.

 

This is nothing more than a huge lie given that they are aware of the fact that the policies will most likely result in a global increase in emissions of greenhouse gases.

 

It is also in contravention of the Paris Accord which stated in Section 2b that any actions in relation to climate change should be in such a manner that they do not threaten food production, as shown below:

 

Under the Paris Accord on climate change, Article 2 (b) states:

 

The aim of the agreement is to have a stronger response to the danger of climate change; it seeks to enhance the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change through:

 

(a) Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change;

 

(b) Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production;

 

(c) Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.