Letter: Developments Kill Farmland We Will Need To Grow Our Own Food After Brexit

Published on: 1 Oct, 2020
Updated on: 1 Oct, 2020

From Katharine Paulson

In response to: WAG Calls Taylor-Wimpey’s Wisley Consultation a ‘Wafer-Thin Cosmetic Veneer’

When is this government going to recognise, as we face Brexit trade barriers, that large areas of viable and best-grade agricultural land, such as this one, are a finite resource and need to be kept for the production of food?

If Covid-19 and Brexit have taught us anything is that the UK can no longer rely on foreign supply chains and we need to grow more food in the UK. Travel time means less nutrition, because food loses 30% of nutrients in three days.

This is strategic agricultural land for London, adjacent to the M25 and should be used for producing locally sourced, healthy and sustainable food for London. The supply chain that takes food from farm to fork produces 29% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Globally today, almost 690 million people are hungry, the food systems are failing, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse. That we must act now to address the impending global food emergency is increasingly clear.

This proposed development will bring lasting destruction, increased carbon emissions, more traffic, loss of biodiversity, and damage to Sites of Special Scientific Interest during the 10-year period of construction which can never be mitigated however the developer seeks to dress that up.