Feeding the nation: how biodiversity holds the key to sustainable food production
What if the key to securing our food supply wasn’t more farmland or more cows, but rather more beetles, birds, or fungi? Biodiversity plays a critical, often-overlooked role in feeding us all. allmanhall’s Sustainability Manager, Richard Dowling, explains what this could mean for you…
What is biodiversity?
Put simply, biodiversity refers to the enormous variety of life that’s present on Earth. An estimated 8.7 million unique species of animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and other organisms exist, with each of these species adapted to play a unique role within their environment. Without it, the Earth wouldn’t be habitable for humans, because biodiversity supports ecosystem services – the vital processes that nature provides. These include:
- Pollination
- Nutrient cycling
- Clean air and water
- Climate regulation
- Soil fertility and disease control
These services are grouped into four main categories: provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural. Without them, agriculture wouldn’t be possible, and our food systems would be far more vulnerable to disease, pests, and environmental shocks.
The impact of agriculture on biodiversity
Despite biodiversity’s importance, modern agriculture often works against it. Industrial farming prioritises consistency and output, relying on intensive monocultures, heavy pesticide use, and livestock production, all of which deplete natural ecosystems.
However, regenerative agriculture is a concept often put forward as a solution – it’s an approach to farming that allows land, water, nutrients, and other natural assets to regenerate by themselves. A good example of regenerative agriculture is that of the Leckford Estate, a farm committed to promoting nature and enhancing biodiversity. Herbal leys are often planted on the estate – these are a mixed crop of grasses, herbs, and legumes that assists in improving soil health. The use of cover crops and a crop rotation system also minimises soil disturbance.
allmanhall’s Brighter Burger, which incorporates Wildfarmed flour from regenerative agriculture, is a great example of genuinely sustainable food production.
Despite the potential benefits of practices such as crop diversification and cover crops, it’s often the case that farmers lack the knowledge surrounding their potential benefits, while there are also perceived financial and labour costs that are a hindrance to greater uptake in the UK. Also, corporate targets surrounding regenerative agriculture are rare, and as there’s no agreed definition of what it specifically entails, little progress has been made to incorporate it into legislation and reporting frameworks. Given that 69% of the UK is farmland, there is huge scope for change in agricultural practices, but it requires systemic change.
30% of produced food is wasted, while an even greater proportion is inefficiently used to feed livestock, which demonstrates the profligacy of our food systems in .their current form.
Wide-ranging solutions will need to be implemented to bring about change, and initiatives like the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme could play a key role.
How could the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme help to protect biodiversity?
Recent research from IPBES has demonstrated how dealing with our climate change, biodiversity, and food production problems as separate issues won’t work, meaning schemes such as the ELM have a potentially vital role to play. Indeed, the scheme is a series of government grants designed to help farmers and land managers in delivering climate and biodiversity gains, alongside food production.
Following Brexit, the scheme essentially replaced the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and focuses on incentivising more environmentally conscious food production. This includes production processes that increase biodiversity levels, enhance water quality, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reduce fertiliser and pesticide use. The ELM predominantly consists of three individual schemes to pay for these environmental services:
- The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices, through means such as improved animal health and welfare, optimising the use of inputs such as pesticides, and making better use of natural resources.
- Countryside Stewardship (CS) pays land managers for more specific, targeted activities relating to specific habitats, features, and locations.
- Landscape Recovery pays for longer-term, larger-scale projects that enhance the natural environment and protect biodiversity.
Notably, however, the Government has recently paused the SFI, with a revised scheme set for spring 2026. This has caused frustration among some farmers, although any currently live agreements remain in place.
Since 2022, the SFI has provided additional income to farmers, with the roughly 37,000 agreements in place all contributing towards the ELM scheme’s environmental targets. Although the scheme has been paused, the Government’s recent Spending Review has confirmed a £2.7 billion annual investment in sustainable farming and nature recovery, which includes £2 billion for ELM schemes by 2028-29. Prior to the scheme being paused earlier this year, £1.8 billion was allocated to ELM schemes, so this is a notable increase.
Why the ELM alone won't be enough to support biodiversity
The ambition behind the ELM is welcome, but our food system won’t transition to a sustainable one without other measures too. Livestock production remains one of the largest drivers of habitat loss and biodiversity decline, particularly in developing countries with rich ecosystems, and growing crops for animal feed also contributes to deforestation abroad. Livestock farming is also a major source of nutrient and water pollution, soil degradation, and methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
In fact, beef and lamb are the most environmentally damaging of all foods due to their land intensity and greenhouse gas footprint, as well as the areas they use for grazing, which could otherwise be used for supporting biodiverse ecosystems. Even when sourced locally, their impact far outweighs that of more sustainable alternatives.
This is why the concept of food miles can be misleading, or even be a form of greenwashing, as how food is produced contributes far more to its environmental impact than where it comes from.
Long-term food security, both in the UK and globally, depends on embedding biodiversity into decision making, through farming policy, consumer choices, and land use planning. Schemes like the ELM have an important role to play in reversing damage and supporting nature-conscious farming, but we also need demand-side policies to gradually shift consumption away from environmentally intensive foods, and towards those that support healthy people and healthy ecosystems. A plethora of policy tools in addition to the ELM scheme will be needed to ensure the UK’s food system is genuinely sustainable, and in line with planetary boundaries.
What can you do to boost biodiversity?
You may think that this is all too far-removed from what you do in your kitchens, but you still have the power to effect change and make a big difference.
As an EcoVadis Gold-rated food procurement partner, allmanhall are best-placed to advise our clients on current legislation and future plans which either impact or encourage biodiversity.
With a strong Sustainability team in place, we can offer guidance on ingredient sourcing with our Sustainability dashboards, menu planning with The Brighter Burger and our plant-based Hero Recipes, here and here, and reducing food waste, to minimise your catering operation’s carbon footprint, and prove that good food doesn’t have to cost the Earth.
Please do contact us if you need support achieving your sustainability goals.