- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Ecosystem services
- Thread starter onesiedale
- Start date
- Location
- Derbyshire
I doubt very much that there will be many farms with a carbon neutral output, let alone have Carbon to spare..
Of course it all comes down to how the calculations are worked out, but if we're not careful, as an industry we could be tying ourselves in knots with some serious big winners and losers in the market - through no fault or doing of their own. It could be milk quotas all over again
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Pretty much exactly, as long as we have agriculture and we have however many people on the planet getting fed by us, then we have about as much chance as a naked man in a lion enclosure whilst sandpapering the skin off a pig
Yes but doesn't it depend on how you use the land? If you use the land to produce other necessary things other than food then the food becomes more scarce which makes it more expensive which should make people think twice about how many kids they have etc etc. Then the whole lot rebalances.
On the other hand if you just go ahead and continue to produce ever more food for a growing population as cheaply as possible then they'll just keep taking it and it won't be a limiting factor UNTIL it eventually is.
We have control of the land and what it produces and we hold the key to a lot of solutions......
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Except that the prevailing uk food industry approach is to just import if home production falls. Prices will only rise if GLOBAL supply becomes restricted or import quotas are applied.
Last edited:
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It could - but just as plonking a child in front of a television steals her boredom, plonking "food" in front of a population robs them of their resourcefulness .
Using your available space to grow a nice big green lawn? And food is expensive?
It's really more of a case of reality not being much like 'reality' when it comes to food.
Our recommended daily kJ intake is something like 2.5x that of earlier humans.. and they starved, despite being resourceful, despite having tools...
our survival is mostly reliant on the constant IV drip of fossil energy into all stages of the foodchain, creating apparent abundance from the future generations' resources.
We don't need science to tell us, because we can look to other cultures to see how much food costs, a bit of sweat.
BUT when the IV drip of fossil fuel is replaced by other sources of energy the same old machine drives on regardless and the population grows..........
I agree the readily available energy that we had from fossil fuels kicked the production of food into an altogether higher gear and helped take us to where we are today with all its associated problems.
- Location
- Derbyshire
It is not just a food industry problem. The whole of society bases value on monetary terms, which in a production context means cheapest price/cost of production is the aim for businesses in order to make . . . more money!
The sooner that True Cost Accounting is applied by society the better. Its just a massive paradigm shift.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
True but way understated. It was oil that allowed the planet to go from under 1bn humans to over 7bn. Modern intensive farming uses something like 10 oil calories of energy for every calorie of food produced IIRC (varies greatly between food types and production systems with grazing livestock very low and rootcrops very high).
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
And very politically inconvenient.......
- Location
- Derbyshire
GDP is the international measure of success!
It's a bit like listening to the feed rep when he used to tell us how good our gross margin could be if we fed more cake! Sadly for him we no longer buy cake and our net profits are up.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Professor DasGupta's review clearly signposts what needs to change on that front. Whether any politicians have the gonads to do it is a moot point!
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
It's looking like DEFRA have decided you can't claim SFI or ELMS money and sell Ecosystem Services:
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
Is it back to pony carts for us then?
- Location
- Devon
That needn't be a bad thing...
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Taken from Strutt and Parker's latest blog:
The number of people looking to buy farmland so they can manage it to improve biodiversity or generate carbon credits is on the rise, according to Strutt & Parker’s latest English Estates & Farmland Market Review (Q1 2021)
One of the most notable developments in the marketplace for land, farms and estates over recent months has been increased demand from green investors looking at alternative land uses to food production.
They still represent a very small subset of the market, but it does look as if that proportion is set to grow. We now receive phone calls on almost a daily basis from buyers interested in purchasing land to be managed environmentally – with their plans involving tree planting, rewilding and other conservation and carbon-offset projects.
Interestingly, such buyers are starting to become active in lowland areas of England, as well as the uplands. Growth in environmental land investment is a trend we are also seeing in Scotland and Wales.
TYPE OF BUYERS OF LAND, FARMS AND ESTATES
Analysis of Strutt & Parker’s Farmland Database, which records the details of all farms, estates and blocks of publicly marketed farmland in England over 100 acres in size, shows that while farmers remain the biggest buyers of land, non-farmers are playing an increasingly big role in the market.
The proportion of farms and estates bought by farmers has dropped to 52% which is its lowest level since Strutt & Parker’s survey started over 20 years ago. Conversely, the proportion bought by lifestyle buyers and private investors has risen to its highest level – accounting for 47%.
This category includes investors who buy land for privacy and amenity reasons, those who see land as a safe asset in which to store their wealth and individuals who have made capital gains from the sale of land for development and want to roll over funds. Non-farmers are now the main type of buyer in the South East and South West of England.
AVERAGE LAND PRICES
With demand remaining relatively robust, this means prices have remained virtually unchanged at an average of £9,200/acre for arable land and £7,000/acre for pasture. However, prices continue to be very variable around these averages, depending on supply and demand within a localised area.
The number of people looking to buy farmland so they can manage it to improve biodiversity or generate carbon credits is on the rise, according to Strutt & Parker’s latest English Estates & Farmland Market Review (Q1 2021)
One of the most notable developments in the marketplace for land, farms and estates over recent months has been increased demand from green investors looking at alternative land uses to food production.
They still represent a very small subset of the market, but it does look as if that proportion is set to grow. We now receive phone calls on almost a daily basis from buyers interested in purchasing land to be managed environmentally – with their plans involving tree planting, rewilding and other conservation and carbon-offset projects.
Interestingly, such buyers are starting to become active in lowland areas of England, as well as the uplands. Growth in environmental land investment is a trend we are also seeing in Scotland and Wales.
TYPE OF BUYERS OF LAND, FARMS AND ESTATES
Analysis of Strutt & Parker’s Farmland Database, which records the details of all farms, estates and blocks of publicly marketed farmland in England over 100 acres in size, shows that while farmers remain the biggest buyers of land, non-farmers are playing an increasingly big role in the market.
The proportion of farms and estates bought by farmers has dropped to 52% which is its lowest level since Strutt & Parker’s survey started over 20 years ago. Conversely, the proportion bought by lifestyle buyers and private investors has risen to its highest level – accounting for 47%.
This category includes investors who buy land for privacy and amenity reasons, those who see land as a safe asset in which to store their wealth and individuals who have made capital gains from the sale of land for development and want to roll over funds. Non-farmers are now the main type of buyer in the South East and South West of England.
AVERAGE LAND PRICES
With demand remaining relatively robust, this means prices have remained virtually unchanged at an average of £9,200/acre for arable land and £7,000/acre for pasture. However, prices continue to be very variable around these averages, depending on supply and demand within a localised area.
- Location
- Derbyshire
Call me cynical, but that's a classic land agent's press release talking up the market
