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Why a blog?
The Farming Futures blog is for farmers, land managers and their advisers to discuss and debate the issue of climate change and sustainability in agriculture.
We’re interested in how you think we can produce more food for a growing population in the context of Government targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, hotter, drier summers, higher energy and input prices, and the increased consumer interest in 'low carbon' food.
This is your place to take part in the debate. Find out why we think a blog is important by clicking here.
Blogs marked with our weak signals logo explore ideas, trends, technologies or behaviour changes that are as yet unrecognised by the mainstream farming industry. They might have a big impact on future farm practices or they might disappear. They help us to challenge assumptions about the future, navigate risk and seize new opportunities. If you spot a weak signal, get in touch and we'll get it on the site.
Want to contribute? Contact Farming Futures at farmingfutures@niab.com or phone 01223 342313.
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Is water the elephant in the room?
The world has gone Carbon crazy – 
and for good reason. But with all the talk of carbon reduction commitments, greenhouse gas action plans and carbon labelling on crisp packets have we missed a bigger issue looming on the landscape?
Water is one of our most precious resources and vital for everyone’s everyday life. You only need to notice how much the British obsessively talk about the weather to see how essential water (the lack of it or abundance of it) is to the farming calendar. We couldn’t survive without it.
However, it’s easy to understand the water we come in contact with every day – drinking, cleaning, cooking etc. and we’re all getting better at turning the tap off when we brush our teeth and wasting less wherever we can. But what about the hidden water in the food and products we use everyday? How can we reduce that and how much do we use anyway?
Based on the data gathered in the Water footprints of nations report, The Virtual Water Project has done a great job of making this embedded water more tangible by creating fabulous images (see above) and a really useful iPhone application.
- Did you know it takes 1170 litres of water to create 300g of chicken?
- It takes 2500 litres of water to make 500g of cheese.
- 16000 litres of water is used for 1kg beef.
The water footprint of a person, company or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the commodities, goods and services consumed by the person, company or nation.
The South East of the UK was declared an area of ‘serious’ water stress in 2007 – unfortunately this is also the area with the greatest current water demand. And we all remember the devastating images of flooding in Cockermouth, not to mention elsewere.
So, with predictions of longer drier summers and more extreme weather events in the coming years, it seems clear that managing water supply and adapting to our changing climate is going to be key to a successful farming business in the future. And it's already happening - Andrew Alston leads a group of farmers running a water abstraction group in the East of England and Elwyn Griffiths, a poultry farmer, is saving £200,000/year through water harvesting.
Will water footprinting become as popular as carbon footprinting? Will we soon see water reduction targets as well as greenhouse gas targets?
Tell us what you think by posting a comment below.
- Watch our video case study of Elwyn Griffiths rainwater harvesting system here.
- Watch a short film about water shortages and farming here.
- For more information on water footprinting visit www.waterfootprint.org
- For more information and tips about how to manage your water resources on farm, see our fact sheet.
Farmers are taking action
Footprinting is all the rage ecological, carbon, water everything is measured and compared. This is difficult for agriculture as there are few examples of like for like comparisons in agriculture because every business has it's own subtle differences. The challenge is how this turns into action on the farm.
With water like other footprints they can be used to highlight opportunities on the farm. In Somerset we have a project called WAVE (Water Adaptation is Valueable for Everyone) www.waveproject.eu it is all about conserving and protecting water resources. FWAG (www.fwag.org.uk) is leading on the farming aspects of the project. We are developing Water audits for farmers to identify opportunities to reduce water use. Setting up demonstration farmers where farmers have implemented water recycling measures on farm. Promoting the use of Pasture Pumps to protect watercourses and reduce the demand for mains water and working on catchment woodlands to manage run-off and flood water from rainfall events. All these measures are proactive Climate Change adaptation measures, protect the farms natural resources and save water costs on the farm.
water, water everywhere - but not for long
Water footprinting? Will this lead to British farmers being asked to make similar "water footprint" reductions to those asked of farmers in other countries? This follows the pattern of carbon footprinting; but are we comparing like-with-like? What seems to be missing from the equation are the issues of needs and context.
Doesn't it take more carbon, and water, to keep a British family farm running than a landholding that supports a similar number of people in a developing nation?
I know how controversial this will seem, but 'need' is a crucial issue in this debate. Agricultural holdings in developed nations need to use more resources than those in less developed nations in order to sustain the profitability of the enterprise. They also have more opportunity to reduce, in percentage terms, their resource use than holdings in technologically less advanced agricultural systems. So our needs should be recognised, but our capacity to reduce must also be harnessed and cost-reduction should be the spur for that.
Context is a simpler issue. We must guard against having our agricultural production compared with that in countries with very different hydrological regimes. Whatever happens to our future climate, it will rain here more than it does in southern Spain, for instance. Tha challenges they face are going to be different to ours and the solutions will, therefore, be equally diverse.
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