Food security report to reveal land, water and energy trends

The Crop Protection Association (CPA) said 50 food chain organisations, and policy-makers, had given input into the report, which is expected to be published on January 25. It will look at important trends in land, water, and energy use and food.

The British Retail Consortium and Food and Drink Federation have contributed to the study, which was commissioned by the government and led by its chief scientific advisor, John Beddington. The National Farmers' Union also participated.

"Part of what the report will do will be to sketch out where we see problems long term, how we transport and store food and the political problems that could impact on food supply," said CPA chief executive Dominic Dyer.

The current international impact of climate on demand, supply and costs for raw materials and commodities would also be addressed, said Dyer.

Rising food inflation underlined the importance of modern farming practices, including crop protection, in maintaining quality, consistency and affordability of food supply, said Dyer. "We will see more on food prices in the New Year and I hope the report will start mapping out how we deal with the problem. One of the areas it will look at will be new technology."

Dyer said the government had indicated that it wanted to see "the implementation of new technology with regard to agriculture". "It will be difficult to reduce climate change. The hope that new technologies can help handle some of the problems will come out very strongly.

"There won't be a magic bullet. It's not just about crop protection, but also genetic modification, plant breeding; lots of things."

The CPA welcomed the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs's commendation of UK pesticide use as highly sustainable.