Food or Energy? What Should Our Fields Be Used For?
If you take a walk around our parish, you might notice that some fields don’t look quite the same as they did years ago. Alongside crops grown for food and animal feed, there are now fields growing maize or grass for energy production. That often leads to a simple question, asked in the pub or at the school gate: should farmers be growing food or fuel?
For local farmers, this isn’t a political question, it’s a practical one. Farming has become expensive. Fuel, fertiliser and machinery all cost more than they used to, and the price farmers receive for food can change from year to year. Energy crops, on the other hand, often come with long-term contracts and a guaranteed income. That sort of reliability can make a big difference to a family farm trying to plan ahead and stay afloat.
It’s also worth saying that energy crops aren’t always grown on the best land. Around here we have fields that are heavy, wet, or awkward to farm. These areas may struggle to produce good food crops but can still be useful for energy. In some cases, farms use waste products like slurry or straw to produce energy, so no food crops are lost at all.
That said, it’s understandable that people feel uneasy when good farmland is used for fuel instead of food. At a time when food prices are rising and more people are relying on food banks, it can feel wrong to see crops grown to be burned rather than eaten. There’s also a worry that if we grow less food locally, we end up relying more on imports from abroad.
However, the picture is more complicated than it first appears. Not everything grown on farms is food for people. Large areas are used for animal feed, and a lot of food is wasted somewhere between field and plate. So the real issue may not be energy crops themselves, but how wisely we use what we already grow.
Energy production does have some local benefits. Renewable energy from farms can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Anaerobic digesters can reduce odours from slurry and produce fertiliser that goes straight back onto local fields. When done well, this can be good for both the farm and the environment.
Problems tend to arise when schemes are poorly managed. Heavy traffic through villages, muddy roads, soil damage and loss of wildlife are all things people notice quickly. These impacts are felt locally, and it’s right that communities take an interest.
In reality, most local farmers aren’t choosing food or energy. They’re trying to do both. Solar panels on sheds, small wind turbines, and limited energy cropping can help support food production rather than replace it.
In the end, this isn’t just a farming question. What we buy, how much food we waste, and how we support local producers all shape the countryside around us. Our fields reflect our choices, and finding the right balance is something we all have a part in.