Foresight Report Will Be Milestone in Agri-History

Summary

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As 2011 draws to a close, we can reflect on one of the most remarkable farming years of modern times. At the most obvious level, it was a recordbreaking year; wheat at Pounds 206 a tonne in January, lamb prices reaching an all-time high of Pounds 5.60 per kilo in May, and finished cattle prices at a record Pounds 3.50 per kilo in December. And while the Eastern counties were hit hard by the spring drought, many West Country farmers enjoyed their best- ever corn harvest. The crops had gone in well, they benefited from a cold winter and there was just enough rain to keep them going through May and into June. Just for once, whatever could go right, did go right.

But while all of that has done 1remembered had nothing to do with prices, markets or harvest. It was the publication, in April, of the Foresight Report on The Future of Food and Farming. The work of more than 400 international scientists, under the leadership of the UK Government's chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, it reached a conclusion which will ring down the years.

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Foresight Report Will Be Milestone in Agri-History

The world's farmers would need to increase output by at least 70 per cent over the next 20 years to keep pace with rising demand for...

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