Well now you can!  Visit Defra’s new Green Food Project discussion forum and let them know what you think on topics including waste, diet, the role of new technology and how we should manage our land to produce a healthy environment as well as food.

In the Natural Environment White Paper, the Government promised to get together with stakeholders to discuss how to “reconcile how we will achieve our goals of improving the environment and increasing food production.”  The Green Food Project is the result of this. The RSPB is participating in the project along with a range of other organisations with an interest in food, farming and the environment.

We set out what we think needs to happen in our paper to the 2012 Oxford Farming Conference.  Farmers should be rewarded for producing a range of ecosystem services from their land – carbon storage, clean water and wildlife as well as food – to name but a few.  There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ model for the future: different farming systems deliver different benefits and are suited to different situations.  Our choices on how we manage our land must be based on good evidence.  We can’t tackle hunger in other parts of the world by producing more food here in England – to start with the hungry of the world wouldn’t be able to afford it!  Ending hunger requires sweeping changes including improving the way food is distributed, investing in sustainable agriculture in developing countries, cutting waste at all levels of the food chain, and improving environmentally damaging farming practices.  These are the messages we’re aiming to get across in our involvement with the Green Food Project.

Do you agree with the RSPB’s assessment?  Is it important to you that England’s farmland supports flourishing wildlife as well as food production?  Do you have any bright ideas on how to tackle the challenges facing farming and the environment?  Get onto the forum before 3rd April and have your say.