By Celia Bergin | Bloomberg Green From tractors stuck in muddy paddocks to raw sewage washing up from clogged waterways, extreme rain and flooding have wreaked havoc on British farmers this year. The soggy and turbulent weather – exacerbated by climate change – has stunted their ability to provide homegrown crops for bread, beer and nearly every grocery aisle. Britain has seen its sixth wettest spring since records began in 1836, according to the Met Office. The outcome has devastated fields for growing grains like wheat and barley, which the UK usually produces to levels that can mostly meet domestic needs. The unseasonable conditions have also delayed supplies of British strawberries and even led to the death of livestock. As a result, the UK will become 8% less self-sufficient for food this year – meaning it will need to ramp up imports, according to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank. The potential for this adding to food price inflation is a reminder of the growing threat climate change poses to the UK economy. Farmer Henry Ward was only able to begin work on his farm in Lincoln, England on June 4 – after its fields were destroyed by floods that hit twice in six months. Ward’s Short Ferry Farm usually supplies wheat for breadmaker Warburtons and spring barley to brewers Coors and Budweiser. Ward missed out on planting in March because the fields didn’t dry in time. Across the 200 acres of his farm, only one survived the floodwater: a green patch in a field with a cracked surface. Underneath there is a gooey, oxygen-starved mess that will struggle to grow crops without cultivation. This year’s heavy rains are the latest climate twist for British agriculture. In 2022, the UK experienced its worst period of drought in almost 50 years. Reservoirs ran dry, while crops shriveled. Globally, extreme weather events – from floods to droughts – are becoming more frequent and intense as the planet warms and greenhouse gas emissions rise. Last month was Earth’s 12th consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures. When air heats up, the amount of water vapor it can contain also increases. This means more precipitation in many places. Helen Hooker, a research scientist in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, says the UK will be hit particularly hard by these trends. “Our winters are likely to continue to become wetter,” she says. “And in the summer we’ll see more of these very heavy showers.” Ward expects it will take up to four years for the land on his farm to recover enough to produce the yields they did before flooding. The sole acre of wheat, underdeveloped and filled with weeds after they couldn’t be treated with herbicides, will be removed and replaced with a mix of kale, sunflower and triticale for winter bird feed. “It’s gonna break my heart,” Ward says while watching the cultivator prepare the land for the bird feed. “That [land] should be growing food. I just feel like we’re sort of admitting defeat.”
