Agriculture is a major cause of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, pollution and biodiversity loss globally and in the UK. Achieving sustainable ('green') growth of agricultural production to feed 10 billion people by 2050 whilst reducing environmental impacts is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Changing our diets and reducing food waste are part of the solution. However, as recognised in the UK government's Clean Growth Grand Challenge, significant green growth in the agri-food sector is also necessary to meet this demand without compromising other targets, in particular that of neutrality in carbon emissions by 2050. The GREEN AG programme will build a long-term, strategic research and innovation infrastructure to develop new UK farming systems which will produce sufficient food whilst reducing emissions and pollution, protecting biodiversity, and enhancing soil health. We call this 'net zero+' as it will balance net zero emissions aims with wider environmental concerns. These solutions will be required at scale if the UK is to meet emission reduction targets, and avoid the unintended consequences of emissions being offshored by increased food imports, or causing damage to valuable ecosystems in the UK. GREEN AG will engage and unite the science community with industry, policy, farmer and NGO stakeholders. We will identify farm management practices with potential to reduce emissions and/or capture carbon without major impacts on food production or other environmental outcomes. We will undertake detailed, integrated measurements of these practices on both experiments and on a network of instrumented study farms (Living Farm Labs). We will use models to define pathways to achieving net zero+ arable and livestock farm systems that minimise trade-offs with production and the environment. Finally, we will use cutting edge data science to provide data, models and tools to enable the transition to net zero+ agriculture. Achieving the ambition of clean, green and net-zero agriculture will require strategic, cross-disciplinary and long-term research - a so-called national capability. This will bring together directed teams from NERC and BBSRC centres - UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Rothamsted Research, National Centre for Earth Observation, British Geological Survey and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. This partnership will bring together complementary expertise in ground and earth observation, sensor networks, measurement of GHG emissions from soils, groundwater and estuaries, pollution, biodiversity, crop and livestock production, data science and modelling from field to national scales, covering terrestrial, freshwater and coastal zones. Our environmental research will complement work on other aspects of the farming system that might support net zero+, including crop breeding, animal husbandry and diet, soil science, and crop nutrition and protection. The GREEN AG national capability will provide the following outcomes for the UK science community and other stakeholders: - New knowledge underpinning effective agri-environmental policies to achieve net zero emissions by 2050; - New funding opportunities levered from the GREEN AG research and innovation infrastructure which comprise a national digital farmland observatory, instrumented study farms, experiments, data and models; - More effective implementation of net zero+ polices and practice through stakeholder engagement and co-design, and through the provision of new decision support tools; - Opportunities for UK researchers and agri-businesses to export this green growth knowledge, technology and innovations to overseas markets.

In this project we will support individuals and organisations across the food system to develop their knowledge of resilience. Producers, processors, manufacturers, retailers, policy makers and consumers will all have to change their practices and behaviours if we are to achieve a more resilient food system. Yet both trade-offs and tensions between these actors can easily arise. For example, forms of farming that can better withstand extreme weather events do not necessarily support the health and wellbeing of consumers, and may struggle to supply the volumes or quality standards demanded by robust global supply chains. To start to unpick this complexity, we will investigate the nature of resilience and how it can be promoted in three components of the food system: on farm; in the supply chain; and among consumers. We will employ information technology to secure access to data that enables actors across the food system to gain the knowledge required to respond and adapt to emerging socio-economic and environmental change. Importantly, we will also go further, and look to develop a unifying understanding of 'food system resilience', complemented by tools and methods that can integrate the knowledge and perspectives of hitherto disparate food system actors. Through integrating knowledge, our aim is to remove some of the significant disconnects between various actors in the food system. In three areas of focus, we will: 1) Work with farmers, scientists and engineers, to reform processes of technology development so that farmers' existing knowledge of farm resilience, embedded in their understanding of their soils, seeds and breeds, can be supported and expanded through the application of novel, low cost sensor and imaging technologies 2) Work with food processors, distributors and retailers, to undertake an integrated analysis of food commodity supply data and the political economy of production, consumption and trade, to identify contexts in which resilience can be supported within the distribution and supply system 3) Work with consumers through engagement with individuals and with population data, to better understand the drivers of consumer choice within and between socioeconomic groups, and the consequences for public health resilience. By better understanding resilience in these three areas, we will develop decision support tools that draw on data from across the food system to identify and encourage complementarities - and minimise conflicts - between the choices and actions taken by different actors in the food system. To achieve this, we will translate existing agricultural sensors and engineering technology platforms to address the specific needs for the 'right data at the right time, in the right location and at the right cost', to reduce vulnerability increase resilience across the food system. In particular, we will: 1) Deepen understanding of the food system and how stakeholders differ in their ability to respond to crises and stresses within international food supply chains 2) Investigate how structures, institutions and information can support individuals, communities and organisations to think and act in response to different types of change that emerge within the complexity of the global food system 3) Explore how new forms of data, mobile technologies, institutional models and incentive frameworks can shape information flows and behaviour, enabling researchers, technologists and food system stakeholder resolve and respond in a timely fashion to pressures facing food consumption, production and trade 4) Provide a new model of food system resilience that sets an agenda for future interdisciplinary research and defines policy objectives for a resilient UK food system.

Our vision is to maximise the food potential of UK pasture by using targeted chemical processing and novel biotechnology to convert grass into nutritious edible fractions for healthier and more affordable alternative foods, making UK agriculture more resilient and sustainable. Our proposal aims to use novel chemical processing methods to extract the central edible fractions from grass (protein, digestible carbohydrates, vitamins, lipids, fibre) before culturing the yeast Metschnikowia pulcherrima on the cellulosic fraction to produce mycoprotein and a lipid suitable as a palm oil substitute. These ingredients will then be combined in a range of alternative meat and dairy products, displacing environmentally damaging imported ingredients currently used. Further processing of the waste products from the process will produce nutrient rich fertilizers and help create a model for future circular farming economies. When optimised this process would only need 10 to 15kg of fresh grass (20% dry matter content) to produce 1kg of edible food ingredients, of which approximately 25% would be lipid and 35% protein. Whilst not entirely comparable on a nutritional basis this represents a ten-fold increase in productivity compared to cattle raised for meat, or twice the productivity of dairy cows. By converting grass into edible food components, a number of advantages are realised including: - UK produced substitutes for palm oil, soya protein, and other imported food ingredients. This has environmental benefits in the UK and abroad. It will provide UK produced healthy nutritional substitutes for ingredients grown on former rainforest sites, whilst significantly reducing food miles; - Produce UK food substitutes for over two billion pounds worth of annual food imports, with the opportunity to export significant quantities of surplus produce; - Improved UK resilience to climate change as grass is more resilient to flooding and other extreme weather conditions than most other crops; - As the process is feedstock agnostic, it should work equally well with wildflower rich pasture grass. This potentially enables the reintroduction of grasslands with greater biodiversity without having an impact on the grasses usability, an environmentally beneficial by-product of the process; - Providing a commercially viable non-livestock based market for forage production that would also allow arable land that is prone to flooding to profitably return to meadow grass production; - The profitable inclusion of grass in arable rotations to help combat blackgrass and other pesticide resistant weeds; - At present, in some areas it is uneconomic to build and maintain livestock fencing, resulting in grassland in these regions having little commercial agricultural value. These grasslands will now become commercially viable, and contribute to UK food production; - Limited risk in scaling up as there is no need to invest in new farm machinery, existing forage equipment and storage facilities will suffice and the bio-processing technology is mature and already used for many other industrial applications; - Opportunities for investment in a new UK food industry; - With the production of more digestible fractions, this project would produce more sustainable, UK sourced, feed for monogastric livestock; - Initial research suggests that sufficient unutilised grass is available for the P2P process, therefore, this system should have little or no impact on grass supplies for dairy and livestock farming.

This research will critically assess the potential impact on UK agriculture of cultured meat, a technology with possibly profound and uncertain implications for the future of food and farming. Also known as 'clean', 'cell-based' and 'cultivated' meat, cultured meat is engineered animal tissue intended for people to eat. It is a type of alternative protein. Alternative proteins are strategically important to UK and global food systems because they can use less land and water than livestock products, lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, cut antibiotic use and the risk of new zoonotic diseases, and help promote animal welfare. Early data suggest that cultured meats could yield such benefits, but may struggle to compete with other meat alternatives on energy efficiency and cost. They are important because they could substitute more directly for livestock meat than other alternatives, and are at an earlier stage of development, so more open to influence by policy-makers and investors. While cultured meat is potentially transformative, its benefits therefore remain speculative. It also brings risks in nutrition, food fraud and food safety. Technical, regulatory, market and cultural uncertainties mean that the sector may not develop in the UK commercially, or may develop but fail to deliver public benefits. This project focuses on how cultured meat could affect farming in the UK. This is relevant to its environmental, economic and animal welfare impact, and to public and political attitudes that will shape how it gets regulated. Cultured meat is commonly assumed to be a threat to farmers, producing food in ways that could put some out of business. However, nobody has actually looked into this in-depth, or explored these issues with farmers in the UK. In practice, the different ways that cultured meat might develop could bring diverse risks and opportunities for farmers. The technology may create demands for new agricultural products, such as cells (donor herds for cell harvesting), feedstock for growth media (arable, forage, sugar beet), feedstock for edible scaffolds (cellulose, pea, bean, soya) and current waste streams (glucose, cellulose). In some scenarios, cultured meat might even be produced on farms, in facilities owned and operated by farmers, or could complement campaigns for 'less and better' meat. Alternatively, it may not reduce livestock meat consumption at all, or it may compete directly with high-welfare meat production. This research is designed to influence how this potentially transformative technology affects the UK food system. We will work with farmers and other people who may be affected by the technology to investigate whether they can see responsible ways of developing cultured meat. We will examine what farmers currently think of cultured meat, and explore different ways the technology could develop. We will work with farmers in a wide range of different situations to model how their businesses could get involved in or be affected by cultured meat production, and assess the environmental, social and economic consequences. We aim to answer the following questions: 1. How do UK farmers currently perceive cultured meat? 2. What threats and opportunities does the development of cultured meat pose to UK farm businesses in different scenarios? 3. Under what conditions, if any, would on-farm production of cultured meat be practical, economically viable and desirable in the UK? In answering these questions, we will consider not only the direct effects of cultured meat on farm businesses and livelihoods, but also wider ecological, nutritional, cultural and ethical implications, and how cultured meat might complement or conflict with the ways land use and diets in the UK could change to become sustainable.

Not needed for this application