Farmers warn climate crisis is too fast, too big to adapt
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- Tim Young, a Norfolk farmer tracking rainfall since 1976, says the last six years delivered just two-thirds the rainfall of previous years, with the Environment Agency pausing his river-water abstraction licence last year over low flows.
- Uyen Do, an organic farmer in France's Dordogne region, said her farm cannot adapt quickly enough, stating "It's too fast. It's too big," as President Emmanuel Macron called France's fires the worst since WWII and half of England was declared in drought.
- National Farmers' Union deputy president Paul Tompkins warned that on-farm reservoirs will likely run out of supply in August across drought-status areas covering half the UK, while Riverford's Luke King said all but one of his company's reservoirs are now empty.
- Tim Young lost 35% of expected profits last year when his onion crop came in 500 tonnes lighter than expected — 700 tonnes grown versus 1,200 tonnes of storage capacity — as extreme heat stopped onions reaching optimal size.
- Pip and Nut founder Pippa Murray said her company has already raised prices due to climate shocks and foresees more increases, citing California almond acreage falling for five straight years as farmers abandon orchards over water viability.
- Met Office food-security science lead Prof Pete Falloon, who is advising government on food system resilience, said regenerative farming, better water storage, and drought-tolerant crop varieties are essential — and that "a lot of the practices are there already."
Why it matters: Adaptation is failing in measured terms: one farmer is down 35% on a single crop's profit, on-farm reservoirs are emptying across half the UK, and a food company has already raised prices — even as the Met Office's own food-security lead tells government that known solutions aren't being deployed fast enough, putting UK food security and consumer prices directly on the line.
