Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell argue that rewilding land can help increase food production

One question we are often asked is where food production sits with rewilding. Many consider rewilding as being at odds with our need to grow food, because it might compete directly for land. We see this very differently. Almost always unaddressed in these conversations is the shocking amount of food that is wasted.

Globally, we produce enough food for over 10 billion people, two billion more than the current world population. But a third is wasted – 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food a year.

The most pressing question concerning food security is not the quantity of food we’re producing, but the way we produce it. Globally, we need to shift to regenerative agriculture (farming practices that enhance ecosystems), which can help to restore our soils and protect our water sources through no ploughing, using cover crops, rotating crops with livestock, and agroforestry.

Most urgently, we need to move away from the entirely unsustainable and unethical system of industrialised livestock production that relies on growing vast quantities of grain for animal feed – and which will almost certainly mean eating less meat and dairy.

And we need to produce more of our own crops in our own countries, rather than importing them from far-flung parts of the globe, thereby depleting soil and resources in places we will never see.

The war in Ukraine has shown us how precarious food supply lines can be. But a recent study has found that if Europeans reduced their consumption of meat and dairy by just 15 per cent, this would knock out entirely the need for imports of grain from Ukraine and Russia.

Even with increased food production in the UK, there is enough land for agriculture and for rewilding. Indeed, the two work hand in glove. Rewilding will provide the life-support system needed to increase yields and protect farmland from the impact of climate change. It can provide the pollinating insects for crops and the natural predators to control pests and outbreaks of disease. It will help to replenish water tables, purify polluted water courses and protect farmland from both flooding and drought.

Swathes of natural vegetation, running like webbing through our agricultural landscapes, will act as buffers against extreme weather events as the effects of climate change take hold. Far from being the enemy of farming, rewilding is its natural ally, securing its long-term future.

While farmers on marginal land may be interested in shifting entirely to rewilding, those on better soils will clearly want to continue producing food. What we’re seeing now, though, is a deeper appreciation of the relationship between rewilding and agriculture. Many farmers, even those on the most productive land, are now interested in how aspects of rewilding, such as restoring natural water courses and creating wildlife corridors, can increase space for nature, generate additional income and improve the conditions for farming.

As the transformation of [the rewilding project] Knepp has begun to mature, the wider public response to what is happening here has been overwhelming. People who camp at Knepp for a night or two, go on a safari or simply walk the footpaths tell us how moved they have been by their experience. We receive reams of letters, emails and messages: the elderly, inspired by hearing woodlarks and nightingales, recalling the last time they’d heard them, long ago, as children; retired farmers and agronomists expressing regret, realising the damage they, like us, have unwittingly done in their lives; the young exclaiming in joy at hearing their first turtle dove or cuckoo.

Some have been moved to create poems and paintings, even to compose music. What they all express is the sense of hope that Knepp brings. Seeing how nature can bounce back in such profusion and with such astonishing speed, especially on land as unpromising as ours, is both profoundly reassuring and galvanising. In this age of eco-anxiety, when we can so easily feel utterly powerless and overwhelmed by the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, experiencing rewilding seems to restore a sense of agency and ambition.

This is an extract from The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell (Bloomsbury Publishing).

We’ll be chatting to Isabella and Charlie on “A Drink with the Idler”, Thursday 25 May at 6pm London time. Book your tickets here. Free to Idler magazine and Academy subscribers.

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