V2 Strictly private and con?dential for internal review only Agricultural Innovation How Changes in Technology, Genomics and Chemicals can bene?t the British What is the purpose of this project? Innovation in agriculture continues at a rapid pace. This paper examines the innovations currently occmring in farming, and likely to occur in the near future, and explores their implications for British farmers and consumers in two categories: i Economic. The effect of innovation on the competitiveness of British farmers . Ecological. The effect of innovation on the environmental impact of farming and management A key question this paper sets out to answer is whether innovation in agriculture will be good for the environment or bad. By definition, farming uses land and competes with wild ecosystems and wildlife for space, sunlight, water and other resources. However, ?sustainable intensification" or "land sparing? allows an increase of production to occur with fewer environmental impacts, and to release land for nature. British wheat yields quadrupled in recent decades, and globally 68% less land is needed to produce the same amount of food as 60 years ago. Properly harnessed, innovation can therefore be a force for environmental good. Who will lead this project? The following authors have been secured: Viscount Ridley, author, landowner, science commentator and Conservative member of the House of Lords. Visiting fellow of Policy Exchange. Matt Ridley's books have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards. His books include The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, Genome, Nature via Nurture, Francis Crick, The Rational Optimist and The Evolution of Everything. His TED talk "When Ideas Have Sex" has been viewed more than two million times. He writes a weekly column in The Times (London) and writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal. Natascha Engel, businesswoman, former Labour MP and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. Natascha was born and raised in Beriin, Germany. She was elected as Labour MP for North East in May 2005 Before she became an MP, Natascha worked on the political wing of the trade union movement. Before this, Natascha spent a year working at the Smith Institute, a think tank set up in memory of the late Labour leader John Smith. Natascha was Programme Director and focused on Regional Economic Policy, women at work, and Employment and Skills policies. institute.org.uk Professor David Hill, CBE, ecologist, businessman. David founded Environment Bank in 2008 to promote the concept of habitat banking and environmental offsetting in the UK. He is Chairman of the Environment Bank, Deputy Chair of Natural England and a member of the Board of the UK government?s Joint Nature Conservation Committee. He is also a member of the Government?s Ecosystem Markets Taskforce and Chair of the Northern Upland Chain Local Nature Partnership. Institute of Economic Affairs Internal proposal June 2018 V2 Strictly private and confidential for internal review only What topics will be covered? Robotics and automation: Driverless tractors, drones and robots that harvest fruit or spot-spray weeds promise to improve yields and margins, replace the need for cheap labour and keep British farming competitive while using fewer chemicals and less energy use. Indoor farming: Salads and herbs are increasingly grown indoors using LED lights, requiring lower energy use, less water and no pesticides. The footprint of such systems is often less than 1% of that of an outdoor equivalent. Genomics and gene editing: Advances in gene editing and genotyping, as well as new generations of genetically modi?ed crops, promise rapid improvements in crops and animais, with higher yields, more pest resistance and more nutritious food, produced using fewer chemicals. Chemicals: Farming i heavily dependent on fertilisers to boost yield and pesticides to prevent diseases, combat insects and control weeds. This dependence has been exacerbated by the refusai to adopt genetically modified crops, which elsewhere have reduced chemical use substantially. However, despite a general improvement in the targeting and off?target safety of such chemicals, there is growing pressure to reduce chemical use and it is becoming harder to bring in new ones. This has implications for the viability of British farming and the urgency offinding non-chemical solutions. No?tiil farming: arable farming without the environmentaily destructive and energetically costly business of ploughing is now possible, but only thanks to cheap, broad?spectrum herbicides to control weeds that would otherwise be suppressed by cultivation. The result is improved soil structure and carbon sequestration: is this trade-off Energy crops: The current vogue for a return to using the landscape extensively to generate energy, through biofuels, biomass and anaerobic digestion, as well as wind and solar farms, has brought new environmental problems including soil runoff, bird kill and other issues. These will need to be addressed either by further technical fixes or policy changes. Animal husbandry:- new genetic technologies in particular promise greater food conversion efficiency of farm animals. Chickens already now gain weight at three times the rate of 60 years ago. Better veterinary care and more sustainable feed are among the potential bene?ts of innovation. Offsetting: If land sparing is to benefit the environment, then policies must be developed to link improvements in agricultural yield to the release of land for nature. This can be achieved by incentives for conservation covenants and offsetting and will require innovative policy ideas. How will the project bene?t the With the UK on the brink of leaving the European Union, British policy makers have a chance to craft new agricultural policies outside the Common Agricultural Policy. Key decisions will need to be taken about how rapidly to enable or allow farmers to embrace new technologies and how to ensure that those innovations benefit environmental indicators as well as farm productivity and competitiveness. This report will be a central contribution to that debate. Institute of Economic Affairs Internal proposal June 2018 v2 Strictly private and con?dential for internal review only What will; be the outputs? Report: A 20,0004word report was be published autumn'EOlB- [current plans circa midto late October]; Asweii as being free to download from'the IEA website in format, the report be printed'in hard-copy format-Planned circulation 2,000 copies. Distributioniist to; include servants; parliamentarians,- journalists, commentators; and writers; wider'stekehoide'rs; academies, Promotion and, marketing; A bespoke promotion campaign will be created,- commensurate with the importance we attach to this work, to maximise readership o'i'tnis'report; Whiist it is too soon to define this in cietail, it is eXpected to have the following core elements: Press- Press releaSe [possibly with exclusive offered forteature in a respected national newspaper or With preerelease briefing at the IEAJwit'h press] 0' Pieced op-ecis in national newspapers andfor-Isev political websites- Digitai "a P'odca-st recordedwith kevauthorsgand timed-?for release with the report 0 Feature and blog .on front'page'on Website on launch to draw attention to report 0' O'nline advertising campaign a Major sociai media infographics- to publicise report Events n- An evening reception [location tbc} to r'nark'the launch ofth?e report Report follow through: Further- private meetings vviil be sought not-ieast: it meeting will be sought with to discuss findings of report a private-iunch or dinner will be held at IE-A with key influencers to discuss the key findings next steps a Wide-r meetings may aiso be soughtwithkey'stake'holders post release What is the budget? item Component activity Subtotal "Email Report ii; .Authors- fees ?10,000 design ?1000 Printing and distribution [it 2-,000-copies. print ru n} ?8,000 I ?25,000 Promotion and Marketing Press. campaign ?2,000 Bigitai-ca'mpaign' ?6,000 Reception ?4,000 ?12,000. Follow up- MEEtings - E500 Private lunch/dinner ?5,000 ?5,500 DRAFT ?42,,so'oo we ore Considering-o oneooy- conference inter in the-year Botany/November but this item has been exposed from thepboveoudget or this time [topiine estimate ?35,000 budget wooid'be' required]; ?Um institute of Econoniice?airs internal proposal June 2018