As climate change wreaks havoc on land traditionally used to cultivate fresh fare and soil quality continues to decline, we need to embrace agritech to keep feeding the 70million and reduce reliance on imports. So why aren’t local and national governments doing more to nurture this nascent sector?
In 202 torrential floods ruined England’s harvest. In 2025, the direst spring since 1893 meant a blistering drought did the same. With crop yields down 13% last year and more declines expected to be announced soon, UK farmers face a new normal: relentless climate unpredictability.
Farmers are growing increasingly anxious about the climate crisis. The familiar rhythm of Britain’s seasons can no longer be relied on. What crops should they plant, and when? How much will they harvest? Will it be enough to keep their farm afloat? The uncertainty is undoubtedly part of the reason traditional farms are disappearing at twice the rate new ones are established.
All this is happening as our population, and our reliance on imported food, increases. Last year, the UK imported about 40% of its food, much of it from countries grappling with their own climate extremes and geopolitical conflict. This challenge will only worsen as our population increases. By 2031, the UK population is expected to hit 70million. To feed the nation, and make sure we all eat the recommended five portions of fruit and veg a day, we’d need to double the amount we currently produce.
Based on government statistics, if the UK wanted to grow its own vegetables, we’d need another 300,000hectares of high-quality farmland (roughly the size of Shropshire). But the reality is we don’t have a spare county of any size lying around. What’s worse, the environmental cost of industrial farming has become too great to ignore. Intensive agriculture has stripped our arable soils of 40–60% of their organic carbon, reducing fertility and yields. It all adds up to a stark reality: we must grow more food, more sustainably, on less land—and we need to do it here in the UK.
Technology can support the agricultural transition
Across the country, innovative technologies are transforming how we farm. From autonomous drones scanning fields to monitor crop health leaf by leaf, to robots using precision lasers to control weeds instead of spraying herbicides. The agritech sector is evolving to find new, innovative ways to grow food.
Vertical Farms are part of the solution. By growing vegetables indoors, stacked in layers under LED lights and irrigated by hydroponics, our harvests aren’t dictated by floods or droughts. So, we can consistently put salad on supermarket shelves, no matter the weather.
And it’s sustainable. Last year, GrowUp farm in Kent recycled 3billion litres of water—enough to supply London for a day—avoided soil erosion entirely (because we don’t use soil), caused no water pollution, and ran on 100% renewable electricity. Vertical farms like ours are proven, scalable, and nature friendly. They harness emerging technologies to tackle real food challenges.
And, as climate change intensifies and food security becomes ever more fragile, these innovations are crucial.
Indoor and outdoor farming, working together. Hailing from a traditional farming family — my parents are third-generation farmers — I know vertical farming isn’t a silver bullet. But it’s part of the solution for certain crops like leafy greens, herbs, and other fast-growing, non-perennial plants.
GrowUp sits on just two hectares of what used to be a car park, and in 2024 produced the same amount of lettuce you’d get from 78hectares of traditional – that’s over 10 times the yield per hectare. By growing these crops indoors on a fraction of the land, vertical farming reduces pressure on traditional farmland, freeing up space for farmers to produce other crops that can’t easily be grown indoors.
This is just the start
Across the food sector, businesses like ours are quietly working to tackle the big challenges, showing that it’s possible to improve food security, sustainability, and farm profitability all at once. We’re proving that it’s possible to supply what consumers want, whilst being both scalable and sustainable, and we’re not the only ones.
Peers like First Milk, a regenerative farming co-op that turns their dairy by-products into renewable energy, and COOK, an organisation producing hand-prepared and ethically sourced meals, are further proof that food businesses can now achieve sustainability and financial successes on a national and global scale. The work we’re doing is just scratching the surface of what is possible, and with greater funding and support, we can play a part in accelerating the agricultural transition.
The Role of Government
In June, Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Defra, said that ‘food security is national security’. If the Government truly believes this, it has to do more to support the agritech industry in unlocking its full potential. Progress is being made: the inclusion of agritech within the Government’s Industrial Strategy is encouraging. But the challenges we face are vast, and the opportunities that agritech offers are simply too important to ignore. The future of farming in the UK and the food on our plates will depend on how quickly we embrace innovations. It’s time to back our farmers, our technologists, and our food security, because there’s not a moment to lose.
Gillon Dobie is Impact Director at GrowUp Farms, a vertical agriculture company based in Kent, UK.
Image: George Dagerotip / Unsplash
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