Farming UK reports that a University of Surrey study, published in Food and Energy Security, found that vertical farms, despite high yields and water savings, produce more carbon emissions than conventional lettuce growing.

Farmers Guardian reports that UFU deputy president Glenn Cuddy has stressed the need for trusted, independent science to shape Northern Ireland’s farming future. Speaking at AFBI’s strategy launch, he highlighted soil health, plant and animal disease threats, and called for robust, locally relevant research to guide sustainable agricultural policy and practice.

Farming UK reports that ADAS' Yield Enhancement Network (YEN), a 13-year flagship crop productivity project, is closing due to lack of sponsors. News of the shutdown has prompted calls for AHDB to intervene to save the project. YEN benchmarked cereal and oilseed yields, driving productivity gains - its closure has been called a “national scandal” by industry figures.

Farmers Guardian reports that M&S has called on Government to support British farmers through legally binding food security targets. Launching its ‘Plan A for Farming’, the retailer urged action to boost UK-grown and reared produce, aligning with the principle that “food security is national security.”

The UK’s ability to feed itself is under serious threat, with up to a quarter of farmland at risk of being lost by 2050, a new report has warned. The study highlights the potential loss of up to 23% of current farmland due to competing demands for housing, solar energy, tree planting, biodiversity restoration and carbon sequestration.

Authors of the report 'UK Food Security – Outlook to 2050' say such a reduction would displace domestic food production on an unprecedented scale. The analysis was led by Dr Derrick Wilkinson, former chief economist at the NFU and CLA, and published by the think-tank Science for Sustainable Agriculture (SSA).

Two new 'Dragons Den-style' competitions will channel £12.6m into UK agri-tech, backing ideas to cut costs, reduce labour pressures and improve animal health.

The government funding will be delivered through two new Farming Innovation Programme competitions, described as a “Dragons Den for farming”.

Run in partnership with Innovate UK, the scheme builds on earlier projects that developed robotic strawberry pickers and early-warning health systems for cattle.

Britain’s first genetically-edited (GE) foods will be on supermarket shelves in the new year as a result of Brexit freedoms.

Crops which have been genetically edited to be tastier, longer-lasting and healthier will now be legally sold in England for the first time under the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023.

University scientists and private companies have created products such as bread with less cancer-causing chemicals, longer-lasting strawberries and bananas, sweeter tasting lettuce and disease-resistant potatoes.

Quality Meat Scotland is backing a major study into how smarter breeding can slash greenhouse gas emissions while boosting efficiency on Britain’s farms.

QMS is working with the Agri-Food for Net Zero (AFN) Network on a new project exploring how genetics can help the red meat sector cut emissions while improving efficiency and animal welfare.

The Breeding Better Beef and Sheep study, led by Kat Watson at the Royal Agricultural University, is a one-year collaboration between farmers, researchers and industry bodies.

Aberystwyth University scientists are developing new artificial intelligence tools that automatically measures plant seed and seed pods in order to breed better crop varieties.

Traditional ways of recording the traits of a plants’ fruit, such as their shape and size, are very labour-intensive, time-consuming, and prone to human error.

Researchers have addressed the challenge with a new AI powered tool that analyses images to recognise seed pods and measure them with high accuracy.

US President Donald Trump has told farmers that he will no longer support solar projects being built on prime agricultural land in a bid to strengthen the nation's food security and to prioritise food production.

On Monday (August 18), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that it will no longer fund taxpayer dollars on solar panels taking land away from growing crops and rearing livestock.

Additionally, USDA said it will block solar projects which use panels manufactured by 'foreign adversaries' in order to protect fertile farmland.