Why this summer's drought could lead to food shortages

气候变化动真格:英国正在失去农场?

The Story

2026-08-10

31 分钟
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The UK produces around half of the food we eat but this year's droughts have led to shriveling crops and farmers struggling to feed their animals. Is our changing climate jeopardising our food security? This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory Guests: Olly Harrison, cereals farmer.Ben Cooke, environment correspondent, The Times.Host: Manveen Rana.  Producer: Olivia Case. We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com Read more: Drained reservoirs may not prevent harvest being worst on record Further listening: Why young high achievers are leaving Britain Clips: Sky News.  Photo: Getty Images. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is The Story.

  • I'm Manveen Rana.

  • It feels a little bit like Groundhog Day if I'm honest.

  • Last year we had the worst harvest we've ever seen.

  • This one is very, very similar.

  • Olly Harrison is a cereals farmer based near Liverpool.

  • He runs one of the more than 200,000 farms in the UK

  • and almost all of them are facing the same problem—the weather.

  • Some crops are actually worse—a third of what they should be.

  • It's literally been like an airfryer out there.

  • You've had all this hot air blowing at these plants and it's just killed them off.

  • Nothing this summer feels normal.

  • Right now the farm should look more like this.

  • Harvested in full swing, you know, we'd have dripping ripe crops of wheat

  • sort of blowing a little bit in the breeze.

  • But instead, this year the harvest, such as it was, came early.

  • Any crops that haven't been harvested yet are just tiny,

  • sort of 6 inches to 12 inches high rather than a couple of feet high

  • because they've just been stunted by the extreme temperatures and the hot wind that we've had.

  • The harvest across the country looks set to be the worst on record.