The UK land system is under multiple, interlinked and acute stresses. Reaching Net Zero requires changes to land-use to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through tree planting and peatland restoration, as well as reductions in direct emissions from agricultural activities.

Meanwhile, the UK government acknowledges the need to ensure food security, focusing on domestic production. All of this places pressure on an industry already facing tight profit margins, changes to inheritance tax rules, lack of consistency in environmental subsidies, as well as other pressures on adopting sustainable farming practices.

This public-facing panel event will discuss the implications of Net Zero for the farming sector. Panellists are from policy, academia and the farming sector. K4U.12, King's Building, Strand Campus. Further location details will be provided closer to the time, and signage will be provided on the day.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Tom Lafford is Head of the Land Use Framework Project at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He has previously held roles in international climate change and energy negotiations, and domestic climate and energy policy in multiple UK Government Departments

Andrew Hattan, together with his wife Sally, runs the 490-acre Low Riggs Farm in the Yorkshire Dales. They are first generation tenants striving to develop a sustainable farming business, which includes the production of Stonebeck Raw Wensleydale Cheese, using milk from their native rarebreed cattle. The farm includes 50 acres of traditional upland hay meadows under a 10-year restoration project in line with the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, and is home to several endangered wading bird species, amongst other wildlife species.

Katie Manning is Lecturer in Climate Change, Business, and Society, where she works at the intersection of science, policy and business in food and land-use systems, as well as exploring historical adaptations to climatic changes in Saharan Africa. Prior to joining King’s she worked on the systems analysis for Defra’s Land Use Framework, considering the trade-offs across political economic, social and environmental drivers of England’s land use system.

The panel is organised by the King’s Climate Research Hub, a multidisciplinary grouping within the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s, which explores climate questions at the interface of science and society.

The panel will be chaired by Nithya Natarajan, Senior Lecturer in International Development at King's College London. Nithya's work explores agrarian change, rural-urban livelihoods, labour precarity, gender and debt in South Asia and Cambodia.

This event features as part of Circle U. Climate Day.