In April 2009 the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme produced a briefing note summarising findings of one of their projects 'Implications of a Nutrition Driven Food Policy for the Countryside'.
This set out to examine how the UK could produce healthy foods that consumers wish to buy at prices they are willing to pay and to assess the impact on land use and the rural environment and economy.
Their research shows that, if we assume that the percentage of imports will remain constant, many more acres of intensive production under polythene tunnels would be needed in order to produce the quantity of fruit and vegetables for the recommended healthy diet.
At the same time, areas which are most suited to grazing animals rather than growing crops would suffer a severe decline.
This could mean unemployment and abandonment of upland areas. Smaller farms would disappear and be absorbed into larger land holdings. Upstream industries would suffer, particularly feed suppliers, and there would be a knock-on effect on the wider rural economy of the uplands.
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