What England’s New Land Use Framework Means for Vegan Organic Farming and Rewilding
The UK government’s new Land Use Framework marks a significant step forward in creating the long-term vision for land use and nature recovery that many in our movement have long called for. It aims to balance competing demands on land—climate mitigation, food production, timber, housing, and more—while introducing a more strategic, joined-up approach.
Importantly, this is a framework rather than a detailed delivery plan. It sets direction, but how it is implemented will determine its real impact.
Signs of Progress
There are several encouraging developments that reflect years of advocacy from environmental and farming organisations:
- 6% of England’s land—including lower productivity agricultural land—has been identified for transition towards climate and nature benefits.
- Local authorities are being encouraged to make land available to communities for food growing and nature recovery.
- There is a commitment to more transparent land use and ownership data, enabling better decision-making.
- A clearer vision is emerging for moorland and peatland restoration, including the potential for regulating gamebird shooting through licensing.
- Spatial prioritisation will guide payments to land managers, directing support to areas where rewilding and nature recovery can have the greatest impact.
These are meaningful steps forward and reflect growing recognition that land must deliver more than just agricultural output.
A Food System at Breaking Point
Alongside these policy shifts sits a more urgent reality: the UK’s fruit and vegetable system is under severe strain.
Fruit and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy country. Yet right now, UK growers are at breaking point. Less than 2% of UK farmland is used for fruit and veg production, while nearly half of all growers fear they could go out of business within a year. Meanwhile, the UK imports over 80% of its fruit and nearly half of its vegetables.
This is not just an agricultural issue—it is a question of food security, public health, and environmental sustainability. Without urgent action to increase home-grown fruit and veg, we risk empty supermarket shelves, poorer diets, and greater environmental impacts from imports.
Opportunities for Vegan Organic Farming
For vegan organic growers, the framework opens some important doors—particularly in this context.
Support for nature-friendly farming, soil health, and diversified land use aligns closely with vegan organic principles. The push for community access to land could help expand local fruit and vegetable production, while reducing reliance on imports.
Greater transparency around land ownership may also help unlock land that has historically been difficult to access—especially for new entrants and smaller-scale growers focused on horticulture.
Crucially, the urgent need to scale up domestic fruit and veg production strengthens the case for plant-based farming systems. Vegan organic agriculture offers a way to produce nutritious food while enhancing biodiversity, improving soils, and reducing environmental harm.
However, there are also clear limitations. The framework maintains a strong emphasis on protecting overall food production and prioritising the most “productive” land. This suggests that decisions will continue to favour yield, rather than fully recognising the ecological and ethical benefits of stock-free systems.
As a result, vegan organic farming is likely to be supported as part of a broader mix—but not yet prioritised as a central solution.
What This Means for Rewilding
The framework also strengthens the case for rewilding and large-scale nature recovery.
The identification of land for environmental transition, combined with spatial targeting of funding, creates real opportunities for restoring ecosystems—particularly in areas where farming is less viable. Peatland and moorland restoration commitments are especially significant given their importance for carbon storage and biodiversity.
At the same time, this is not a vision of widespread land abandonment. Rewilding will largely be:
- targeted to specific areas
- shaped by incentives rather than mandates
- integrated into wider landscapes that still include food production
In practice, this means a mosaic approach: habitat restoration alongside farming, rather than a wholesale shift to wild land.
A Balancing Act—With Trade-offs
The Land Use Framework reflects an attempt to reconcile competing pressures rather than resolve them. Its emphasis on multifunctional land use—asking land to deliver food, nature, and climate benefits simultaneously—relies on careful balancing and, inevitably, compromise.
Yet the current imbalance in our food system raises a critical question: what kind of food production are we prioritising? With so little land devoted to fruit and vegetables, and such heavy reliance on imports, there is a clear opportunity to rethink how land is used.
For advocates of vegan organic farming and rewilding, this points towards the need for more fundamental change—shifting land towards plant-based food production and freeing up space for nature.
Looking Ahead
There is much to welcome in this framework. It represents a shift towards long-term thinking, better data, and more strategic land use—progress that has been made possible in part by sustained advocacy from across our community.
But this is only the beginning.
The real test will be in how these ambitions are translated into policy, funding, and practice. For the Vegan Organic Network, this is a crucial moment to continue making the case that Stockfree, plant-based organic systems are not just compatible with this vision—but essential to achieving it.
Expanding home-grown fruit and vegetable production, supporting nature recovery, and building a resilient food system are not separate goals. Done well, they can—and must—be part of the same transition.
There is still much to do, and much to shape.