From Jonathan Spencer, visiting professor, school of geography, University of Southampton, UK
You report the view that rewilding and nature restoration in the UK and other European nations risks “offshoring” food and forestry production to places where biodiversity and the environment will suffer. Most rewilding in the UK takes place on land of very poor quality, often where farming has been uneconomic for decades and persists only due to subsidies (22 February, p 12).
For example, such shifts are taking place on economically ailing dairy land or in the uplands, on former sheep walks and grouse moors that produce little food. Most of the high-quality, pasture-fed beef that is directly produced by many UK rewilding projects is sold in the UK too. In that respect, rewilding produces food rather than offshoring its production.
