We asked whether the design of ELM meant that land would be taken out of production and the UK would therefore either need to import more food or food prices would rise as a result. Professor Rob Fraser told us that the UK was a large net importer of food, importing around £18 billion of food each year and exporting less than £5 billion. He explained that, while the UK could import food and energy, it could not import environmental benefits. He explained that as a result of ELM’s ambition to “maximise the value to society of the landscape in this country”, the UK was likely to become increasingly reliant on food imports.79 The National Farmers’ Union told us it was important for the UK to consider its self-sufficiency in food production to avoid having to import food from countries with 72 Qq 76–78, 82 73 Q 3 74 Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener, October 2021, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy 75 Q 18 76 Q 15 77 Q 60 78 Q 13 79 Qq 21–22 Environmental Land Management Scheme 21 lower environmental standards and the risk of there being no net improvement for the environment.80 Our recent report on net zero highlighted a risk in the short term that policies to reduce emissions transfers them abroad instead,81 and the National Farmers’ Union emphasised that “we cannot simply export our environmental conscience”.82