Britain has been self sufficient in wheat for ever. Sufficient is grown ( 14 m tonnes in 2009). However there are new factors affecting this sufficiency.
A biofuel refinery in Wilton North Tees will consume one tenth of the British wheat production. Which shaves off the flexibility from our wheat resources.The wheat that is used is the low quality wheat used for animal feed. The facility will require 1.2 million tonnes of wheat to produce 450 million tonnes of bioethanol . This is because of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation which requires 5% of all vehicle fuel to come from biofuels by 2014.The facility will also produce 350,000 tonnes of high protein animal feed. This will significantly reduce the import of soy-based feed imported from Brazil grown on cleared forest land. The effects on the food chain and displacement chain are not apparent at the moment
Times Monday 5 October 2009 p 43. Robin Pagnamenta.

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