It has been estimated that the world population will increase to 9.2 billion by 2050; supplying the growing population with food will require a significant increase in agricultural production.

A number of agricultural and ecological scientists believe that a large-scale shift to organic farming (OF) would not only increase the world’s food supply, but might be the only way to eradicate hunger sustainably.

Nevertheless, OF has recently come under new scrutiny, not just from critics who fear that a large-scale shift in this direction would cause billions to starve but also from farmers and development agencies who question whether such a shift could improve food security. Meanwhile, the use of genetically modified (GM) crops is growing around the world, leading to possible opportunities to combat food insecurity and hunger. However, the development of GM crops has been a matter of considerable interest and worldwide public controversy.

So far, no one has comprehensively analyzed whether a widespread shift to OF or GM would be the sole solution for both food security and safety. Using a literature review from databases of peer-reviewed scientific publications, books, and official publications, this study aims to address this issue.

Results indicate that OF and GM, to different extents, are able to ensure food security and safety. In developed countries, given that there are relatively few farmers and that their productivity, even without GMOs, is relatively high, OF could be more a viable option.

However, OF is significantly less efficient in land-use terms and may lead to more land being used for agriculture due to its lower yield. In developing countries, where many small-scale farmers have low agricultural productivity and limited access to agricultural technologies and information, an approach with both GM and OF might be a more realistic approach to ensure food security and safety.

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Brexit gives us the opportunity to think about food and farming from scratch. We need food and farming that produces nutritious food and encourages healthy diets. That enables us to
meet the Paris climate targets and restores water, soils and biodiversity so that they are passed in good shape to future generations. Decent livelihoods for farmers and respect for
animals as sentient beings, as individuals must be core elements of our policy.

There are two important starting points. Firstly, we need to move away from the current practice of formulating policy in silos with different Government departments, or sections of
departments, being responsible for agriculture, the environment, animal welfare, dietary health, climate change and agri-tech. As a result policies in this arena do not cohere and are
sometimes contradictory. For example, Defra tends to press for further intensification even though this has a detrimental impact on soil quality and animal welfare. Public Health
England advises people to eat less red and processed meat while Defra promotes increased meat production.

Secondly, we need to move away from industrial livestock production as this is a key driver of, or an important contributor to:

• overconsumption of meat and dairy which leads to health problems and will make it
  impossible to meet the Paris climate targets
• overuse of antibiotics in farming
• pollution and overuse of water, soil degradation, biodiversity loss and air pollution
• food insecurity
• poor animal welfare

Compassion in World Farming  wishes to present the following integrated plan for post Brexit food and farming in England.

Sustainable agriculture in response to increasing demands for food depends on development of high-yielding crops with high nutritional value that require minimal intervention during growth. To date, the focus has been on changing plants by introducing genes that impart new properties, which the plants and their ancestors never possessed.

By contrast, we suggest another potentially beneficial and perhaps less controversial strategy that modern plant biotechnology may adopt.

This approach, which broadens earlier approaches to reverse breeding, aims to furnish crops with lost properties that their ancestors once possessed in order to tolerate adverse environmental conditions. What molecular techniques are available for implementing such rewilding? Are the strategies legally, socially, economically, and ethically feasible?

These are the questions addressed in this review.