British farmer says crops down 30% as UK records driest July on record

LONDON — A British farmer in Suffolk said his yields of oats, wheat and vetch have fallen 25% to 30% as the United Kingdom recorded its driest July on record, with heatwaves since May hitting agriculture across the country. John Pawsey, 62, said his land has dried out completely and that the drought has felt "endless" for weeks. He warned that the soils his family has farmed since ancestors migrated south from Scotland now face serious challenges ahead. Pawsey said he has been experimenting with new crops such as fava beans, chickpeas and quinoa, and is intercropping — planting two different crops together in the same field — to adapt to warmer, drier conditions. Food security expert Timothy Benton told Agence France-Presse that the effects of climate change will intensify and that food systems will have to change as a result. National Farmers' Union president Tom Bradshaw told the BBC that if the drought continues, shortages of some food items will follow, and warned that food supply has been taken for granted for too long. A spokesperson for the prime minister's office said food security is a matter of national security. The Met Office has not yet been cited in the available reporting, and no further details on government response measures were immediately available.