Recommendation 20

Poor quality water for farmers affects our food security, and so steps must be taken to reduce the water pollution that the agriculture industry itself causes. We reiterate our recommendations on water pollution caused by agriculture, from our report on Water Quality, that the Government should: • Commission a five-yearly appraisal of catchment-wide nutrient flows; Environmental change and food security 73 • Establish a presumption against granting planning permission for new intensive livestock units where the proposed development would exceed the catchment’s nutrient budget, unless there are more robust mitigations in place; • Intensify work to inspect and remediate large animal slurry stores; • Independently evaluate the risks to human health and the environment of spreading sewage sludge, and • Assess and mitigate the risk of microplastic pollution from sewage sludge. We ask that in its response to this report, the Government includes an update on the commitments it provided in response to those recommendations.