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Aim
The Institute has recently begun to transfer its cluster-building expertise to the Land Based
Industries (LBIs) in the East Midlands . Like the environmental goods and services sector, the Land Based
Industries have strong positive and negative impacts on the natural environment.
By supporting businesses in the sector the Institute sees a clear opportunity to strengthen the sector by
encouraging greater land-based innovation, improved land management, more efficient resource use, and improved
business management techniques.
Background
The Land Based Industries comprise a dynamic industrial sector made up
of businesses that derive their income from, for, and through the land and its direct products.
These include animal care and production like veterinary and equine services; non-food types of agribusiness
like urban forestry and agricultural engineering; and other services like biodiversity research and
preservation, and sustainability certifications for lumber harvesting.
Aside from the type of goods and services it produces, the LBIs are defined in part by the size of their
firms: 94 percent of businesses in the sector employ fewer than five people, and 60 percent of businesses are
sole traders, meaning the sector is comprised almost entirely of small and micro-enterprises.
Because these businesses earn their profits in ways that are based on the productivity and integrity of the
land, they are directly responsible for managing more than 85% of the UK ’s total landmass.
These businesses have historically provided land management services as a by-product of other economic
activities to the public free of charge; however with declining incomes in the farming sector and renewed
emphasis on carbon sequestration at the national level, among other issues, policies are shifting to
support land management itself.
Institute objectives
The Institute believes that supporting businesses in the LBIs will increase rural incomes while
generating more desirable public benefits like high quality, aesthetically appealing landscapes and healthy
ecosystems rich in biodiversity.
Supporting non-food crop production and innovative applications of these materials in industry is seen as
a way to achieve this triple set of policy goals. It is the Institute’s goal to expand its research
and cluster-building activities into this high-priority area in the coming months and years.
Related projects at the ISDB
One sub-sector within the Land Based Industries is non-food crops. The Institute is presently
working with the Countryside Agency to investigate the effect of economic development in the non-food
crops sub-sector on the quality of the countryside in the East Midlands .
Crops like oilseed rape, hemp, and elephant grass have the potential to reduce the UK ’s dependence
on fossil fuels and diversifying farm incomes in the region.
Yet expanding non-food crop plantings in both intensity and extensity will likely have an impact on
the quality of the countryside, itself an extraordinary economic asset that underpins profitable industries
like tourism and recreation.
This research investigates the scale and shape of the policy support for non-food crops on this asset.
The research is seen as one of the first steps to developing the economic potential of the Land Based
Industries in the East Midlands .
Additional Information and Usefull Links
These websites contain background reading on the issue of non-food crops:
For further information on the research contact...
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