Recent figures released by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food show that United Kingdom farmers and fishermen produce just over half of all food consumed in this country or about two‐thirds of the type of food that can be produced here. These proportions changed little between 1970 and 1980, despite a rise in the volume of home production, because the proportion of home production which is exported has risen substantially. The most appropriate measure of self‐sufficiency is total home production, including exports, adjusted for agriculture's use of imported feed, seed and livestock, expressed as a proportion of total home consumption. On this basis self‐sufficiency has increased markedly; from 47 per cent in 1970 to 60 per cent in 1980 for all food and from less than 60 per cent to 75 per cent for indigenous type foods.