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FOE CALLS FOR ACTION ON AGRICULTURE

02 Mar 2001

Friends of the Earth today welcomed Tony Blair's pledge to review the long-term future of agriculture following the latest crisis to hit British farming. Yesterday the Prime Minister promised to "work out...the basis on which we want sustainable farming for the long-term, and...what price we are all prepared to pay for that as well". FOE, a long term critic of industrial farming, is calling on the PM to urgently examine the real costs of industrial farming and to adopt radical policy changes.

Despite billions of pounds being paid each year in official farm subsidies, thousands of farmers are going out of business causing huge damage to rural communities. Repeated farm crises are costing taxpayers further millions while public expenditure, to reduce the environmental damage and public health threats caused by modern farming, commands huge additional spending. In the face of these hidden costs, present policy is still presented as producing 'cheap' food.

Measures that should be adopted now to shift towards a more sustainable farming system include:

• increased funding for agri-environment schemes and a cap on subsidies to unsustainable intensive farming. For example extra financial support should be given to farmers to help them convert to organic production, a boom area for agriculture that also has employment and environmental benefits;
• a moratorium on GM crop planting. GM crops represent a further escalation of industrial farming and there should be a fundamental assessment of whether the technology fits with the sustainable farming systems now demanded. Also, contamination from GM crops threatens the livelihoods of conventional farmers and beekeepers, a risk that in present circumstances is unacceptable;
• reviewing how to protect family farmers from unfair trading practices that favour massive food companies and food retailers. The role of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the effect of globalisation should also be included;
• a major research programme into sustainable farming including a plan to expand the area of organically farmed land to 30 per cent by 2010 so that UK farmers can profit from the larger demand for organic food. A Private Members bill - the Organic Targets Bill - which calls for this is currently before Parliament. It should receive government support;
• directing the regional development agencies to work with farmers and consumers to reinvigorate local food production and retailing. This should include the provision of local abattoirs;
• an announcement in next week's budget proposals for a new pesticide tax that can help to support farmers reduce reliance on chemical inputs and reflect some of the costs caused by farm chemicals to people's health and the environment.

Tony Juniper, policy and campaigns director at Friends of the Earth said:

"We are delighted that the Prime Minister has recognised that current farming practices are unsustainable and need to be overhauled. Farmers have suffered disaster after disaster in the last 20 years and incomes are at rock bottom. People have lost confidence in the way their food is produced. Much of our wildlife is gone and rural landscapes impoverished. We cannot continue like this. A revolutionary new approach to the way we farm and manage the countryside is long overdue".

"All political parties must commit themselves to revitalising farming so it delivers high quality safe food, protects the environment, conserves wildlife and landscapes and underpins the revitalisation of rural communities. In the long term such an approach could actually save money. Persisting with the present unsustainable system will lead to bigger long term costs.Thank goodness the penny has finally dropped and Tony Blair himself has joined the debate."

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