Archived press release

Cull MAFF now! But FOE Warns Against

7 May 2001

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) should be “culled” as soon as possible, Friends of the Earth said today. But a cosmetic name change to a “Department of Rural Affairs”, as suggested by Agriculture Minister Nick Brown and others, could easily prove to be a disaster for the countryside.

MAFF is ripe for abolition because:
* It failed to react quickly over BSE, which has cost the British economy at least £4 billion.
* It failed to heed warnings about the risk of foot and mouth in Europe, which may have cost the British economy at least £5 billion to date
* It has subsidised unsustainable intensive farming methods for 50 years
* It has consistently under funded organic farming
* It subsidised the destruction of vital wildlife habitats and landscape features
* It has failed to control the use of health damaging pesticides and endocrine disruptors
* It has supported an intensive livestock and poultry industry which pollutes the environment,has increased food poisoning incidents and exploits farm animals.
* It has failed to protect groundwater and rivers from nitrate and pesticide pollution
* It has consistently directed 80% of subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)to the richest 20% of farmers
* It has actively supported the introduction of GM crops
* It has failed to listen to public concerns about farming, food safety and the environment

But a new Department of Rural Affairs could prove to be bad for the countryside. When
environmental protection and farming ministries have been merged elsewhere (e.g. the Netherlands) environmental concerns have simply been subsumed by farming interests.Including the dual functions of regulation and promotion in one ministry would also lead to unbalanced regulation.

FOE is calling for a more thorough reform of Whitehall departments, to ensure that the environment is finally put “at the heart of Government”, as promised by Tony Blair before the last election. MAFF's functions should be split between DTI, DETR and the Environment Agency, and the Department of Health. DETR should lose local government and regional affairs, to allow for a Minister with specific responsibility for the environment

to enter the Cabinet. But DETR should gain other key functions such as energy licensing and a stronger say in trade regulation.

The DTI should be reformed into a Department For Sustainable Industry (DSI). The DSI should include a much expanded brief on corporate social responsibility and fair trade.

Commenting, FOE Executive Director Charles Secrett said:

“MAFF has rightly been marked for culling. It has made a spectacular mess of the BSE crisis, and ignored warnings about the danger of intensive farming, animal movement and foot and mouth disease. It has also been run in the interests of large farmers for the last fifty years, at the expense of small farmers, the environment and consumers.

But we are strongly opposed to a cosmetic change of name to a Department of Rural Affairs. That would alter little - at worst it could even give the same bunch of failed civil servants more power over the countryside and our environment. We need a major green reform of Whitehall, to abolish MAFF altogether, to create a smaller but stronger Environment Department, and to oblige the Department of Trade and Industry finally to take green issues seriously, and learn the lessons of sustainable development”.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust