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'man of straw' hogg in the stocks over failure to stand up for wildlife
29 April 1997
10:30am Tuesday 29 April 1997
Outside the Agriculture Ministry, 3/10 Whitehall Place, London
A flax effigy of Mr Hogg - complete with trademark hat - will be put in the stocks outside MAFF today. The flax was grown on the South Downs in Sussex, near the nationally important wildlife site recently ploughed by a farmer to earn the flax subsidy.
Protesters with placards will also attend.
A flax effigy of Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg - Man of Flax - will be put in the stocks outside the Ministry of Agriculture today to highlight the fact that subsidies can still be paid to farmers to grow crops on Britain's best wildlife sites under the 'flax loophole' [1]. Friends of the Earth believes that Mr Hogg has been a 'man of straw' for failing to stand up for the countryside. FOE will also hand in a letter demanding that the loophole be immediately closed by whoever is in post following the general election to prevent any further unnecessary destruction of the countryside. The effigy will be left outside MAFF to remind whoever runs the Department after the election that action on flax is urgently needed.
The 'flax loophole' recently led to a public outcry after one of the country's most important wildlife sites - Offham Down Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in East Sussex - was partially ploughed to grow flax. Tony Blair called the situation "crazy", while Lib Dem spokesman Matthew Taylor described Government agriculture policy as a "shambles".
Although Environment Secretary John Gummer eventually stepped in to prevent any further damage to the site by making a Nature Conservation Order, the loophole in Brussels farming rules has not been closed.
OVER>>>
Tony Juniper, Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth, said:
"This issue was raised with the Ministry of Agriculture a year ago when a SSSI in the South West was ploughed up. The Minister's inaction has already led to severe damage to Offham Down. How many more SSSIs will go under the plough before MAFF insists that the flax loophole is closed?
"We hear a great deal of rhetoric from politicians about standing up for our interests in Europe. The truth is that our wildlife is still being wiped out because the Government has failed to reform the CAP and failed to stand up for the British countryside."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
[1] Farmers are no longer able to receive payments for ploughing land for arable crops if the land was not already arable before 31 December 1991. However, under the 'flax loophole' farmers can receive huge payments from UK taxpayers for growing flax - up to591.16 per hectare. Flax falls under the EC fibre flax regime which merely requires that land is suitable for growing flax - in other words that land has been ploughed to make it suitable. In contrast the Ministry of Agriculture pays just 40 per hectare for keeping the land as chalk grassland under the South Downs ESA scheme. Flax is often ploughed straight into the ground as farmers are actually farming the subsidy not the crop.
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Dec 2008
