Archived press release

£700 million of public money spent on factory farming each year - new research

27 April 2009

Families in England are paying more than £700 million each year to fund a factory farming system that is wiping out rainforests and making climate change worse, according to new research released by Friends of the Earth today (Monday 27 April 2009).

The report - 'Feeding the Beast' - highlights how EU money spent propping up factory farms is fuelling demand for imported animal feed from South American plantations created by clearing rainforests.

The report outlines how this funding is urgently needed to save small farms and develop home-grown high protein feed to replace imports and calls on Ministers to overhaul the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Friends of the Earth is launching the report as part of its new Food Chain Campaign which is calling for urgent action to fix the food chain and reverse the long-term decline in small farms and loss of 4,000 jobs from farming every year. The campaign group is also calling for Ministers to tackle the role of corporations - particularly supermarkets - in driving intensive farming through low prices paid to farmers.

MPs will join Friends of the Earth later today in a bucking bronco stunt outside Parliament calling for action to 'fix the food chain' and support planet-friendly farming.

Friends of the Earth's Executive Director, Andy Atkins said:

"Small farms are losing out to big business factory farming - the killer link in a hidden chain that connects the food on our plates to climate change and rainforest destruction.

"Cash-strapped families have no idea that millions of pounds of their money is being spent on an industry that contributes more to climate change than all the planes, cars and lorries on the planet.

"The Government must stop bucking around with taxpayers' money and use our money to support planet-friendly farming for good meat and dairy for families in Britain."

Notes:

1. For more information on the money spent on factory farming see Friends of the Earth's Feeding the Beast media briefing at www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/feeding_the_beast_media.pdf

2. Friends of the Earth's Food Chain Campaign is calling on MPs to reduce the environmental and social damage caused by the meat and dairy industry. For more information on these impacts, see Friends of the Earth's What's feeding our food? report at www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/livestock_impacts.pdf

3. Defra's annual Agriculture in the United Kingdom statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/publications/auk/default.asp

4. 164 MPs have signed Early Day Motion 845 which raises awareness of the environmental and social damage being driven by the global meat and dairy industry and calls for action.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust