BROAD ALLIANCE CALLS FOR BIG CHANGES IN UK FARMING

[The Land Is Ours]

This is the press release (went out on 12th) and statement delivered to the 
Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs at Downing Street yesterday.

11.30pm WEDNESDAY 13th June

BROAD ALLIANCE CALLS FOR BIG CHANGES IN UK FARMING
Tony Blair and the new Rural Affairs Minister Margaret Beckett will today 
be lobbied by a broad alliance of farmers and environmental groups 
including the leader of small farmers in France, Jose Bove, to call for 
Britain’s small and family farmers be given priority in any post foot and 
mouth review of farming.
A delegation from Friends of the Earth, The Small and Family Farmers 
Alliance, the International Society for Ecology and Culture and The Land is 
Ours will hand in a joint letter to the Prime Minister and Mrs Beckett [1].
In joint a letter the groups are calling for:
· Shift economic incentives, investments in research and development and 
direct subsidies away from production for export toward 
farm-diversification (of both crops and livestock) for regional and local 
markets.
· Maintain and restore local food processing capacity by ensuring that the 
costs of implementing and monitoring health and safety regulations are 
proportionate to throughputs.
· Cut investment in the infrastructures for global trade.
· Reduce cross-border trade in identical agricultural products, and stop 
and get a fair income for doing so"imports of food and livestock produced 
using systems or products illegal in Britain
· Support initiatives for local production for local consumption.
Pete Riley of Friends of the Earth said:
"The government has signalled a new start for farming and the environment 
by scrapping MAFF. What is now needed is clear a decisive policies which 
allow all farmers to produce high quality food and a high quality 
environment whilst making a profit".
Michael Hart of Small and Family Farmers Alliance said:
"It is clear that farmers and environmentalists around the world , must work
together to counter the effects of globalisation on food, farming and the
environment. Without this coming together family farming systems will be
destroyed and agri-business will succeed"
Helena Norberg-Hodge, Director of ISEC said :
"We urgently need to shift policies towards diversification and 
localisation instead of ever-larger monocultures for global markets. This 
is not a pipe dream: practical and successful demonstrations already exist."
Huw Pritchard, The Land is Ours said:
"Ever increasing global competition is forcing small and family farmers 
around the world, in rich and poor countries, off the land - leaving ever 
larger agribusinesses struggling to compete on a world market".
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] The delegation including Jose Bove visited the new Department of 
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at 11.30am on 13th June followed by 
Downing St at 12 noon . This was followed by a press conference at 12.30pm 
at St James Church Conference Centre 197, Piccadilly.

Rt. Hon. Margaret Beckett, MP
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Nobel House
17 Smith Sq.
London
Dear Secretary of State,
Britain is facing an agricultural crisis, and Foot and Mouth is another 
nail in the rural coffin. Farm numbers are falling while the very survival 
of many communities is threatened. In order to reverse the situation the 
root causes must be tackled. We, therefore, urge the government to consider 
the following points as a matter of utmost urgency:
Increased global trade is detrimental to farmers, communities and the 
environment
So called ‘free’ trade pits farmers against farmers across the globe. 
Producers, in particular smaller farms, are increasingly forced to sell 
their produce below production price. Across the board, environmental 
standards, animal welfare and working conditions are increasingly 
sacrificed to cut production costs in order to compete.
Globalisation does not help the ‘developing’ world
Global trade favours large agribusiness and promotes the production of 
export crops, thus enriching mainly transnational corporations and large 
landowners. Ordinary farmers are forced to leave their land for the cities. 
The emphasis on export crops decreases the ability of ‘developing’ 
countries to feed themselves.
Current policies favour the big over the small while supporting intensive 
and unsustainable farming
Large, chemical-intensive agriculture benefits disproportionately from both 
direct and indirect subsidies. Sustainable practices such as organic 
farming receive inadequate support, while the indirect costs of harmful 
agricultural practices are paid for by the taxpayers and future 
generations. Simultaneously, health and safety regulations - brought in to 
avoid problems resulting from large-scale, industrial agriculture, such as 
e-coli, salmonella and BSE - end up destroying the smaller, healthier 
family farms and processors (that cannot afford to meet the cost of these 
requirements).
We urgently need to shift towards local production for local consumption, 
thereby encouraging the spread of sustainable farming, providing much 
needed local jobs, and giving farmers the opportunity to make a decent 
living, while giving consumers access to healthy fresh food at affordable 
prices.
We strongly recommend that the Government embark on the following measures 
as a matter of priority:
·       Shift economic incentives, investments in research and development 
and direct subsidies away from production for export toward 
farm-diversification (of both crops and livestock) for regional and local 
markets.
·       Maintain and restore local food processing capacity by ensuring 
that the costs of implementing and monitoring health and safety regulations 
are proportionate to throughputs.
·       Cut investments in infrastructures for global trade.
·       Reduce cross-border trade in identical agricultural products. Stop 
imports of food and livestock that has been produced in a manner that is 
illegal in Britain.
·       Systematically support initiatives for local production for local 
consumption.
Small and Family Farm Alliance
International Society for Ecology and Culture
Friends of the Earth
The Land is Ours




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