[Diggers350] By Fri26Feb: Please Respond to Govt Pesticides Consultation
Tony Gosling
tony at cultureshop.org.uk
Thu Feb 25 23:01:43 GMT 2021
>
>
>Itâs vital that the UK Gov hears from as many
>people as possible before 26th Feb, when this consultation ends.
>
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>[]
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>
>
>Millions of people across the globe are
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=35a2d65e4b&e=cee5793cb2>inhaling
>innumerable mixtures of toxic herbicides and
>pesticides that are repeatedly sprayed on crops
>near their homes throughout every year. In the
>UK, for 30 years, Georgina Downs has suffered
>from acute and chronic adverse health effects
>from pesticides being sprayed near her home. To
>expose the government's fundamental failure to
>protect rural residents from agricultural
>pesticides, she started the
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=4050a2bc9e&e=cee5793cb2>UK
>Pesticides Campaign in 2001. In her petition -
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=574cfa9e65&e=cee5793cb2>which
>you can sign - she says:
>
>âNo pesticide should ever have been approved
>for use in the locality of residents' homes,
>schools, children's playgrounds, amongst other
>such areas.â And continues. âThe most common
>chronic long-term effects, illnesses and
>diseases reported to my campaign from residents
>living in the locality of crop sprayed fields
>include neurological conditions such as
>Parkinson's disease, Motor Neurone Disease, and
>neurological damage, as well as various cancers,
>especially those of the breast and brain,
>leukaemia, non-Hodgkinâs lymphoma, amongst many other chronic conditions.â
>
>In light of these dangers from pesticide use,
>please fill in the
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=6c516a5c45&e=cee5793cb2>DEFRA
>consultation on the National Action Plan for the
>Sustainable Use of Pesticides. The bad news is
>that the deadline is the 26th of Feb i.e. this
>Friday - tomorrow! The questions imply that
>pesticides are a fact of life so itâs a
>challenge to change the narrative but give it a
>try and if you need help cut and paste in our
>responses to each question provided here:
>
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=1e1605730a&e=cee5793cb2>The
>Consultation
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=2ee6557d91&e=cee5793cb2>Template
>Responses
>
>
>ð¬ Lords passionately debate the Trade Bill
>
>
>
>On 23 February members of the House of Lords
>debated
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=eeabc1828a&e=cee5793cb2>vital
>amendments to the Trade Bill (to watch it fast
>forward to 1.32pm) that would allow parliament
>to scrutinise trade bills before they are
>ratified. The Lords voted against this amendment
>but in favour of another amendment (voting 376
>to 214) to suspend trade deals with governments
>committing genocide. This will now go back to be
>debated and voted on in the Commons.
>
>Jean Blaylock, Campaigns and Policy Manager at
>Global Justice Now, commented on the debate;
>âTrade democracy fizzled out of the Trade Bill
>on Tuesday, when peers withdrew the last attempt
>at an amendment that would have improved
>parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals. This
>leaves the current rubber stamp process of
>approval through the CRAG Act which does not
>require a vote. If no one objects to a trade
>deal within a time limit, it is passed, and
>there is no process set out for objecting.
>
>The government minister, Grimstone, said in the
>debate that he could not envisage a Trade Deal
>being passed without a debate, if a debate had
>been requested by a parliamentary committee
>âin a timely fashionâ. Itâs hardly the
>strongest reassurance in the world, and a debate
>does not necessarily mean there will be a vote.
>Plus of course again the government is saying
>âjust trust usâ and is refusing to write it
>into law. Other peers started referring to this
>as the âGrimstone ruleâ and say they will
>keep him to his word, but itâs a flimsy thing to rely on.
>
>However thousands of campaigners calling for
>trade democracy has totally changed the
>conversation about this in parliament.â
>
>
>ð NFU conference
>
>
>
>By undermining parliamentary scrutiny and MPsâ
>ability to vote on trade treaties, the
>government can ensure companies are free to comb
>the globe for cheapest labour, lowest
>environmental laws and poorest standards at work
>and thereby out-compete farmers with higher
>standards. It is against this corporate take
>over of food and farming that the Indian farmers
>have staged the
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=b21acbc129&e=cee5793cb2>biggest
>ever farmers demonstration outside Delhi. They
>want the Indian government to continue to
>guarantee a fair price for their produce.
>However, Modi, Truss, Johnson and Gates, to name
>but a few powerful neoliberals, want
>monoculture, machines, chemicals, GMOs, gene
>editing and high tech to replace farmers and to
>transport their toxic food to lucrative markets
>across the globe. Amongst the line up of
>politicians who spoke at the NFU annual
>conference yesterday, Liz Truss, Secretary of
>State for International Trade,
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=b020f10df7&e=cee5793cb2>true
>to her neoliberal narrative, announced the
>government's new plan for farming businesses to grow;
>
>âseizing our freedom to deepen our trade
>worldwide from the Americas to the Asia-Pacific,
>where fast-growing economies are set to dominate
>global demand over the coming years.â
>
>The Trade and Agriculture Commission
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=1fabec45d5&e=cee5793cb2>rhetoric
>at the NFU conference sounded genuine, "When
>weâre negotiating with trade partners it will
>be clear from our report that if food standards
>are important to UK consumers, they should be
>replicated in any trade deal." As did DEFRAâs
>George Eusticeâs assurances of
>â<https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=60dd1755e6&e=cee5793cb2>public
>money for public goodsâ. However, neither the
>Commission nor MPs have the power to protect our
>farmers by preventing the import of goods
>produced below our standards of food quality,
>environmental protection and animal welfare in
>any trade deal. Instead the government is
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=971f80316d&e=cee5793cb2>offering
>free advice to businesses and farmers to take
>advantage of the newly opened markets!
>
>
>ð Prices slashed to pick up pork glut
>
>
>
>Many UK farmers voted for Brexit to protect
>their farming skills from cheap EU imports that
>force them to get giant and mechanized or get
>out of the industry. Today pig farmers are the
>victims of the volatility that comes with
>distant markets and the perfect storm of
>disease, border chaos and rising feed prices
>that has left a glut of pigs on British farms. A
>Suffolk farmer says he is losing £10 per pig
>and cannot see how he can stay in business.
>Morrisons have
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=c9089b3fe5&e=cee5793cb2>responded
>by giving customers irresistible price cuts for
>pork, saying it is their duty to help British
>farmers and clear the pork mountain that has
>built up on British farms. Great for the short
>term but better would be for the government to
>revitalise local markets that would give small
>scale farmers a wider choice of buyers so they
>can demand a price that covers their cost of
>production. And, as practiced in India,
>reintroduce the UKs marketing boards, where the
>government negotiates a fair price that covers
>their cost of production that retailers cannot undercut.
>
>Authoritative voices in food and farming,
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=77754d0ef2&e=cee5793cb2>not
>least the UNFAO, see small scale farmers across
>the globe as the only way to feed the worldâs growing population.
>
>
>ð« Faith groups condemn Big Ag
>
>
>
>The most recent to raise their voice above the
>status quo global trade parapet is the
><https://farmsnotfactories.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62434df9a66146b4fb4f8b14e&id=710af844ab&e=cee5793cb2>Southern
>African Faith Communities Institute which said
>"We urge the Gates Foundation to stop pushing a
>green 'revolution' that imposes technologies and
>seeds that are controlled by companies with
>vested interests. Rather, it should be looking
>at and learning from small-scale farmers from
>around the world who are working to build
>alternative food systems that are socially just and ecologically sustainable."
>
>Forgive me for pointing out that, while we
>receive some one-off donations, I am funding
>Farms Not Factories myself, and if we are to
>continue to fight the cruel, antibiotic-led
>factory farm system, we will need some regular
>donations from like-minded people. Please
>consider a monthly subscription of £2/month and
>help us support a network of smaller scale,
>humane and healthy UK pig farms, local abattoirs and butchers.
>
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>Best wishes,
>[]
>
>
>Tracy Worcester, Director
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