Tell Government to stop being chicken
6 January 2010

The Government has released its latest vision for food and farming, Food 2030. But rather than fixing the food chain the strategy serves up business as usual.

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Environment Minister Hilary Benn speaks of the problems linked to the way we produce food.

But he has failed to commit to any real action to change it.

Factory-farmed meat and dairy relies on huge imports of soy animal feed from South America. Soy plantations need vast amounts of land - so forests are cleared to make way.

But instead of supporting home-grown feeds and upland grazing the strategy signals more of the same.

Fresh approach

With an election looming the Government needs to take a fresh approach to farming.

The Conservatives are already trying to woo rural voters with their talk of a supermarket watchdog - something we've long been campaigning for.

Now is the time for the Government to pledge proper action to fix the food chain.

Email Hilary Benn today

Dear Secretary of State,

The Government's latest food strategy rightly highlights some of the environmental, social, and health problems caused by the global food system. But you have failed to commit to any action in order to tackle these problems. In particular, the strategy ignores the devastating impact that intensive meat and dairy production has on climate change and global biodiversity loss. UK factory farms continue to rely on imports of soy from South America for high protein animal feed. Instead of signalling a future for home-grown feed and extensive grazing, the strategy questions the well-documented impacts of soy production. It is disappointing that Defra also lacks the courage to address the production and consumption of meat and dairy head on. The livestock sector is responsible for almost a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions and has been linked to serious health problems such as cancer and diabetes. In the UK we eat three and a half times more meat than the World Health Organisation recommends for a healthy diet. We need to reduce the UK's consumption of meat and dairy while supporting livestock farmers to invest in more sustainable methods of production and get a fairer return for their produce. As you said in your speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, the challenges of feeding the world equitably and sustainably will not be met by "governments abdicating responsibility or by leaving it just to the market to sort out". The Government must take responsibility for our broken food chain. Please commit to: * Measure and reduce the global footprint of UK meat and dairy * Switch subsidies that currently go to intensive forms of production to environmentally-friendly farming systems * Research and support upland grazing and alternative home-grown feeds to soy * Less but better meat and dairy on public menus such as in schools and hospitals.

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Tell Government to stop being chicken6 January 2010

Fresh approach

Email Hilary Benn today

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Tell Government to stop being chicken
6 January 2010