On the eve of the elections, The Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) condemns the lack of vision in farming manifestos and demands that all political parties address the serious issues facing food and farming in the UK. Among other policy recommendations, the Landworkers’ Alliance asks all parties to commit to drawing up a National Food Policy based on food sovereignty principles, and to pulling out of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
A national food policy must level the playing-field for small-scale producers, improve the supply of high-quality healthy food, increase employment in agriculture, support new entrants to farming and improve UK food security by investing in local production. Political parties must also take stronger positions to protect the ecological basis for UK farming by implementing a comprehensive ban on GM and working to restore our soils.
Sarah Walters, a LWA member said, “It’s saddening that the main parities farming manifestos are so short sighted. We need a government that will commit to addressing the challenge of ensuring UK food sovereignty in the face of climate change, an aging farming population and retail monopolies. We need parties to offer real opportunities for new entrants, and more support for local, ecological production. This is the time for real change, not more of the business as usual approach we are seeing with these manifestos”.
The LWA has published a booklet explaining these policy requests that can be downloaded here: http://landworkersalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Feeding-the-Future-Landworkers-Alliance-A4-low-res.pdf
Last week, the LWA marched outside the British Sugar factory to draw attention to the unfair advantage given to industrial agriculture through UK government policy. Over 50 supporters, joined by Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, highlighted the need to focus our food policies on people rather than profits.
The LWA is an official member of the international peasant farming movement La Via Campesina that represents 200 million small-scale producers around the world. We campaign for the rights of small-scale producers and lobby the UK government and European Parliament for policies that support the infrastructure and markets central to our livelihoods.
