The Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) hung a 7m banner over the Treasury entrance to highlight the continued sell off of publicly owned farmland and council housing under the Government’s austerity programme.
The action took place as part of La Via Campesina’s ‘International day of Agrarian Struggle’ that saw co-ordinated actions across more than 70 countries highlighting threats to the livelihoods of 200 million ecological and family farmers worldwide.
The LWA’s action focussed on the 9,500 acres of publicly owned farmland and 219 working farms that have been sold by local councils since 2010, under what the LWA say is pressure from the Government to "raise capital and meet fiscal deficits."
The LWA states: "The sell off of the public farmland estate is part of £37bn of privatization sales made by George Osborne since 2010 under which public food and farming assets have been regarded as any other commodity to be bought and sold.
"Council owned farms have traditionally played a vital role in providing successive generations with a first step on the farming ladder"
"The loss of eight percent of the public farm estate over the past five years has had a massive impact on new entrants into farming and has turned public resources for the many into private wealth for the few.
"We would like to point out that the continued privatisation of this essential public resource is proceeding with no public consultation whatsoever and shockingly little media attention.
"Food and farming are not like “any other commodity” and should be protected as Public Land for Public Good."
The Landworkers alliance are an organisation of people who make their livelihoods from producing food, fuel and fibre using sustainable methods of production.
They campaign for the "rights of small producers and a better food system."
