Agroecology on the policy agenda
Agroecology looks set to feature more strongly in parliamentary discussions about food and farming, following the launch last week of a dedicated All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the topic.
Defined as ’applying ecological concepts and principles to the study, design and management of sustainable agroecosystems’, agroecology received a significant boost last year when an expert group convened by the United NaQons concluded that ’the best opQon’ was not to farm more intensively but to adopt more
environmentally friendly practices.
The APPG’s launch so soon aRer the publicaQon of Professor John
Beddington’s Foresight report reflects the fact that, contrary to much of the ’pro intensive farming’ advance publicity, the document contains much that supports agroecological methods.
"There is no more important subject than how to feed the world without using the resource equivalent of two or three planet Earths," said Baroness Sue Miller, one of the founding members of the APPG. "That’s borne out by the number of people here today, one of the best‐ever turn‐outs for an APPG launch," she
added, with standing‐room only in the Grand Committee Room of the Palace of Westminster.
Colin Tudge, founder of the Campaign for Real Farming and the Oxford Real Farming Conference, said that everyone had the right to be fed to a high standard. "But we’ve made it difficult because we’ve screwed up the way in which we do it.
"While there’s much that’s useful in the Beddington report, unfortunately there’s also an air of panic about it. It acknowledges we’re facing shortages of oil, phosphorus, fresh water and so on, all of which are likely to affect our current methods of farming.
"Its solution is to turn immediately to high‐tech solutions, yet the problem is not a matter of ideology, but biology," he pointed out. "We’re all worrying about how we’ll feed 9.5 billion people by 2050, but it’s a finite problem ‐ the human populaQon is predicted to level out and then decline.
"With 4.2 billion hectares of global farmland available, feeding a population of 9.5 billion shouldn’t be a problem. What’s needed is government commitment to food security through its support for a healthy, modern agriculture.
Finance is needed, but it’s not what we want from government ‐ instead it’s the willingness to identify laws and financial ’wrinkles’ that are either hindering, or could be helpful to, this process."
Mr Tudge cited restrictions on animal feed, tenancy laws and overburdening planning regulations as areas that the APPG could help government to idenfy and address, as well as new iniaves such as Fresh Start’s programme to free up land from major landowners for young farmers.
Robert Fiello, co‐chairman of the group and the MP responsible for introducing the Sustainable Livestock Bill to Parliament last year, acknowledged that there was a danger in having too many active APPGs. "There is always the risk that it can divert and dilute attention, but the APPG will help to air the issues and idenfy where best to concentrate our efforts."
The Group aims to meet every month that Parliament is signg. Its next meeting is on Wednesday 15 March, with guest speaker Dr Hans Herren, President of the Millennium Institute. Dr Herren, a World Food Prize holder, was co‐ordinaQng author for ’Greening Agriculture’ in the newly‐published report from the
United Nations Environment Programme, ’Towards a Green Economy’. He will be speaking about the importance of agroecology in tackling hunger, climate change and environmental degradation.
