Pound700 million of public money spent on factory farming each year

Families in England are paying more than £700 million each year to fund a factory farming system that is wiping out rainforests and making climate change worse, according to new research released by Friends of the Earth.

The report - ’Feeding the Beast’ - highlights how EU money spent propping up factory farms is fuelling demand for imported animal feed from South American plantations created by clearing rainforests.

The report outlines how this funding is urgently needed to save small farms and develop home-grown high protein feed to replace imports and calls on Ministers to overhaul the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Friends of the Earth is launching the report as part of its new Food Chain Campaign which is calling for urgent action to fix the food chain and reverse the long-term decline in small farms with the loss of 4,000 jobs from farming every year. The campaign group is also calling for Ministers to tackle the role of corporations - particularly supermarkets - in driving intensive farming through low prices paid to farmers.

Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director Andy Atkins said:

"Small farms are losing out to big business factory farming - the killer link in a hidden chain that connects the food on our plates to climate change and rainforest destruction.

"Cash-strapped families have no idea that millions of pounds of their money is being spent on an industry that contributes more to climate change than all the planes, cars and lorries on the planet.

"The Government must stop bucking around with taxpayers’ money and use our money to support planet-friendly farming for good meat and dairy for families in Britain."