Our Food - Our Future

Agriculture in Britain is in crisis. Whilst some people are blaming the appalling weather last year and corporate folk and their cronies the National Farmer’s Union are blaming the high value of the pound and ‘foot and mouth’ for destroying our export markets, it is evident that there is a much deeper structural crisis.

The crisis has its roots in the deliberate government and European Union cheap food policy of the last 50 years. This provided subsidies to farmers to increase production. Very quickly fertilisers, machinery and pesticides became widespread and resulted in farmers intensifying their production and enlarging their farms. It also led to farmers taking out hedges, enlarging fields, cutting down woods and draining wetlands - all the things we hate them for.

The crisis is exacerbated by the forced globalisation of agriculture - itself going back to the days when the European empires began raping, pillaging and enslaving the global south. The cash-crop plantations resulting from this era and IMF ‘structural adjustment’ created an economic structure which allows cheap Southern growers to undercut European farmers by producing traditionally Northern crops such as green beans and apples, whilst the profits are creamed off by multinational middlemen. Improvements in technology mean that fruit and veg can be treated (frozen, irradiated, waxed etc.) and airfreighted across the world to arrive looking fresher (and cheaper) than local produce.

With the establishment of the WTO in 1995 and the beginnings of a concerted effort to liberalise global agricultural markets, farmers around the world were plunged into a new crisis. Now the major supermarkets, food manufacturers and processors have an even freer rein to play farmers around the world off against each other for the cheapest price. Although only 10% of food is traded internationally, it dictates the price of the other 90% of food. This leads to the crazy situation where in 1997, 126 million litres of liquid milk was imported into the UK at the same time as 270 litres of milk was exported. Airfreight has increased 7% each year subsidised by the tax-free status of air fuel.

As farmers cut their costs further, it is unsurprising that the environment, animal welfare standards and human health suffer but it is important to see the pressures on them. In the dairy industry there is an oversupply of milk due to imports. The supermarkets exploit this, regularly paying the farmers around 17p for a litre of milk. This is 5p below what it actually costs the farmers to produce it. The supermarkets make their profits by exploiting the farmers and their animals, while selling the milk for around 34p a litre on the shelves. In this situation, subsidies have become a lifeline to farmers as the average farm income has dropped to £5000. Government restrictions throughout the foot and mouth epidemic have also caused massive abuse of social and animal welfare; in particular the decision not to vaccinate which would have made most of the contiguous cull unnecessary. Farmers have faced huge fines for attempting to feed their animals and look after them properly

Corporate Agribastards

The five major supermarkets, (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Safeways and Somefield) control 70% of all grocery sales in the UK. In turn they deal with less than 30 food manufacturers including Pepsico, Conagra and the main UK manufacturers such as Unilever, Uniq, Hazlewood Foods, Northern Foods and Grampian foods. In the dairy industry there are only seven processors supplying the supermarkets.

Northern Foods

This is an excellent example of what the food processors of the future will look like. Run by Tony’s crony, Lord Haskins, who sits on various government taskforces and openly hates small farmers, it is a multi-million pound operation. It supplies own-brand ready meals to the supermarkets as well as owning, amongst others, Dalepak, Ski Yoghurts, Fox’s confectionery and buns for Burger King. This is factory-produced food that is over-packaged and pumped full of additives and preservatives. Anyone who makes this kind of junk cannot really care about consumer health or love food. The ironic thing is that a pack of Dalepak lamb chops cost double the amount you would pay in a small independent butcher. This is the lie of the supermarkets. They claim to sell cheap food, but a quick comparison with a farmer’s market or small retailer will show that you can get it cheaper there.

Keep Agriculture Out Of The WTO

Agriculture is unlike any other industry - it cannot be compared, for example, to banking, computers or steel. This is because the agricultural sector is ‘multifunctional’. Not only are farmers responsible for our food security but like it or not they are responsible for a large part of the countryside and its biodiversity. Agriculture also forms the basis of rural livelihoods and a backdrop for tourism and leisure. This is why many groups including FoE and Via Campesina claim that it should be kept out of the WTO. They can see that under WTO rules, agricultural trade will take precedence over food security, food safety and food quality as well as animal welfare, labour rights and the effects on the environment of chemically intensive agriculture. It is already clear that there is dispute over definitions of food safety with the US taking Sri Lanka to the WTO court for banning GMOs.

Others feel that a trade agreement could stop the EU and US from dumping cheap food on developing countries, a practice that has made it hard for these countries to develop their own internal markets. This food dumping takes place because the EU and US heavily subsidise their farmers and subsidise their exports. Developing countries also want the US and EU to open their agricultural markets to their exports. This in turn reveals the utter hypocrisy of the EU and US supposed neo-liberal agenda. There are also moves from developing countries to allow rural development and food security take precedence over trade within the WTO trading rules.

The Qatar ministerial will be the crunch time to decide whether the Agreement on Agriculture will go ahead.

Why We Should Work With Small Farmers?

Activists have generally seen farmers as well-off Land-Rover-driving, ancient-hedgerow-trashing, subsidy-junkies, best known among activists for their collective cry of ‘git off moi land’ on mass trespasses, hunt sabbing and GM crop actions.

Meanwhile, farmers have mostly seen activists as a bunch of untidy city types telling them how to live and invading their land on mass trespasses, hunt sabbing and GM crop actions.

There is, however, a harsh social and economic reality to farming today which risks the countryside becoming little more than soulless agricultural prairies and animal factory for the superstores interspersed with golf courses, second homes and theme parks. The current foot and mouth outbreak will only hasten the demise of smaller and family-run farms. If trends continue over the next 5 to 15 years we are likely to see a decline in the number of farmers from 165,000 to between 8,000-15,000. This is not just a social disaster on a par with the death of the coal industry, but a cultural and environmental nightmare for anyone who cares about the British countryside and the people who live there.

Farmers have been interacting with the landscape in Britain for over 6000 years. Whilst some environmentalists maintain that FMD has been a blessing for upland Britain by wiping out so many sheep, it is unlikely that this land would revert to a biologically diverse forest eco-system if it was just left to its own devices.

The demise of small farmers is also unlikely to mean that less meat is produced and consumed in Britain. It is simply an excuse for the further industrialisation of meat production towards the hideous Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the USA. It will also mean more meat is imported from abroad where animal welfare standards are even lower than in the UK.

Small farmers in the UK are a small, disenfranchised and exploited group living at the sharp end of globalisation, some of whom have taken direct action. There is a great deal of potential common ground with farmers who are anti-GMO, anti-hunting, anti-supermarket and pro-environment and pro-animal welfare. There are more out there than you think....

What We Can Do?

The recent foot and mouth outbreak has provoked a good deal of discussion on the future of agriculture, revealing a general unease about its continued industrialisation.

The main enemies at this stage seem to be the Government, intent on taking the industrial food route, with organics as a niche market to keep the middle classes happy. They are taking their cue from the NFU, the least representative organisation since Globalise Resistance, and its chief exec, ‘Biotech’ Ben Gill. Other influential food industrialists include Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco and on various government taskforces, and Lord Haskins of Northern Foods and Express Dairies - now rural recovery co-ordinator for areas badly affected by FMD. The man most in-line for a pie - Sean Rickard, is a former NFU economist. He is the architect behind agro-industrial Britain.

As a direct action movement it is time we gave the supermarkets a good kicking. They are an anti-social phenomenon sitting at the centre of a web of modern problems: transport, health, environment, economic and social dislocation.

International Events

Next February, ASEED Europe are organising a panEuropean activist gathering to discuss visions of agriculture, in preparation for COP6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in The Hague next April. It will also prepare for the Via Campesina International Day of Farmer’s Struggle on 17th April. Via Campesina are an international group of small farmers and peasants who do exciting actions around the world.

Anyone interested in getting involved please contact Action on Corporate Agriculture via Corporate Watch. We’re trying to find a better name - please help. Oh and we’ve got great leaflets so contact us for them. We’re also developing a ‘What’s wrong with supermarkets?’ workshop which we will happily take to schools, community centres, NGO’s, EF! meetings etc. Also please let us know if your group is doing anything on farming issues or supermarkets etc