Green party

Farming, fishing and food

Recent food and farming scares - Salmonella, BSE and Foot and Mouth - have made us all concerned about food safety. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pesticide residues and chemical additives threaten to damage our health and wreck ecosystems. Animals suffer from the cruelties of factory farming and current levels of meat consumption are unsustainable. Obesity is on the rise in the UK, while people go hungry in countries growing ‘cash crops' for the West.

These trends must be reversed. Safe, good quality food, produced by sustainable and humane farming methods should be available for all. This cannot be achieved if priority is given to the profits of agribusinesses, supermarkets and large food manufacturers.

The Green Party will put consumers, animal welfare and the environment first. We need more organic, local production - to reduce wasteful transportation, provide local employment, and strengthen links between producers and consumers.

We could grow a lot more food in our country than we do. While we may need to import some food, we certainly don't need to import large quantities of the same food we export; food swapping makes no sense and should be stopped. Most imported food actually comes from developed countries. Trade with the developing world in products we cannot produce should continue. To benefit the people in those countries it must be on the basis of fair trade not free trade.

In our country the cost of producing organic food could be vastly reduced. Currently organic food is too expensive because the government is not serious about supporting it. But we are also paying hidden costs for intensively produced food through cleaning up pollution, ill health, and damage to the countryside and environment.

Most food produced in the developing countries is already organic. It is multinationals selling fertilisers and genetically modified seeds for massive profits that threaten traditional, local food security. Pesticides and additives have been shown to be very harmful, especially for vulnerable groups like the very young and elderly.

We do not yet know what the long term effects of GMOs are, the risks to the environment and our health are too great. We must ban the production and import of GM food (including animal feed) and progressively eliminate pesticide, antibiotic and other drug residues. Healthier food should be promoted, especially for children, more fresh food and less sugar, salt and saturated fat.

Allotments

The Green Party recognises the vital role that allotments have to play, particularly in maximising the potential for urban food growing.

We will introduce more support for allotment users, more allotment creation on brownfield land, access for disabled people and more public information on the benefits of allotments. Where new builds are taking place provisions should be made for allotments as well as increased flexibility in the size of plot and sale of produce.

Agriculture

Our agriculture policy seeks to pursue an ecologically sustainable and fair society with respect to the production of food and other agriculturally derived products. We recognise the fundamental importance of those who work on the land.

Industrialised farming depletes resources, pollutes soil, air, and water. The result is loss of biodiversity, increased disease and overproduction. The health of growers is threatened and the food created is unhealthy for consumers. Small farms, allotments, gardens and organic or locally produced food should all be encouraged.

Fisheries

In order to return fish stocks to a sustainable level we seek the reconstitution of the Common Fisheries Policy in the EU to ecologically sound principles. Fish should only be imported from regions that have sufficient to support their own communities. Our own fisheries should have regional quotas to ensure stocks do not become depleted.