ARD. Agriculture and Rural Development
ARD1. Agriculture is facing a major crisis. The control of the industry is passing further out of the hands of farmers and into the hands of supermarket buyers and multinational firms like Monsanto, who are setting the research and development agenda for the decades to come.
ARD2. Alongside these developments, the gap between consumers and producers has never been wider with numerous food scares rocking consumer confidence. Welsh farming faces a future which involves further collapses in agricultural prices, increasing intensification of farming, high risk technical innovations spurred by corporate profits and the continuing depopulation of rural areas due to farm labour reductions.
ARD3. The Green vision of agriculture involves what we term 'local protectionism'. Greens want to develop local food economies across Wales where consumers and local producers are linked directly, keeping wealth circulating in the local area. Farmers' markets for example offer one simple and effective way of encouraging local marketing of produce and building trust between consumer and producer. Part of this local protectionism will also involve developing co-operative ventures in the farming industry, which will improve efficiency and help to insulate the industry from the effects of market fluctuations.
ARD4. Welsh agriculture has a reputation for excellence and quality. We must maintain this by supporting standards of excellence. The centrepiece of the Green Party agriculture policy is the support of organic farming, which will further enhance high quality farming in Wales.
Additionally we support the promotion and recognition of the wide range of non-organic Welsh produce which is already produced less intensively and with minimal use of chemicals.
ARD5. Greens in the Assembly will advocate:
30% of farming to be organic by 2010
increased financial support for farms in conversion to organic status and farms already converted to organic status
the creation of a fully funded organic advisory service
promoting local markets across Wales, bringing farmers and consumers together
major support and development of co-operative farming ventures
encouraging diversification into energy production, farm forestry and small 'value added' business ventures
strengthening farm animal welfare standards, including a ban on all live exports
banning research and sale of genetically modified organisms in Wales
banning the import of meat produced using artificial growth hormones
restricting the use of antibiotics in livestock
creating a Minister for Animal Rights
banning hunting with dogs
support of the existing legal protection for badgers as a species and oppose the designation of "krebs" so-called research areas in Wales
the establishment of an independent Welsh Food Standards Agency with powers over food testing and research
expansion of the under-funded Tir Gofal scheme.
ARD6: Green Party members of the National Assembly, in co-operation with our colleagues in the European Parliament, will strenuously seek to defend the natural bio-diversity of Wales and the integrity of its agricultural sector by maintaining Wales's GM-free status and ensuring that all maize grown or imported into Wales (the last source of GM contamination entering the country) will be free of genetically modified organisms.
