Transcript Consumption - Policy plans

Friends of the Earth’s
Food Chain campaign
North West Regional
Gathering
24 January 2009
Structure
• About the Food Chain Campaign – Part 1
– Why the campaign? Environmental and social
impacts of meat and dairy
– Where it fits within the Strategic Plan
• Making the links in the chain exercise
• About the Food Chain Campaign – Part 2
– Our solutions
– Key messages
– Timeline
– Local Groups activism & how to get involved
• Questions and discussion
• Solidarity action with FoE Paraguay
About the Food Chain Campaign
– Part 1
– Why the campaign? Environmental
and social impacts of meat and dairy
– Where it fits within the Strategic Plan
Brazil’s soy harvest
March 2008
Livestock’s impacts growing acceptance
“Livestock impacts on ecosystem goods and services are
largely negative, through impacts such as deforestation,
nutrient overloading, greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient
depletion of grazing areas, dryland degradation from
overgrazing, dust formation, and bush encroachment.”
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005
Livestock’s impacts growing acceptance
“Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is
on a massive scale”
Livestock’s long shadow,
UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2006
“Globally, livestock has a disproportionately large impact
on the environment and on resource use”
Food: an analysis of the issues, Strategy Unit, 2008
“… a healthy, low-impact diet would contain less meat and
fewer dairy products than we typically eat today”
Food Matters, Strategy Unit, 2008
Livestock’s impacts
• One of the main drivers
of biodiversity loss in
forests & other habitats to make way for soy
monocultures and
pasture
• 18% of global GHG
emissions
• Communities - loss of
land and livelihoods,
pesticide impacts,
labour abuses, pollution
of soil and water
Factory farming –
dependant on soy
• Soy provides cheap
source of protein for
animal feed
• Use has soared as a
result of agricultural
policy and since BSE
• Much soy grown in
South America and
imported into Europe
is GM
• UK farmers affected
by commodity price
volatility
A vicious circle - soy
expands to meet demand
Soy expansion - Paraguay
The European market
• The EU is the
biggest market for
South American
soymeal
• A third of all
Brazilian soy is
exported to Europe
• An area the size of
Hungary is needed
to grow soy for the
EU market (10M ha)
Europe’s land grab
• Since 1996, the
amount of land
needed to produce
soy for the European
market is roughly
equal to the area of
deforestation in
Brazilian forests
The UK’s role
• UK imported 1.7 MT
soymeal; 650,000T
soybeans from South
America in 2007
• From an area of 1.2
million hectares =
larger than Cornwall
and Devon
Strategic Plan 2008-13
• Aim1: Biodiversity and ecosystem services
Objective 3
To ensure that by 2013 the UK Government
has put in place targets and incentives
through its Sustainable Farming and Food
Strategy such that livestock farming
systems in the UK reduce reliance on
imported animal feed.
• Aim 2: Climate Change
Making the links in the chain
80
32
18
50
2050
97
70
200
1300
80
22
100,000
About the Food Chain Campaign
– Part 2
– Our solutions
– Key messages
– Timeline
– Local Groups activism
– How to get involved
The Food Chain
campaign
• Major public campaign for UK political
action to address the impacts of
livestock production
• Change the system - whilst maintaining
a thriving & sustainable UK livestock
sector
• Working with partners in South
America
• Solutions in producing and consuming
countries
Solutions: 1 – Shift
money
• Shift subsidies away
from intensive systems including CAP
• Procurement: ensure
public money is not
spent on damaging,
unhealthy food (£2.2
billion per year)
• Fund research into
alternative feeds,
breeds, crop varieties
and cropping systems
• Change public
investment policy
Solutions: 2 – Reform
policy
• Climate change - secure
international agreement
to reduce forest loss
from agricultural
expansion
• Review EU trade policy prioritise environmental
& social impacts of
global trade
• UK competition policy –
supermarkets watchdog
• Corporate accountability
– a Commission for
Business, Human Rights
and the Environment
Key messages
• Most people don’t know that producing
meat and dairy is leading to more climatechanging emissions than all the planes,
trains and cars on the planet.
• Animals in factory farms are being
pumped full of imported soy crops,
creating demand for big plantations that
are wiping out forests and forcing
communities off their lands in South
America.
Key messages
• Taxpayers are spending billions propping
up a system of factory farming that gives
a raw deal to UK farmers and consumers
alike, and is pushing the planet to the
brink of runaway climate change.
• Friends of the Earth is calling on the
Government to revolutionise the way we
produce meat and dairy to break this
chain. Ask your MP to change the deal
behind your meal for good meat and dairy,
thriving farms and a healthy planet.
Timeline
• Parliamentary launch and ‘What’s Feeding
our Food’ – December 08
• Individual Activism – March 09
• Local Groups Activism – May
• Summer of Action
• Day of Action – October
• Private Members’ Bill ballot ~ Nov
• Targeted lobbying of MPs drawn in ballot
to take up ‘Sustainable Livestock Bill’ ~
Nov/Dec
Local Groups activism
• Activism launches at May Regional
Gathering
• Lobbying MPs to sign EDM
• Summer of Action – including street
theatre, stalls, speakers, films
– Other ideas?
• Making links in your local area – farmers,
shops, health groups, animal welfare
groups…
• Targeting non-MPs: Local Authorities,
schools, hospitals, supermarkets…
How to get involved
• Sign up to the campaign here today
• Email Richard in the food team:
[email protected]
• Sign up to the Real Food Network through
Richard or online:
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/real_food/
press_for_change/join_list_index.html