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Less than 1% of funds spent to prop up financial system could help prevent future global food crises

Many millions of people in poor countries will go hungry when future global food crises strike unless the world’s half a billion small-scale farms receive urgent funding and support from the UK and other governments, says development agency Progressio on the first day of a crucial global food security summit in Rome (Nov 16th-18th).

In a new report, Fertile Ground, Progressio warns that decades of neglect by governments of small scale farmers who feed 2 billion people worldwide, a third of  humanity, have stretched poor farming communities to breaking point, requiring urgent action. The report notes that last year’s global food crisis:

• Added 44 million people to those already undernourished
• Drove 110 million more people into poverty
• Pushed up the price of some commodities by 200%

States Fertile Ground:

“Our global food system is in crisis. The number of hungry people on our planet is rising steadily and for the first time in history has now passed the 1 billion mark… Governments must face the facts and take action now in order to be confident of feeding the estimated 9.2 billion people who will share our planet by 2050.”

Fertile Ground reports a dramatic decline in the amount of aid spent on agriculture, which has fallen by 83% in the past 30 years, as government and other donors favoured intensive, large-scale solutions to the modern challenges of food production. In the process, small-scale farmers have been left behind. The report cites many threats and trials facing small-scale farmers:

• Climate change will leave 40 per cent of sub-Saharan African countries facing the risk of significant declines in crop and pasture production
• 2.6 billion people are already affected by significant levels of land degradation
• 80% of farmers in Africa and 40% in Latin America and Asia still rely on their own labour and hand tools. Many lack access to technical expertise which could help boost production.

Says Petra Kjell, Progressio’s Environment Policy Officer:

“The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) suggests that governments spend $44 billion per year in support of agriculture, which is less than 1 per cent of what they spent to prop up the global financial system. If a significant proportion of that investment went towards assisting small-scale farmers around the world, then a vital step will have been taken to cushion the impact of future food crises.”

The report, which is informed by Progressio’s work with small-scale farmers in countries like Malawi and Ecuador, states that for centuries small-scale farmers have provided a food security buffer against outside shocks, supplying poor communities with local food at local prices. By growing produce in harmony with the environment – or ‘agroecologically’ – farmers are also able to better protect their land and crops from erratic weather linked to climate change, the report notes. It calls for urgent action by governments and policy-makers to ensure these practices continue, through:

• More investment and support for small-scale farmers through international aid and national budgets
• A greater voice for small-scale farmers in national and global decision-making processes which affect the way they live and work

The Rome Food Summit, which is being hosted by the FAO, will bring together leaders and high-ranking officials from around the world. Its main purpose is to address mechanisms to tackle the rising threat of global hunger.

Petra Kjell concludes:

“Small-scale farmers make a huge contribution to our planet. Yet they have been hopelessly under-supported for decades. Unless they are now prioritised by governments, future food crises will be much worse, with dire consequences for millions of people. We must act now to make sure small-scale farmers receive the support they so desperately need.”

Why buy organic? What is organic? Why isn’t everything organic if it’s so much better? Why is organic more expensive?

If you know the answers to these questions then you’ll be happy to see this wonderful little movie from The Soil Association. If you have friends that need convincing that organic food is actually better than intensively farmed food then, again, you’ll like this.

We like the “public service broadcast” style because, in essence, it is a public service to understand and remind people why organic food is better for the food itself, us, the consumer, and the land and for nature.

(In particular we like the Jack Drummond tone of the film, but that’s another story, especially as we’re reading The Vitamin Murders at the moment. Green book review coming soon)

And if you like this film feel free to pass it on

It’s funny how most Brits say that self-sufficiency would help us out in this recent financial crisis and yet half of us admit to lacking the skills our grandparents had in abundance.

According to research commissioned by the Soil Association and conducted by Pollab a massive 92% of Brits polled said that self-sufficiency, being able to “grow your own” and having your own livestock would certainly have been beneficial during this latest recession. The notion has been echoed by recent activity from DEFRA, the Government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in their Food 2030 initiative and a lot of interest from the general public in allotment space.

Yet despite the huge majority of people wishing to be self-sufficient the poll also found that:

• 45% of people admitted to lacking in cooking skills
• 47% of those polled say they were less able to grow their own food
• 48% of Brits believe they have lost the rural craft skills to allow them to be self-sufficient and
• 51% said they had no idea how to rear livestock

So, although the will is strong, the skills are weak. But fear not for the Soil Association have picked up on Brits’ lack of confidence and are launching 300 Organic Farm School courses over the next 2 years with help from the Daylesford Foundation. The new Organic Farm School courses cover a range of skills from growing vegetables to bee-keeping and keeping chickens to making bread and cider. Te full list of organic farm courses inlcudes:

• wild food foraging
• hedge laying
• cider making
• bee keeping
• cheese making
• preserving
• butchery and game preparation
• seasonal cookery demonstrations
• willow weaving
• dry stone walling

Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association, commented:

The Organic Farm School is about relearning skills which are vital to becoming more self-sufficient. In the recession this will not only be cheaper but it’s healthier for you and the environment too. I think one of life’s greatest pleasures is eating food that you’ve produced yourself.

My vision for the Organic Farm School is that it enables and inspires a whole generation of young people to acquire these vitally important skills from the very best practitioners – the farmers and growers themselves.

The Soil Association is aiming to strike a chord with over 3000 people with their Organic Farm Schools initiative, the intention being to pass on practical skills from farmers, growers and producers to reinstate modern urban people with the skills of their forebears.

Monty Don, President of the Soil Association, concluded:

The Soil Association’s Organic Farm School is a fantastic opportunity for anyone to come and learn skills from the experts. Each course is an enjoyable day out on an organic farm and a chance to experience the rich satisfaction of country life.

So, if you think you need to brush up on your bread, cider & cheese-making skills, then take a look at the Organic Farm School courses to see which ones appeal to you.

I was munching on some organic blueberries this morning and noted that my driveway was littered with fallen fruit from a day of very heavy winds (the tail-end of what was originally hurricane Bob, or so I’m told). There were plums, pears and another small orange fruit that I do not recognise.

However, when I turned to water my mint, basil and lavender I noticed that the strawberries I planted from seed have born their first fruit! OK, it’s only one nearly-ripe little strawberry and another one on its way, but that’s such a good feeling to have home-grown fruit without the carbon emissions of delivery mileage.

We’ve already got a wild strawberry patch in the garden but that fruited earlier in the year and the slugs got there first. I’ve never had the chance to eat fruit from my own garden so here’s to the strawberries…!

Now to find a way to repel the slugs (and no, not with a slug catapult)

Chicken Out! is an interesting campaign that aims to raise the awareness of the plight of battery chickens.

The whole industry of breeding chickens for food is quite despicable at the lower end of the market, and all because consumers want a 99p chicken sandwich from the big fast food chains such as McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The supermarkets too are implicated in this crime of breeding chickens in awful conditions. They can offer a whole bird for just £3 and still make profits of billions whilst British farmers struggle.

The big corporates use their collective buying power to drive down prices, creating a market place where the value of a life is worth only half an hour’s work at the minimum wage. In order to supply these cheap birds, battery farmers keep the birds indoors for all their life, and the birds end up with a very sad existence. The chickens have little room to roam freely and gain weight rapidly in an intense life that sees them live for just 39 days!

The Chicken Out! campaign aims to see birds bred in much better conditions, to give farmers a better deal for the animals they rear and to raise food standards. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, of River Cottage fame, and Compassion in World Farming are behind the campaign saying that the conditions in which these chickens are raised is unacceptable and that the industry should be “de-intensified”.

We quite agree. If we allow our animals to be treated this way, if we think that factory farming is OK, if we believe that supermarkets should continue to grow and make huge profit at the expense of our vanishing small shops then we still have a lot to learn.

If you believe in higher welfare standards, if you think the industry should be reformed, if you think before you eat then visit Chicken Out! and sign up to their campaign after all a big part of going green means you should know what you’re eating and care where it came from.

It was interesting to hear Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, saying yesterday that we need a “radical rethink” on food policy in this country.

For many years those who think green have identified the world’s population growth, habit & climate change and a loss of biodiversity, to name a few, as the factors that would affect food production.

Coupled with the fact that British are not entirely self-sufficient when it comes to food production, the future of the country’s “food security” is as important as the nation’s insistence on foreign powers to provide our energy needs.

Hilary Benn identified that whilst our food supply is currently secure climate change and growing world population are indeed a threat to the security of what we eat, how much of it we get, what we pay for it and where it comes from.

Anyone who has read A Blueprint for Survival, the book that was the basis of the (now) Green Party’s manifesto back in 1973, would be right in saying that this is nearly 40 years too late. Why are the government only thinking and speaking now?

Over the past few years we’ve seen changes in the price of oil and people have had to think very seriously about what they drive; big macho gas-guzzler or economic city car?

Food too has been affected by price variations such as the diversion of grain from being a food source to being an alternative bio-fuel to pour into the tanks of gas-guzzlers in an attempt to “go green” yet causing the “Tortilla riots” in Mexico as the price of flour has risen.

The droughts in Australia last year too have also been attributed as a factor in the rise in the price of grain and the consequent hike in the price of bread in the UK.

With these factors in mind the Environment Secretary has called these signs a “wake up call” even though the government has been hitting “snooze” since the 1970s.

Although nearly 4 decades too late, matters seem to be more pressing as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) launches a last minute consultation into Britain’s food security future.

DEFRA’s current assessment of Britain’s food supply is that whilst we have a diversity of food suppliers worldwide and the supply chain is in a favourable position, the impact of global resources in the future will mean that other countries will need to feed their own growing populations rather than export to the UK and we will see our food imports fall, scarcity in some products rise and prices in those areas will increase. It’s a very simple case of supply & demand.

Hilary Benn’s “radical rethink” is therefore looking in the direction of what we can do to secure a healthy, abundant & diverse source of home-grown foods. I’ve noticed a lot of my friends are growing their own veg these days but that can hardly feed the whole nation.

DEFRA’s

The Sustainable Development Commission released a report in July Stop the Decline in UK Food Production saying that the current system was a problem due to it being a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and that current evaluations of food provision being a “success” failed to count the affects on soil & water from the intensive use of pesticides etc. (think “Blueprint” again!)

The British Retail Consortium want food issues to focus around the consumer, according to the BBC, saying that only with “their buy-in” will food policy be fairly shaped.

The harsh reallity is that everybody needs to wake up, the government should stop fannying around and we should all understand that things aren’t going to be as cheap or as easy as they have been. People should consume less, eat better, only buy what they need and not allow food to be wasted.

In addition, what the Environment Secretary believes, is that food production should be more efficient. One example was that English strawberries can be grown to use less water to achieve the same yields and retain their taste & character.

You can read about DEFRA’s consultation, Food 2030, and watch Hilary Benn speaking about the challenges of a secure food future. Don’t forget to leave your comments there too; green voices should be heard in this matter and we’ll definitely be taking time to make our voice heard on the issues of GM crops (No, thank you), sustainability, organic farming, maintaining biodiversity etc.

Make your voices heard, comment on Food 2030!

Adnams, the Suffolk brewer, have a great beer in their range called East Green which, they boast, is a carbon neutral ale.

Just over a year ago Adnams came out with a lighter-weight version of their classic & uniqulely-shaped traditional beer bottle. Less glass means less materials, less weight, cheaper transport costs and a smaller environmental footprint.

The Adnams brewery in Southwold also embarked upon a process of greening their business through creating a sustainable and environmentally-friendly brewhouse, and now the director has been awarded an OBE for the company’s drive for corporate social responsibility.

But the East Green beer is apparently the first carbon neutral ale. With the lighter bottles and green brewhouse, East Green uses Boudicea hops which are naturally resistant to aphids, thus reducing the need for pesticides. Only a “tiny” amount of offsetting means that this is a carbon neutral beer. Nice.

And it tastes good too. East Green is light and refreshing, a pale ale, not too fussy in the taste department, and not too hoppy. 4.3% ABV. If only we could ween English lager drinkers onto East Green it could become an English classic, and Europeans & Americans might like it too. It’s not the sort of beer I normally drink in the cold weather (-10°c today) but it is a decent beer and perfect for the discerning green drinker. Probably would go down well in the spring and summer months, sitting at your traditional English country pub.

You can order a pack of 8 half-litre (just under a pint) bottles of East Green over at Adnams. It’s a good beer and you’ll be “doing your bit” too.

Farmers Markets are a great way for people to find local producers and cut down on the usually unseen environmental costs that globalisation brings.

Whenever there’s a local farmers market on we go down to see what we can do to assist with “localisation”. Afterall, if there is an oil crash and we all end up being unable to travel, we’re not going to be able to get our flowers from Kenya and beef from Argentina, so it makes sense to rely on local producers.

Farmers Markets also boost the local economy and stimulate the sense of local community.

And saying all this we’ll be down at our own local farmers market in Milford, Surrey on Sunday 18th May. We’re helping out on a stall and rolling our sleeves up to get involved, so let’s hope the weather and attendance are good.

Milford Farmers Markets are held at the Secretts Garden Centre and Farm Shop which is in Chapel Lane, Milford, Surrey GU8 5HU (We even put in a link to the map for you there). The market is open from 10:00am until 1:30pm so get there nice and early to get the best of what Surrey’s local farmers have to offer.

One of the big problems with litter is that the global big brands pump millions of pounds into promoting and advertising their products, they shift massive numbers of units, lots of profit is made, they all enjoy the spoils of their business and ultimately don’t care about the fact that their global brands are also creating massive amounts of rubbish!

The detritus from big brand produce litters every corner of this green & pleasant land and, quite frankly, we’re all tired of seeing it. And now to name and shame just one of these big brand polluters, one of these global litterers… one of Britain’s most popular alcoholic drinks…

FOSTERS LAGER

This scattering of Fosters Lager cans were littering a leafy area beside a path on a cycle home one night and every single one of those cans is a Fosters lager can. Now we’re not big fans of the mass-produced brands anyway, but for their mass-market by-products to litter our home town is not only rude & unsightly but it costs local taxpayers money too… somebody has to clean it up and that’s the council’s job.

Therefore your hard-earned pay, in the form of council tax, pays for street-cleaners and litter pickers to remove the trash.

So the point is this:

Shouldn’t mass-market global brands be contributing a good percentage of their profits toward cleaning up the by-products of their products? Should there be a litter tax whereby for every item of a certain brand/item that is swept up from public places there is a charge to the producer/manufacturer?

There are pros & cons to each solution but this approach would encourage corporate responsibility, stimulate social responsibility and make the world a cleaner place.

What do you think?