Food policies ‘in need of change to help the hungry’

Apr 1 2008 by Tom Patterson, The Journal

CATTLE farming leaders say political and commercial policies towards the industry are outdated and in need of change.

The National Beef Association wants politicians and supermarkets to take a look at the international food situation and “give up their outdated approach to constrained agricultural production”.

It argues that new strategies are needed that take account of increasing global hunger and growing commodity shortages.

The NBA has noted that less than 50% of the world population now grows its own food as more people move into new cities – and as a result there are already global shortages of basic foodstuffs like bread and rice.

NBA director Kim Haywood said: “It is hard to believe that in discussions over the direction of the latest CAP Health Check policy makers in the EU, and the UK, have still to acknowledge that despite increasing international affluence a bigger proportion of the world’s population is going to bed hungry.

“Current agricultural policies place more reliance on imports than they should because they are still aimed at reducing the domestic production of temperate products that British farmers excel in.

“They are targeted almost exclusively at encouraging non-production, social and environmental based activities through the Rural Development Programme instead.”

She added: “A new political emphasis is needed in which policies designed to increase domestic output and reduce UK, and EU, import demand are quickly adopted so more food stays where it was grown and is used to feed the increasing numbers of hungry people in its many countries of origin.”

The NBA wants to encourage retailers to accept that British consumers will soon feel extremely uncomfortable at importation from countries that do not have enough food of their own – and will be looking to supermarkets to adopt policies in which food for sale in the UK has not been taken from other people’s mouths.

Kim Haywood said: “Retailers currently feel they can woo middle class consumers, and occupy the moral high ground, if they push production policies on to their farmer suppliers which embrace over-dominant environmental and wildlife conservation principles.

“These were adopted when temperate food was in plentiful supply but they need to appreciate that the world has changed and it is already a matter of urgency for UK and EU agriculture to produce more of what domestic consumers require from local resources.” She added: “Consumers are going to feel a great deal more comfortable if the food they eat is home grown, is not tainted by being imported from countries which need increasingly more of the food they produce for themselves.”