Outriders: BBC Radio
Jamillah Knowles interviewed Matt about our project. Outriders is a BBC radio 5 programme dedicated to exploring the frontiers of the web. It is broadcast on Tuesdays at 0300 in Up All Night. Check it out!
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To take a look at the magazine please click here.
"All the market’s interested in is the price. Taste is not really a consideration."
Hannes Schulz, poultry breeder
The industrialisation of agriculture in Europe which started on a large scale after the end of the Second World War and has spread massively ever since has not only led to considerable changes in the landscape but has above all completely upset the balance of nature in many places: wetlands have been drained, tracts of land razed and levelled so that they can be worked with huge machines, gigantic irrigation systems have been created, more and more environmental toxins applied for fertilisation and pest control, new breeds and strains developed of which a small number now replace the wide variety that used to flourish. The consequences: loss of diversity in habitats and species, the dwindling of ground water supplies and the contamination of soils, rivers and living organisms. Industrialised agriculture is responsible for almost 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced in the EU.
The driving force behind this development for the past 50 years has been the agricultural policies of the EU. The agriculture budget amounts to around half of the total EU budget - around 47 billion euros a year. Initially subsidies were linked to yield levels – the more farmers produced, the more financial support they received from the EU – while in the past few years farmers have received payments according to the area of land they cultivated or the numbers of livestock they held. Both systems exclusively reward increases in production, intensification and the trend towards ever larger farms. What falls by the wayside are not only the environment and health safeguards but also the diversity and quality of our food.
An ever-diminishing number of agribusiness concerns are cultivating ever larger areas. Between 1975 and 1995 more than 1.4 million farms went out of business in Europe. The most badly affected countries are Italy, Spain, Portugal and France - in these four countries the number of people employed in agriculture shrank by at least a third between 1987 and 1997.
Between 1990 and 1995 the number of farms going out of business as a result of overly aged farmers many of whom had reached retirement or were given a grant-in-aid for giving up their economic activity, rose with increasing rapidity. During this period, when Europe had twelve nation members, over a million farmers went out of business – which amounts to more than 550 farms closing down every day! This trend has continued since 1995.
Since 2003 subsidies have been contingent on the fulfilment of conditions in respect of environmental protection, food safety, health of livestock and plants as well as treatment of animals – albeit to a far too small degree in the concerted opinion of environmental and consumer protection organisations.
Reference: http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/facts3.htm accessed 02 February 2010
As well as environmental reasons for choosing line-caught bass; for example the wild caught bass have more muscle and are less flabby than farmed bass as they have a 100% natural diet.
To reduce costs we are keen to re-use the tags. If you would like to help us re-cycle the tags then please send them to: Seafood Cornwall Training, 50 the Strand, Newlyn, Cornwall TR18 5HW
• Government accepts recommendation of Competition Commission
• Watchdog will monitor retailers to protect food producers and consumers
The ombudsman will enforce a new groceries code of practice, which comes into force next month. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
The government ended long-running speculation over plans for a supermarket ombudsman today by pledging to set up a new watchdog to protect suppliers and farmers from abuses of power by large retailers.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it had accepted the Competition Commission's recommendation to create the new body to monitor supermarket behaviour. But the scope and powers of the new ombudsman remain unclear, and will be determined as the result of a forthcoming consultation.
The ombudsman will enforce a new groceries supply code of practice (GSCOP), which will come into force on 4 February.
Announcing the decision, the consumer affairs minister, Kevin Brennan, said a consultation would begin next month to decide how to enforce the code and what powers the ombudsman should have.
"The revised GSCOP is a great improvement," he said. "However, the power that large grocery retailers remain able to wield over their suppliers can still create pressures on small producers, especially in these difficult economic times, which ultimately may impact on consumers.
Ministers had been expected to make a decision before Christmas but met strong resistance from the "Big Four" supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons). Last week the Tories stole the government's thunder by announcing that they would create the new body through a levy on retailers.
Tom MacMillan, of the Food Ethics Council, said: "The government must now ensure that it listens to small producers as well as big business. A strong supermarket ombudsman, invested with real power, would have the authority to ensure fair prices from the farm gate to the checkout. It would protect the livelihoods of farmers across the UK and give consumers better access to fresh, healthy food."
The ombudsman has been championed by the National Farmers' Unionwho say that dairy producers have been particularly squeezed – shoppers pay up to £1.70 for two litres of milk for which the farmer receives less than 50p. War on Want says an ombudsman would also help poorly paid workers in the developing world.
However, the British Retail Consortium, speaking for the supermarkets, said the new plans amounted to a costly and unnecessary new bureaucracy that would raise prices for consumers.
Stephen Robertson, BRC director general, said: "This would tip the balance of negotiating power in favour of multinational food manufacturers, allowing them to drive up the prices customers pay. The UK grocery market is worth £130bn a year. If threats of involving an ombudsman allow big food companies to squeeze even 0.1% more out of supermarkets, that's £130m extra on customers' bills."
The Liberal Democrat environment, food and rural affairs spokesman, Tim Farron, said: "For years, Labour and the Tories have twiddled their thumbs while huge supermarkets have pushed thousands of farmers to the brink. Their response has been totally inadequate and there are serious doubts over whether these belated proposals will properly regulate the industry
."A code of practice that is not legally binding means that much will depend on how much power the ombudsman gets."
The shadow environment secretary, Nick Herbert, said: "This is a step forward but this belated announcement of further consultation is not the decisive action that consumers or the industry need. Ministers have had since April 2008 to take forward the Competition Commission's recommendation and now they still don't know what shape the Ombudsman should take. Conservatives are clear: we would establish a supermarket ombudsman to enforce the grocery supply code as a dedicated unit in the Office of Fair Trading to ensure a fair deal for producers and safeguard the consumer interest."
