Ahead of a meeting of agricultural ministers, Green MEPs have written to the Agricultural commissioner and ministers urging them to close a loophole that permits the use of pesticides on so called Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs). These are areas of land set aside for agricultural practices that are beneficial for the climate and the environment and aim to boost biodiversity. Six types of land make up EFAs: fallow land, buffer strips, field margins, catch crops, green cover and nitrogen-fixing crops.

Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London said:

“Resilient and robust agro-ecosystems are essential to withstand climate change and other environmental impacts. The benefits of restricting pesticides and so boosting Ecological Focus Areas can be seen not only on the farms in question but across whole landscapes, with improvements to entire rural communities and indeed the whole of society.”

Keith Taylor MEP, a member of the European Parliament’s environment committee, said:

“Permitting the use of pesticides in Ecological Focus Areas is totally inconsistent with greening agricultural policy. Pesticides do not help to increase biodiversity, they limit it. It’s time to close the loophole that allows toxic chemicals to be sprayed on these areas. Pesticides kill a wide range of bacteria, fungi and invertebrates – not just the species targetted – so they have no place in areas that are set aside to improve biodiversity.”

Molly Scott Cato, who sits on the Agricultural Committee in the European Parliament and is Green Party speaker on EU relations, said:

“Whether inside or outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), farming needs to take a giant leap forwards on more ecologically sensitive practices. Farming can and should play a key role in supporting and bolstering natural processes such as pollination and water and nutrient cycling while a focus on soil health can ensure farming plays an important role in helping to stabilize our climate through carbon capture.”

The three MEPs recently made a written submission to the Commons inquiry on The Future of the Natural Environment, expressing their concerns about the future of farming support following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. They are also supporting a new European Citizens’ Initiative, People4Soil, which aims to get over a million people to sign a petition to put pressure on EU institutions to adopt specific legislation on soil protection.

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Green MEPs are urging Ministers to ensure that post-Brexit agricultural support is reformed to encourage a transition away from environmentally destructive intensive agri-business, as a new report exposes the extent to which current farming practices are driving a steep decline in British wildlife.

Jean Lambert, Molly Scott Cato and Keith Taylor have made clear their concerns about the future of farming support in the UK, following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, in a written submission to the Commons inquiry on The Future of the Natural Environment after the EU Referendum.

In their response to the inquiry, Green MEPs were keen to draw attention to the continued uncertainty surrounding planning for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, while highlighting some of the threats and opportunities posed by Britain’s retreat from a wide-ranging body of EU-wide environmental and agricultural policies.

The submission comes as a group of more than 50 conservation organisations publish their report into the policy-driven intensification of farming and its role as a significant driver of nature loss in the UK.

Jean Lambert, MEP for London, said:

“In trying to show that Britain is open for business, there is a real danger the Government will trade away healthy, sustainable, environmentally-friendly agriculture in the UK. High environmental and social standards must be part of future trade deals and it would be wrong to subsidise exports which damage livelihoods elsewhere in the world.”

Molly Scott Cato, MEP for the South West, member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, and the Green Party’s spokesperson on EU relations, said:

“The government has failed to outline its vision for British farming following the vote to withdraw from the EU. However, the suggestion that the UK might adopt a New Zealand-style agrarian free market model is very worrying. This would leave farmers increasingly vulnerable to market forces with one study suggesting only the largest 10% of farms would survive under such a model. It would lead to the intensification of agriculture, which would place greater strain on our soils and threaten animal welfare standards. Furthermore, as the EU’s 2015 State of Nature report identified, intensive agriculture is one of the leading causes of the current decline and degradation of nature.”

“So the full-scale marketisation of the 70% of our land that is farmland must be resisted. As the State of Nature report makes abundantly clear, it is imperative, for the livelihoods of farmers and the future of British wildlife, that any replacement subsidy scheme must encourage a transition away from intensive farming and giant agri-business towards an environmentally and ecologically sustainable small-scale farming system.”

Keith Taylor, MEP for the South East, member of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, and the Green Party’s Animals spokesperson, said:
“As a country, we stand to lose a raft of laws that have, over several decades, been the last line of defence for the UK’s wildlife and the natural environment.”

“Farming is clearly in desperate need of reform, but without EU nature laws the scale of wildlife decline uncovered in the State of Nature report would have been far greater. British conservation efforts have benefitted from the largest single body of environmental legislation in the world. In fact, the EU is responsible for about 80% of all environmental laws in the UK. These laws are driving positive conservation action. Protected wildlife sites were being lost at a rate of 15% a year before EU action; now that rate has fallen to just 1% a year.” 

“Wildlife and environmental issues were sidelined during the referendum campaign, but we cannot allow leaving the EU to be an excuse to erode the vital safeguards Leave campaigners maligned as ‘red tape’. As Greens, we are calling on the Government to commit to maintaining and strengthening current EU environmental protections.” 

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The Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) sees billions in subsidies paid every year to some of the richest landowners in the EU – including almost €1 billion to just 1,920 of landowners (0.64% of the total number) in the UK alone – in the name of protecting famers, the environment, and rural economies.

Last week MEPs considered a number of reforms to the CAP: the first time directly-elected MEPs have been given a say in how it works.

Greens argued – alongside farmers’ groups and environmental NGOs – that the priorities for reform should centre on four issues: making farming Greener and more sustainable, protecting rural economies and farming jobs, making the CAP fairer, with a more equitable distribution of subsidies, and strengthening farmers’ bargaining power with multi-national food retailers.

But MEPs voted against all these reforms.

“The European Parliament has missed an opportunity to deliver any real reform of the CAP,” said Ms Lambert.

“It’s the first time MEPs have been given a say in how agriculture policies work – and, despite Greens’ best efforts – they failed this test abysmally: rejecting the needs of farmers, rural economies and the environment in favour of ‘business as usual’,” she added.

“We will keep on calling for reform that places the needs of farmers, and the environment, above the profits the supermarkets and the huge subsidies enjoyed by rich landowners.

“How we organise our farming matters to us all: as the horsemeat scandal shows, it’s vital that we shorten supply chains and bring farmers and consumers closer together.”

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Commenting on the figures, Jean, a member of the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee, said: “On average, between 40 and 50 workers are killed on British farms every year – almost one person per week.  A man working in agriculture is two and a half times more likely to die going about his job than he is in a car accident. Yet despite such shocking facts, today’s HSE figures show that agriculture continues to have one of the highest fatal accident rates of all industries in the UK.

“In most other industries, deaths and injuries are decreasing but in farming numbers have remained steady over recent years. For many, these injuries are severe and can result in the loss of a limb, the loss of employment and suicidal thoughts.  This not just a problem for farm workers and their families, but for society as a whole.  The hard work and dedication of our agricultural workers puts food on our tables, manages our land, enhances our biodiversity and contributes billions to the economy.  By failing to find concrete, tangible ways of improving farm safety and reducing deaths and injuries, we are letting these workers down.

“We have a duty to find out why these safety measures are not being properly applied in each and every farm both in the UK. In the coming days, I will table a question at the European Parliament to discover just what is being done across the EU to shield farm workers from hazardous situations. We all have an interest in ensuring that this most crucial of businesses is kept safe.”

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