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 moratorium, which was fist mooted by the European Commission following a critical report into the impact of neonicitinoid pesticides on bees by the European Food Safety Agency, has been backed by the UK parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee.

The two-year ban will give scientists a window to research the link more fully – and propose alternatives.

But the UK government, arguing that the science is inconclusive, voted against the move.

Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP, said: “This moratorium is excellent news: for the precautionary principle, for bees and our farmers, and for the millions of people who have expressed their view that a short-term ban is the only response to a massive collapse in our bee population.

“As well as the being the right thing to do for the health of our food chain, today’s decision also shows how successful public and NGO campaigning can be in the face of the lobbying efforts of the pharmaceutical industry.”

The final vote, in the EU’s ‘Comitology Appeals Committee’, saw 15 member states for the moratorium, eight against (including the UK) and four EU states abstain.

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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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EU Agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels were due to adopt an EU-wide ban on the use of neonicitinoid pesticides today in light of growing scientific evidence that has linked their use with harm to bees – essential for pollination of food crops – and a Green Party initiative calling for a complete ban.

But the proposal has been rejected after UK and German representatives, amongst others, refused to give their support to the initiative.

London’s Green MEP Jean Lambert – who earlier this week joined Green MP Caroline Lucas and fellow Green MEP Keith Taylor in calling on the uK to support the proposed ban, said:

“Yet again the UK Government is blocking EU action to protect our environment, wildlife – and even the food we eat.

“Bee populations are declining across much of Europe: and, according to the scientists, this proposal could have helped avert the crisis facing our bees.

“But, yet again, the UK Government has blocked meaningful action, against the wishes of the vast majority of UK citizens – and MEPs – in order to protect the profits of the chemical industry who make millions from the sale of these pesticides.

“I now call upon the Commission to appeal this decision and take further action to protect not only bees but also our ability to produce our own food.”

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“Current EU labelling rules seem to have been ignored. Processed meat does not have to fully labelled – a glaring omission that means consumers can never really be sure what it is they’re eating,” Ms Lambert said today.

“This means the most recent revelations could be just the tip of the iceberg – and the only way for consumers to be sure that what they are eating is whet they think it is would be for strict labeling requirements to be adopted now.”

“The most recent revelations in this unfolding food safety scandal suggest EU food labeling rules just aren’t up to the job of protecting consumers – and Greens are calling on all political groups in Brussels to back an official enquiry into why.”

The first step in calling for the EU’s anti-fraud agency to look into the scandal – and in enacting any preventative new food labeling requirements – would be an emergency hearing of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee with the EU Commissioners for Food Safety and Agriculture, something Ms Lambert and Green colleagues have called for today.

Ms Lambert added: “Full traceability along long supply-chains is essential if we are to avoid future food safety scandals, and the suppliers must take responsibility for making sure labeling is correct and complete.”

“Now must be the time to tighten up labelling requirements accordingly.”

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Secret filming by leading animal rights organisation, Animal Aid, has uncovered systematic cruelty and brutality inside Britain's slaughterhouses.  Images taken from just one Essex abattoir in April 2012 showed pigs being burnt with cigarettes, animals being punched in the face and seriously injured pigs forced to drag themselves to slaughter.  Covert recordings from eight randomly chosen slaughterhouses tell a similar devestating story and reveal serious breaches of animal welfare laws.

Appalled by the findings of Animal Aid's investigation, Jean has written to the UK Agriculture and Food Minister, James Paice MP, to demand the installation of CCTV cameras in all UK slaughterhouses and for the footage to be made available to independent parties outside of the abattoir [1].  Jean also believes that there should be better training and retraining for slaughterhouse employees, including casual staff.

Jean said: "The shocking scenes uncovered by Animal Aid prove the current abattoir legislation is not being properly implemented.  Animal welfare is of the highest importance, and it is the responsibility of the industry and of Government to ensure that effective monitoring takes place and prosecutions are bought." 

Notes to Editor

1. Jean's letter reads as follows:

I write to urge the UK Government to introduce legislation to make installation of CCTV in UK slaugterhouses mandatory.

You will be aware that secret footage obtained by Animal Aid at 9 slaugterhouses revealed an 89 per cent failure rate and quite shocking abuse, as detailed in Animal Aid's reports and footage.

The footage reveals systematic failure of the current system.  Whilst FSA vets are required to be on the premises, they are not necessarily present at point of slaughter.  Indeed, in 240 hours of film taken throughout entire days in nine slaughterhouses, Animal Aid reported only having seen one vet once, checking three dead animals.  They never witnessed a vet near live animals.

The FSA, RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming and the Soil Association all support installation of CCTV in slaughterhouses, seeing it as an important tool to monitor practice and provide evidence of abuses as prosecutions.

Regarding the EU regulation EC 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing, I understand that the Commission has indicated that this does not preclude Member States from requiring abattoirs to install CCTV cameras.

Legislation is clearly needed to correct the systematic failure of the current regime and the apparently endemic unacceptable levels of animal welfare abuse.  Mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses has a vital part to play in addressing these failures, and I urge the Government to bring forward relevant legislation.

There is also a need for CCTV footage to be made available to relevant independent parties outside the abattoir, including welfare representatives, and for better independent training and retraining for slaughterhouse employees.

I look forward to your reply. 

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The European Parliament agreed back in 1999 to outlaw keeping hens in conventional battery cages for egg production by 1st January 2012 {1}.  All producers in the UK are expected to be ready for the new law, however around a third of cage eggs from elsewhere in the EU are not expected to come from systems that comply with the new legislation.

Jean said: “The EU laying hens directive gave farmers a generous 12 years to phase out conventional barren battery cages, yet a large number of producers across the EU are not expected to be ready.  This means that an estimated 84 million hens will continue to be kept in the cruel, barren battery cages that the EU has agreed should be banned.

“The European Commission must make sure that this vital piece of animal welfare legislation is effectively implemented so that it can fulfil the aims of improving the lives of laying hens across the EU, protect those farmers who have invested in alternative farming systems and prevent eggs from illegally kept hens ending up on the market.”

In a letter to Commissioner Dalli, Jean and Keith call for the European Commission to:

Work with Member States which are expected to have non-compliant farms to ensure those farmers are unable to continue in egg production from 1 January 2012
Take swift action with meaningful financial penalties against any country with non-complaint egg producers after 1 January 2012
To implement an intra-community trade ban to stop any illegal eggs that could end up on the market being traded outside the countries where they were laid

While the ban outlaws ‘conventional’ barren battery cages, it still allows ‘enriched’ battery cages.  Confined to a wire cage, hens are kept in small groups, with less useable space than an A4 piece of paper each.  Limited facilities will now be provided for scratching, nesting and perching, but hens will still be unable to properly carry out many of their natural behaviours, like dust bathing and foraging.

The Green Party opposes all forms of intensive farming and believes the so-called enriched battery cage should also be banned.

Notes to Editor

The full text of the Council Directive 1999/74/EC protection of laying hens can be read at: http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/food_safety/animal_welfare/l12067_en.htm

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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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