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Stopping the great food swap Relocalising Europe’s food supply Dr Caroline Lucas MEP |
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Written by Dr
Caroline Lucas MEP, based on background research and support provided by Andy
Jones and Vicki Hird of Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming,
and by Colin Hines, author of Localisation: A Global Manifesto, Earthscan
2000 Caroline Lucas
is a Member of the European Parliament for the Green Party and sits on the
Parliament’s Trade Committee. She is a former trade policy adviser for a
major UK development NGO. Caroline Lucas,
MEP Green Party of England and Wales Published by The
Greens / European Free Alliance, European Parliament, March 2001 |
Design: Ian Tokelove
Foreword
I
warmly welcome this Report's very important contribution to the debate about
how to fundamentally change the direction of European agriculture, following
the BSE and Foot and Mouth disasters.
In
addition to the vital call for more organic production, better animal welfare
and less intensive agriculture, this document launches the much-needed debate
about how to prioritise local food production and consumption. This will result
in increased self-sufficiency within the countries of Europe and less
cross-border trade in livestock and food products.
Such
an approach is crucial, not only to help revitalise local rural economies but
also to reduce the long distance transport of food and animals. Addressing the
transport issue is also essential if we are to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
in order to tackle climate change. This is therefore a key issue for debate not
just in Brussels, but also in the World Trade Organisation and in environment
and agricultural ministries everywhere.
Friedrich Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf, Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural
Development of the European Parliament, and a member of the Greens / European
Free Alliance group.
Preface
"Is
it a coincidence that we had classical swine fever in East Anglia last year of
an Asian origin, and Foot and Mouth now, also of an Asian origin? It raises
questions about freer world trade"
Ben
Gill President of the National Farmers Union suggesting that globalisation of
trade might be responsible for the British Foot and Mouth outbreak.(1 )
"Britain
imports 61,400 tonnes of poultry meat from the Netherlands in the same year
that it exports 33,100 tonnes of poultry meat to the Netherlands. Britain
imports 240,000 tonnes of pork and 125,000 tonnes of lamb while exporting 195,000
tonnes of pork and 102,000 tonnes of lamb.(2) Why?"
The
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) stands accused of overseeing a system of
European agriculture which causes enormous damage to the environment and rural
livelihoods. It encourages larger, more intensive farms at the expense of
smaller, more sustainable ones, leads to inhumane treatment of animals, and
generates apparently cheap food at enormous hidden expense to all of us –
through the health budget, the environmental clean-up budget, and now the compensation
to farmers in response to BSE and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). It also
generates huge amounts of unnecessary transport, both within the EU and beyond,
and therefore plays a significant role in exacerbating the causes of global
warming.
This
Policy is now under scrutiny as never before. The crisis facing European
agriculture today is unprecedented. But so is the opportunity it presents. Even
Tony Blair says he now wants to know how to make modern farming safe: "We
need to sit down with the industry and really work out what is the basis on
which we want sustainable farming for the long term", he said. Perhaps for
the first time, the future of global agribusiness is in doubt.
The
Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament, the fourth largest
political group, is demanding a fundamental transformation of agricultural
policy in the EU. At a time when a member of the Green Party, Renate Kunast,
has just been appointed as Minister for Agriculture in Germany, and when the
Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler is himself indicating that he is
receptive to new ideas, there are signs that discussion of such a
transformation is now on the agenda.
This
Report is a vital contribution to that debate. It demonstrates how:
· The CAP has resulted in a heavily subsidised
agriculture leading to food surpluses, farmers being paid to set aside land,
and prairie-style farming. Yet the EU remains one of the largest importers of
food in the world.
· Imports of food products by the EU15 have
increased by between 4% and 279% over the last 30 years. Over the same period
exports by EU member states increased more dramatically, by between 164% and
1340% (Figure 2).
· The UK is a net importer of food. In
1980 the UK trade gap in food, feed and drink was £3.5 billion, which increased
to £5.9 billion in 1990 and to £8.3 billion in 1999.(3)
Beef
in Britain is now imported from as far afield as Argentina, Brazil, Namibia,
Botswana, Zimbabwe and Australia. A recent report for the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food reveals that chicken has been imported from
Thailand and Brazil, and exported to Hong Kong, Russia and South Africa.(4)
This
is regarded as entirely admirable by the international meat industry, which
sees globalisation as a great force for good. The British Meat and Livestock
Commission claims that an expanding export market for pork, lamb, and beef is
essential to a healthy British meat industry. The Commission wants to see world
trade increase, and British farms expand. "Production in 2010 is likely to
come from far fewer farms than 10 years earlier, with a larger average size.
This will be associated with increasing efficiency through economies of scale
and increased technical efficiency." (5)
Yet
this is a truly absurd position, which mostly rewards a few already very
wealthy farmers, the supermarkets and multinational food companies, at the
expense of small and medium scale farmers in developed countries, and – via the
dumping of CAP surpluses – those in developing countries as well.
Increasingly
it makes no economic sense either. The key question that has to be asked about
the Foot and Mouth crisis is why is it that a disease that does no permanent
harm to humans and from which most animals recover in a matter of weeks, has
virtually shut down the countryside, downgraded vaccination in favour of
massive slaughter of healthy animals, and crippled our tourist industry? The
answer is that all this has occured to ensure that we can continue to export
meat in a world where politicians treat international trade and globalisation
like a god.
Yet this Report, Stopping the Great Food Swap – Relocalising Europe's
Food Supply, shows that, according to the National Farmers Union, all the UK
earns from meat and dairy exports is £630 million per year. One estimate of the
cost of the Foot and Mouth epidemic in terms of losses predominantly to
tourism, but also to farming, was put at £9 billion. Even this huge sum was
based on the optimistic assumption that the problem would have peaked by the
end of the month. In effect that means that it will take more than 14 years of
exports to compensate for the mayhem and damage done in a few weeks of the
present 'cull to eradicate' approach to Foot and Mouth.
This
crisis must result in a radical rethink of the need for ever more international
food trade, which exacerbates climate change, forces down food and animal
welfare standards, and contributes to such disasters as Foot and Mouth and BSE.
The
Report, based on background research by Andy Jones and Vicki Hird of Sustain:
The alliance for better food and farming and by Colin Hines, author of
Localisation: A Global Manifesto, not only details the rise in exports in and
out of European countries, but also points out how – absurdly – this often
involves simultaneous exchange of the same products. It asserts that European
countries could reduce imports and compensate for this by more local
production. That would result in safer food, better animal welfare and a
dramatic reduction in carbon emission, thus helping to tackle climate change.
Its findings include:
· In 1998, Britain imported 61,400
tonnes of poultry meat from the Netherlands in the same year that it exported
33,100 tonnes of poultry meat to the Netherlands. Britain imported 240,000
tonnes of pork and 125,000 tonnes of lamb while it exported 195,000 tonnes of
pork and 102,000 tonnes of lamb.(6)
· In the UK in 1997, 126 million
litres of liquid milk was imported into the UK and at the same time 270 million
litres of milk was exported out of the UK. 23,000 tonnes of milk powder was
imported into the UK and 153,000 tonnes exported out.(7)
· In 1996 the UK imported 434,000
tonnes of apples, 202, 000 of which came from outside the EU. Over 60% of UK
apple orchards have been lost since 1970.(8) Even if all the UK's home-grown
fruit was consumed domestically, the UK could at present be only 5%
self-sufficient in fruit.(9)
· Trade-related transportation is
one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions and is therefore
significant in terms of climate change.(10) Although most food is distributed
by road and ship, the airfreight of foodstuffs is increasing. For example, UK
imports of fish products and fruit and vegetables by plane between 1980 and
1990 increased by 240% and 90%, respectively.(11) UK air freight (imports and
exports) grew by about 7 per cent a year in the 1990's and is expected to
increase at a rate of 7.5 per cent a year to 2010.(12)
As
more consumers, farmers and workers are feeling the downside of destructive
globalisation, now is the time to consider how we replace this with a
localisation that protects and rebuilds local economies around the world. As a
member of the Parliament's Trade Committee, I am committed to working to
achieve this. It is the race for ever greater international trade and
competitiveness that should go up in smoke, not animals and the future of our
farmers and countryside.
Dr Caroline Lucas MEP
Contents
PART 1: The Food Miles Facts 1
Food
travelling further than ever before 1
Europe
– Ever more food production, but ever more imports
and
exports 2
Misery
miles 4
Milk
miles 6
Far-flown
fruit 8
Food
self-sufficiency 10
Part 2: The consequences of the great food swap 12
Environmental
impact 12
Animal
health and human health 14
Animal
welfare 19
Rural
and farming Communities 20
Part 3: Vision for a new food and farming future 22
Part 4: Changing the menu for a more localised food system 25
References 30
Appendix: Food balance sheet for EU member states, 1998 33
Part 1: The Food Miles Facts
Food travelling further than ever before
In
industrialised countries such as Britain, the public has come to expect the
availability of an extensive range of foodstuffs all year round. Food
production, distribution and retailing systems have undergone great change over
the past 50 years to make this availability and choice possible; and as a
result there are fundamental differences between today’s food system and the
food system of 50 years ago. Four developments have led to this situation: the
intensification of agriculture; a commitment to free trade; the provision of
transport infrastructure and low transport costs; and the emergence of the
multiple retailers which increasingly co-ordinate the production, processing,
distribution and marketing of food products. As a result of these developments,
the food system is now based on complicated supply chains and large volumes of
international trade.
Figure 1
World food production and trade, 1968-1998 (13)
(Note:
figures for international trade are based on data for exports).
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|
Production |
International Trade |
||||
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|
Million Metric Tons |
Increase (%) |
Million Metric Tons |
Increase (%) |
||
|
|
1968 |
1998 |
|
1968 |
1998 |
|
|
Cereals |
1064.6 |
1883.7 |
76.9% |
106.3 |
271.7 |
155.6% |
|
Starchy Roots |
537 |
647.3 |
20.5% |
8.7 |
30.5 |
250.6% |
|
Sugar crops |
744.7 |
1510.8 |
102.9% |
0.2 |
0.1 |
-50.0% |
|
Sweetners |
80.1 |
164 |
104.7% |
20.5 |
45.9 |
123.9% |
|
Pulses |
42 |
56 |
33.3% |
1.8 |
7.7 |
327.8% |
|
Treenuts |
3.3 |
6.7 |
103.0% |
1.1 |
2.6 |
136.4% |
|
Oil Crops |
149.2 |
453.4 |
203.9% |
20.1 |
59.9 |
198.0% |
|
Vegetable Oils |
25 |
86.2 |
244.8% |
5.1 |
36.8 |
621.6% |
|
Vegetables |
251.1 |
625.1 |
148.9% |
8.7 |
38.1 |
337.9% |
|
Fruit |
223.8 |
430.9 |
92.5% |
21.8 |
81.3 |
272.9% |
|
Stimulants |
6.5 |
13 |
100.0% |
5.6 |
12 |
114.3% |
|
Spices |
1.9 |
4.6 |
142.1% |
0.3 |
1 |
233.3% |
|
Meat |
94.8 |
222.4 |
134.6% |
5.6 |
23 |
310.7% |
|
Offal |
7.7 |
14.9 |
93.5% |
0.3 |
1.9 |
533.3% |
|
Animal Fats |
21.9 |
30.8 |
40.6% |
4.5 |
7.2 |
60.0% |
|
Milk |
389.5 |
557 |
43.0% |
25.4 |
69.2 |
172.4% |
|
Eggs |
18.6 |
51.9 |
179.0% |
0.5 |
1.2 |
140.0% |
|
Seafood |
59.9 |
120.6 |
101.3% |
23.3 |
42.6 |
82.8% |
|
Totals |
3721.6 |
6879.3 |
84.8% |
259.8 |
732.7 |
182.0% |
Figure
1 shows that there was an 84% increase in world food production between 1968
and 1998. However, over the same period there was a move to production for
export, which has resulted in even larger increases in international flows of
food products. In 1968, 6.9% of all food produced was exported, which increased
to 10.6% by 1998. International trade in food almost trebled over this 30-year
period, with trade flows doubling for almost every food category. In the case
of cereals, root crops, vegetable oils, vegetables, fruit, meat and milk, trade
increases were at least double those in world production levels.
Europe – Ever more food production, but ever
more imports and exports
Agriculture
in the European Community has undergone a tremendous change in the last 30
years. The reduction in the number of agricultural holdings and their expansion
in physical size, the increasing specialisation of agricultural production, the
changes in the structure of herds and the concentration of livestock farming
have resulted in a reduction in the number of farms and farm workers. The move
to large-scale and more specialised production has also had an impact on levels
of international trade in agricultural products. As a result there have been
increases in the trade flows of foodstuffs between EU member states and with
third countries. Imports of food products by the EU15 have increased by between
4% and 289% over the last 30 years as shown in figure 2. Over the same period
exports by EU member states increased more dramatically, by between 164% and
1340%.
Figure 2 Intra- and
extra-EU15 trade, 1968-1998 (14)
|
|
Imports |
Exports |
||||
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|
Million Metric Tons |
Increase (%) |
Million Metric Tons |
Increase (%) |
||
|
|
1968 |
1998 |
|
1968 |
1998 |
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|
Cereals |
38.2 |
46.7 |
22% |
17.7 |
66.5 |
276% |
|
Starchy Roots |
6 |
19.2 |
220% |
2.4 |
11.5 |
379% |
|
Sugar (raw) |
4.5 |
4.7 |
4% |
2 |
9.5 |
375% |
|
Oil Crops |
10.3 |
26.6 |
158% |
0.5 |
7.2 |
1340% |
|
Vegetable Oils |
2.7 |
10.5 |
289% |
1.1 |
9.1 |
727% |
|
Vegetables |
4.3 |
16.3 |
279% |
4.1 |
16.9 |
312% |
|
Fruit |
12.6 |
34.8 |
176% |
5.5 |
23.6 |
329% |
|
Meat |
3.2 |
8 |
150% |
2 |
9.9 |
395% |
|
Animal Fats |
2.3 |
2.9 |
26% |
1.1 |
2.9 |
164% |
|
Milk |
12 |
32.8 |
173% |
14.7 |
42.6 |
190% |
|
Eggs |
0.2 |
0.6 |
200% |
0.2 |
0.7 |
250% |
In
terms of the UK and Spain, Figures 3 and 4 demonstrate the expansion in trade
for most food groups between 1968 and 1998. Although UK imports of cereals and
animal fats halved between 1968 and 1998, due to increased domestic production
of the former and probably due to healthier dietary changes for the latter,
imports of other products increased and there was a large expansion in food
exports (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Imports and
exports of food products by the UK, 1968-1998 (1000 tons) (15)
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|
Imports |
Exports |
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|
1968 |
1978 |
1988 |
1998 |
1968-98 |
1968 |
1978 |
1988 |
1998 |
1968-98 |
|
Cereals |
8497 |
7270 |
3980 |
4055 |
-52% |
917 |
2853 |
5503 |
6920 |
655% |
|
Starchy Roots |
1022 |
1406 |
1381 |
1566 |
53% |
78 |
172 |
145 |
251 |
222% |
|
Oil Crops |
917 |
1717 |
1149 |
1832 |
100% |
12 |
23 |
182 |
357 |
2875% |
|
Vegetable Oils |
565 |
616 |
903 |
1115 |
97% |
53 |
136 |
202 |
382 |
621% |
|
Vegetables |
1137 |
978 |
2041 |
2915 |
156% |
35 |
128 |
154 |
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