Letting in cheap US food will ‘decimate’ our farming industry
BRITAIN faces the ‘decimation’ of its agriculture industry if farmers are forced to compete with inferior foreign imports, campaigners warned last night.
Save British Farming has unveiled new banners and posters urging the Government to ‘save British food’ by upholding our world-leading agricultural standards.
The group hopes to see homes across the country put the banners and posters in gardens and windows to help keep controversial US food products off British supermarket shelves in any trade deal.
Giving its backing to The Mail on Sunday’s Save Our Family Farms campaign, the group warns that the ‘opening of floodgates to lower regulated food will lead to the decimation of British farming’.
There are fears that a trade deal with the US could lead to UK supermarkets being flooded with cheap produce, such as hormone-fed beef or chlorinated chicken.
Liz Webster, founder of Save British Farming, said: ‘There is hope if enough people fight for this. The overwhelming majority of the British public don’t want to lower food standards. We all are what we eat and I don’t want young children eating hormone-injected beef or chlorinated chicken.’
‘It’s about the food on people’s plates – it’s not just about farms. We want to see these banners everywhere so that our MPs can see how passionately the British feel about their food.’
Last month, Save British Farming campaigners drove a convoy of tractors to Parliament Square in London to protest against the Agriculture Bill. Ministers have repeatedly pledged not to undermine animal welfare and environmental and food standards with low-quality imports in any deal with the US. However, a bid to enshrine the promise in law was defeated in a Commons vote in May this year.
Ms Webster, who lives on a 1,500acre cattle farm in Swindon with her husband David, fears the failure to ensure our food standards are maintained will hit the poorest the hardest. ‘The worst thing is that the poorest and most vulnerable in this country will not be able to buy quality food,’ she said.
‘At the moment, everybody can buy the same quality of beef in the
UK, but i n America t he poor people can only afford the stuff that’s riddled with chemicals and produced cheaply.’
Many supermarkets, such as Aldi, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, have recently pledged never to sell any products that breach current UK food standards. But Ms Webster thinks this gives the public false reassurance. ‘My heart sinks when supermarkets say they won’t stock chlorinated chicken because that actually ensures apathy,’ she said.
‘ People think, “I don’t have to worry because my supermarket won’t have it.” This is going to affect all of us, wherever we shop.
‘Nobody wants to see a return to the days of having pigs in pens eating each other because there’s not enough space.
‘We have made huge strides in terms of animal welfare and it’s horrific for most people to think about eating food that goes back to those kinds of standards.’
Without an amendment to the Agricultural Bill, Ms Webster fears that the might of the American agricultural industry will crush British farming.
‘American farmers are in oversupply and they are desperate to get their food over here. The Conservatives promised in their manifesto to uphold our standards, which gave a lot of farmers assurance to vote for them.’
Ms Webster added: ‘In my lifetime, I can’t remember a topic where you have such a majority for something and the Government is going against it.’
Save British Farming is planning a l arger, countrywide t ractor demonstration in mid-September. It aims to involve farmers across the country, who will gather at their local cattle markets before driving their tractors in convoy to town centres. The protest will coincide with the return of the Agriculture Bill to the Commons.
To order a banner or poster, go to the savebritishfarming.org website. All costs go towards production and delivery.