Marching for good food and good farming

21 September 2012

On Wednesday War on Want joined several hundred small-scale farmers, food lovers and campaigners, who marched to the EU institutions in Brussels, calling for good food and good farming to be championed by the new Common Agriculture policy (CAP), currently being debated in the European Parliament. 

The marchers participating in the Good Food March, some of whom had cycled or walked for weeks to come to Brussels, denounced the current proposals for a European agriculture policy, which do not take a decisive shift towards establishing a sustainable and fair system to prevent the continuing decline of small-scale farming, and negative social and environmental impacts in Europe and the global South. They called for a CAP that supports, among other points, family farms, promotes agroecology and sustainable agriculture, and links subsidies directly to social, environment and animal welfare criteria. This also includes a policy which delivers secure and stable cost covering prices for farmers, whilst avoiding the current detrimental effects of subsidised EU exports on agricultural production and small-scale farmers in developing countries. In other words, they called for a CAP which embraces the principles of Food Sovereignty. 

The march organised an open debate within the European Parliament where participants had the opportunity to question members of the European Parliament (MEPs), including the President of the EU Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Paolo De Castro; the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Ciolos; and several agriculture experts advising the Committee.

‘We want to protect good food for citizens!’ shouted a Romanian small-scale farmer who is struggling like millions in his country to survive in front of powerful large-scale agribusinesses. Symbolically he put on a black jacket to signify the death of small-scale farmers in his country. His outcry was echoed by an emotive speech from Erwin Schopes, small-scale farmer and chairman of the Belgium Milk Producers Association, who explained the devastating impact on farmers of low milk prices controlled by large industry.   

The debate ended in an open question: ‘Can the CAP take the next steps towards a common food and environment policy?’. That is to say: transform the current failed industrialised food model into a democratic, fair and sustainable food system, as demanded by civil society. 

 

Tags: food justice | food sovereignty | good food march