19 November 2008 - Commenting on today’s European Parliament plenary vote on the so-called "health check" of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, South East Green MEP Caroline Lucas said:

"I am very disappointed that this health check fails to address the root causes of an ailing and failing agricultural policy. The European Parliament has in effect voted for a placebo, when what is really needed is a heavy dose of reform.

"At a time of food and energy crisis, EU policy continues to be biased heavily in favour of energy-hungry industrialised production. This comes at the expense of any substantial support for local, sustainable or organic agriculture. For example, current plans to abolish milk quotas will only play into the hands of big, centralised producers and drive small-scale farmers out of business."

In a keynote speech via videolink to the UK Soil Association’s annual conference yesterday, Dr Lucas MEP highlighted the dangers of depending on unstable oil supplies to sustain a system of intensive food production – especially when prices can fluctuate wildly between $55 and $150 a barrel.

On today’s vote, she said that the EU had missed an opportunity to address the systemic challenges facing the global food system:

"This health check also fails to even touch upon the issue of challenging compulsory targets for agro-fuels, despite the increasing weight of evidence to suggest that the cultivation of mass biofuels has a hugely detrimental effect on the planet and its people. World grain stocks are at their lowest levels in four decades – a further shift towards growing food crops for fuel would put global food security at serious risk."

German Green MEP Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf added:

"The European Parliament today passed up the chance to call for a future-oriented agriculture policy. Instead it has supported a weaker position than the Commission’s initial proposal. Plans to properly address climate change, biodiversity loss, soil fertility and water management have been blocked and disappointingly few funds have been re-allocated to rural development.

"This is a victory for the agro-industry lobby, which has succeeded in maintaining the status quo of subsidies with minimal strings attached. Those that claim to represent farmers are in reality demanding public money to further industrialise food production, when what we need is a real shift towards sustainable rural development with social and environmental factors fully taken into consideration.

"We must not allow ourselves to be led by the nose. There have been some projects, particularly in the LEADER programme, that prove funds can be successfully used to promote environmentally and economically sustainable development. The little money left for this must be used to set a good example, with a view to a change of policy direction in 2013."

ENDS

Notes to Editor

To view the position of the Greens-EFA Group in Europe on the CAP, please visit, http://www.greensefa.org/cms/topics/dokbin/223/223534.health_check_of_the_cap_reform@en.pdf