UK FOOD GROUP
UKFG PRIORITIES
RESOURCES
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Sustainable Agriculture
 The
UK Food Group is working to raise awareness of the importance of food
sovereignty. One dimension of this is the need for localised food systems
that use sustainable agroecology practices based on locally-developed
agricultural biodiversity.
An activity is the UK Agricultural Biodiversity
Coalition (UKabc) which aims to increase the understanding
of policy makers, NGOs and the public, of the importance of the conservation
and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity for food and livelihood
security. This also includes issues concerning Benefit Sharing, Farmers'
Rights, Patents, Intellectual Property Rights, Seed Saving, Biopiracy,
Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering and GM Food Aid. A special focus is
on the ratification of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture and the implementation of the recommendations
of the UK Commission on Intellectual Property Rights.
The UKabc website contains
much more information relating to sustainable agriculture, argoecology
and agricultural biodiversity.
| Food sovereignty principles |
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| Author: Patrick Mulvany |
Date: 03/01/08 |
| The six principles of food sovereignty derived from Nyéléni 2007: forum for food sovereignty, and an article written for the Food Ethics Council Bulletin about this forum are in this document. |
| New Year 2008 message from UKFG Chair |
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| Author: Patrick Mulvany |
Date: 03/01/08 |
| Message highlighting events and challenges in 2008 |
| Report UK World Food Day 2007 |
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| Author: UK Food Group |
Date: 06/11/07 |
“Defending Farmers and the Right to Food”
UK World Food Day 2007
FULL REPORT - 16pp PDF (550 kb)
The UK Food Group marked World Food Day on 16th October with a series of member-led seminars, briefings, publication launches and debates. The seminars and debates described how food providers should be integrated into decision making processes and could be better supported in order to realise the Right to Food and food sovereignty. |
| World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development |
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| Author: UKFG |
Date: 29/10/07 |
| The World bank has published its World Development Report 2008 "Agriculture an Development". The attached PDF file contains and links to comments by NGOs (Oxfam, Action Aid, IATP) as well as links to the contents of the full report. |
| Comments on DFID draft White Paper “Eliminating World Poverty” |
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| Author: UK Food Group |
Date: 03/04/06 |
We welcome the opportunity to participate in the process to deliver a new White Paper this year to the extent that it will build upon and strengthen the initiatives and policies proposed in the previous two White Papers. Our support is also qualified by the extent to which the new White Paper will signal a decisive shift in the manner of
development assistance towards an inclusive, deliberative process of inclusion of poor women and men and their representative organisations in decision making about, and actions resulting from, aid policies and programmes. |
| Achieving fairness in trading between supermarkets and their agrifood supply chains |
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| Author: UK Food Group Briefing Paper |
Date: 30/10/05 |
Authored by Anne Tallontire and Bill Vorley.
What are the prospects for fair trade to become the norm rather than exception for trading between supermarkets, their suppliers, and farmers at home and around the world?
That is the question asked in this paper, which comes at a time of widespread scrutiny of UK supermarkets and their influence on the livelihoods of food producers and suppliers. The paper reviews the opportunities and risks in incorporating fairness into supermarkets' trading practices. It concludes with a series of public policies, especially competition policy, that would be required to underpin fairness and equity in companies’ mainstream trading practices. |
| UKFG response to DFID consultation on “Productivity growth for poverty reduction: an approach to agriculture” |
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| Author: UK Food Group |
Date: 12/10/05 |
The UKFG engaged with DFID in its consultation process on developing its new long-term agriculture and poverty reduction guidelines for its programmes and country offices, in particular facilitating responses from CSOs to its 14 working papers. The UK Food Group submitted it's response in September 2005.
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| FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: towards democracy in localized food systems |
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| Author: ITDG Publishing / FIAN |
Date: 22/05/05 |
This paper was launched by the author, Michael Windfuhr, at a UK Food Group Seminar in June 2005.
"FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: towards democracy in localized food systems" by Michael Windfuhr and Jennie Jonsén, FIAN. ITDG Publishing - working paper. 64pp. 2005. Also available in Spanish.
The paper provides a comprehensive history, overview and analysis of the Food Sovereignty Policy Framework. Links to many key statements and documents produced over the past decade.
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| Dialogue on Agricultural Trade Reform, Subsidies and the Future of Small and Family Farms |
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| Author: Tom Lines |
Date: 01/04/04 |
This paper is intended to serve as the main input to a conference on Agricultural Trade Reform, Subsidies and the Future of Small and Family Farms and Farmers, to be held in June 2004. It reports on a survey conducted for the U.K. Food Group (UKFG) / Sustain Working Group on Trade and Agriculture. An invitation to participate in the survey and associated dialogue was extended to numerous non-governmental organisations in October 2003.
Also see the list of submissions to the paper with links to the submission papers. |
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| Author: UK Food Group |
Date: 31/03/99 |
Hungry for Power details the impact of food and agriculture transnationals on food security. Between then, the food and agribusiness corporations have huge control over every part of the food chain, from land to seeds, crops to chemicals, processing to marketing.
Hungry for power spotlights the activities of Nestle, Cargill, Monsanto, Chiquita, Zeneca and British American Tobacco - all are charged with undermining global food security. |
| Press release: Fuelling Growth rather than Feeding People |
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| Contact: UK Food Group |
Date: 07/12/05 |
WEDNESDAY 7 DECEMBER
Fuelling Growth Rather than Feeding People
The UK Food Group is pleased that DFID has re-focused its development policy on the importance of Agriculture for tackling hunger and poverty but is disappointed that the new policy is dominated by commitments to fuel the economic growth of nations, through the use of modern science and technology including patented GM crops, rather than defending the well-being of the poor based on environmentally sustainable farming.
The UK Food Group welcomes the commitment to review the impact of the new policy within 3 years. This review will include how effectively DFID has supported to governments to ensure the participation of representatives of the rural poor in shaping agricultural policies and that agricultural development strategies provide incentives for the sustainable use of natural resources and environmental services.
However, there is no indication of what new resources DFID will commit to this work, how implementation will change and what indicators will be used to monitor effectiveness.
“We are pleased that DFID has recognised the importance of smallholder food production to reducing hunger and poverty but we are disappointed that this opportunity to reframe approaches to agriculture lead by poor people and their organisations has been lost” said Patrick Mulvany, Chair of the UK Food Group. “This is mainly because the consultation has been a lengthy top-down process dominated by economists: the rural poor and especially women have been marginalised yet again”.
“To redress this, DFID must change the way its aid is delivered so that representatives of the rural poor can organise themselves to influence policies that will defend and protect sustainable local production. Only then will DFID achieve the wider goals of reducing hunger and poverty, which must be at the heart of Britain's aid programme.”
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Notes for Editors:
· UK Food Group Mobile: 07949 575 711. The UK Food Group is a network of 37 UK based, national and international development, farming, consumer and environment organisations, drawn together by a common concern for global food security. The diverse membership includes all five of the major development agencies in the British Overseas Aid Group and other key organisations in the UK that have active programmes and advocacy campaigns on food security issues.
· The UK government’s new Agricultural Development policy will be presented 14:00 – 15:00, on 7th December by Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development. It will be held in the Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, Westminster. DFID Press office number 020 7023 0600
· Copies of the UK Food Group submission on the draft document in September can be downloaded from www.ukabc.org/ukfg_comments_dfid_ag_guidelines30sept2005.pdf |
| AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY COALITION (UK) |
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| UKabc is an activity of the UK Food Group: Bringing together Public Interest UK organisations concerned with Sustainable Use, Conservation, Benefit Sharing, Trade, Patents, Intellectual Property, Biopiracy, Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering, Biosafety and other issues related to the Equitable Use of Agricultural Biodiversity for Local Food and Livelihood Security. |
| UK Working Group on Terminator Technology |
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UPDATE: Sept 2007
Progressio, on behalf of the UK working group on Terminator technology, would like to thank everybody who has supported this global campaign by writing to their MPs and the UK government. Thanks to your efforts 259 MPs from all UK parties have signed Early Day Motion 1300 "Terminator technology".
However, this issue has not gone away. Biotechnology companies are actively developing Terminator, and once the technology is ready they will apply to field-test it using loopholes in current UK and EU legislation on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Under current UK and EU legislation, an application to field-test Terminator, would be treated like any other GMO, namely, on a case-by-case basis, using narrow scientific data and not requiring socio-economic assessments.
It is vital that UK and EU legislation on GMOs is amended so that it acknowledges the very specific nature of Terminator technology, and makes socio-economic assessments compulsory for Terminator applications. This would send the right message to developing countries for whom seed-saving is so fundamental.
Take Action on Terminator technology.
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