Sustain • Sustainable Farming Campaign
Short term priorities (Within 2 years)
- Strengthen planning policies that protect the natural environment and contribute to sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation, including a continuing presumption against inappropriate development of agricultural land, taking account of economic, environmental and other benefits.
- Ensure strong domestic support (finance, research and advice) is available for farmers in adapting to climate change through investing in more diverse, lower input systems which reduce soil run off and enhance ecosystems stability.
- Commit to new policies which will deliver public benefit, inlcuding nature and health objectives and promote resilience in the food and farming system.
- Ban the routine preventative use of antibiotics - when no disease is present - in agriculture
- Set (and meet) mandatory targets for a reduction in antibiotic use in both medicine and agriculture
- Designate and rigorously protect the 127 UK Marine Conservation Zones proposed by the Marine Conservation Society’s Marine Charter to allow fish stocks and marine ecosystems to flourish and replenish.
- Increase resources for the Gangmasters Licensing authority to stop abuse of farm and food workers and bring back the Agricultural Wages Board.
- Require all food companies providing goods and services in public sector contracts, pay the living wage or the London living wage, and create targets for large food and farming businesses to pay a living wage to all employees.
- Review and strengthen Government Buying Standards for food, to ensure public money is invested in wider social, economic and environmental benefits, and to ensure vulnerable groups such as young children, hospital patients and older people in care receive good food.
- Ensure all academies and free schools have to meet the new school food standards
- Hand responsibility for the monitoring of all public-sector food (including central government catering, and hospitals) to an independent body, such as the Care Quality Commission (currently responsibility lies with the institutions themselves)
- Publish and promote new official guidelines on healthy eating and environmental behaviour to include the benefits of eating less and better meat, including an update of the eatwell plate.
- Introduce a 9pm watershed for junk food ads on television
- Introduce a 20p per litre sugary drinks duty, to reduce sugar consumption, have a positive health impact and save the NHS money. The revenue raised could go into a Children’s Health Fund to pay for programmes to improve children’s health and the environment they grow up in.
- Commit to maintaining the Healthy Start programme and increase promotion of fruit and vegetables and retailers accepting vouchers through the scheme.
Sustainable Farming Campaign: Sustain encourages integration of sustainable food and farming into local, regional and national government policies.
