Stephen's views on sustainable farming
Stephen supports Friends of the Earth campaign for 'planet friendly farming'
Over the last few years it has become increasingly clear that we have entered a danger zone regarding our planet's atmospheric carbon concentration and equivalent Green House Gases (GHG), causing rising global temperatures. Methane, which is produced in large quantities as a result of intensive meat and dairy farming, is a very potent greenhouse gas, the production of which accelerates and increases climate change. As such, I believe that the Government should do everything it can to ensure that we avoid reaching a point where irreversible climate change and damage to wildlife habitats occurs.
On 25th November 2009 I signed Early Day Motion 194 on this matter, which states:
"That this House notes that global livestock and animal feed production contributes 18 per cent. of global greenhouse gas emissions and is currently the most significant driver of biodiversity loss worldwide; further notes that the large-scale conversion of forests and other valuable habitats into croplands for the production of animal feeds such as soy for intensive livestock farming is a cause of particular concern; recognises the associated impacts on small farmers and communities in developing countries who are often forced off their land; urges the Government to undertake an assessment of the scale and impact of this trend and the UK's role in it, and to gauge whether the UK's livestock industry has become overly dependent on soy-based animal feed which has such an unwelcome and unsustainable impact upon the environment; and calls on the Government to bring forward the measures necessary to reduce the UK's impact on global greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss from the livestock sector whilst avoiding the export of these impacts overseas and supporting a viable, sustainable and thriving UK farming industry."
I have supported Friends of the Earth's 'Food Chain Campaign', which calls for urgent support for planet-friendly farming. The campaign is also calling on Government Ministers to reverse the long-term decline in small farms, which is resulting in a loss of 4,000 jobs from farming every year and to tackle the role of large corporations, particularly supermarkets, in driving intensive farming through low prices paid to farmers.
In addition I have, for several years, supported discussions in Parliament to highlight the continued loss of tropical forest. I have worked with Greenpeace and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes region of Central Africa to call for action to stop logging and forest clearance and to support the rights of indigenous forest peoples.
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