According to the UK Green Party website the Green Party will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:
CY520 Farming does not automatically destroy wildlife interest, but the form and intensity of present agricultural methods have been the main reasons for loss of habitats. We recognise that without adequately rewarding small and part-time farmers who produce food in an environmentally sound way there can be no viable countryside.
CY521 Recognising that food production is only one of the demands made upon the land, we would reform the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and the Forestry Commission to include conservation in their remits as primary objectives.
CY522 The Common Agricultural Policy price support scheme encourages farmers to cultivate every square inch of marginal land, including hedgerows, to take advantage of guaranteed prices, and as such, has been the major reason behind the loss of wildlife habitats. This will end. Farmers will be given, like everyone else, an unconditionally guaranteed basic income and other forms of support to encourage ecologically sound land-use.
CY523 Payments will be given to farmers for agricultural or conservation improvements provided they meet the objectives of an appropriate, conservation agency approved ‘farm development and conservation plan’. The plan will integrate woodland, wildlife, habitats, landscape conservation, food growing, historical monuments, geological and archaeological sites, soil conservation, hydrological changes, buildings, landscapes and public access. Conservation objectives and the means of achieving them will be made clear to farmers.
CY524 We will positively encourage, by a careful balance of subsidies and taxes, environmentally beneficial organic food producing systems. An organic system, that employs more people, comprises of mixed rotational farming, ecologically sound stocking rates, and no use of harmful synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. Such systems will greatly ease the pressure on wildlife, reduce pollution and conserve the soil. (see FD210)
CY525 Water courses continue to suffer from increases in farm-based pollution; from fertilisers leached into water courses, sprays, silage and slurry run-off. Farmers are now the main source of water pollution in rural areas, but they are exempt from prosecution under parts of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 so long as they observe a voluntary code of ‘good agricultural practice’. Water authorities lack the political will and sufficient powers to prosecute. We believe that the polluter should be responsible for the damage caused and will introduce heavy fines (see ‘Pollution’ section). The introduction of organic farming techniques which return farm waste to the soil, the adoption of a statutory code of good agricultural practice and free advice on pollution prevention will reduce pollution from fertilisers and toxic pesticides. There will be a ban on intensive livestock units. Planning controls on silage clamps and other farm buildings will be introduced and capital grants will be made available to prevent pollution.
CY526 Efforts to cut farm surpluses by set-aside and extensification will halt because they aggravate present destructive trends in agriculture. We would adopt less intensive, lower input and more environmentally benign land-use policies which integrate forestry, conservation and organic food growing, employ more people and use of all the land.
I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Green Party’s Agriculture and the Countryside policies in the comments below?