UK Food Group
The UK Food Group (UKFG) is the principal UK network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on global food and farming issues. We are also the UK focal point for European and international networks, including the CONCORD European Food Security Group, European Platform for Food Sovereignty, Campaign for More and Better aid to agriculture and FAO World Food Day events. The UK Food Group represents BOND on global food and farming issues through a Memorandum of Understanding between BOND and the UK Food Group (25KB). Our work seeks to:
- promote sustainable and equitable food and agriculture policies;
- balance corporate power by providing a public interest perspective to issues affecting the security of local and global food supplies; and
- strengthen the capacity of civil society in both the UK and the global South to contribute effectively to European and international processes that determine food and agriculture policies.
We operate through formal and ad hoc working groups: see our Constitution for more information.
Our diverse membership brings a dynamic, holistic perspective to food and agricultural issues, such as:
- an understanding of food policy and practice related to a more just and equitable sharing of global resources;
- fairer terms of trade;
- concern for sustainable production of food, avoiding chemical fertilisers and pesticides, loss of habitat and biodiversity and environmental or genetic pollution;
- the importance of safe, healthy and affordable food; and
- a food and agribusiness industry which is effectively regulated and publicly accountable.
Contact details |
Group News
August 2008
Food and Climate Crises. The role of CONCORD 's European Food Security Group (EFSG) is important in preparing clear messages for the electorate in the run-up to the Euro-elections in 2009. Among other priorities, the EFSG is focusing on the forms of agricultural production being promoted in European aid projects, especially in Africa , and for the security of European food supplies. Of concern, is to ensure that these will not only resolve the food crisis in the short-term but also will be resilient in the long-term, in the face of climate change.
The UK Food Group represents BOND in the EFSG.
Email for more information about the UK Food Group.
For more information on the EFSG, please contact Patrick Mulvany, UK Food Group.
May 2008. By Patrick Mulvany, UK Food Group
At a time when the grumbling food crisis is reaching the heights of the UN, EU and World Bank, the outcomes of the recent CONCORD forum in Brussels on Food, Agriculture, Trade and the Environment and associated meetings of the European Food Security Group (EFSG) are especially relevant. In April, the EFSG committed to restate its common principles and to include the key elements of these in CONCORD's briefing for the 2009 European Elections. These issues will cover humanitarian food assistance and the wider food provision agenda of which agriculture and trade are key components.
In terms of food assistance, EC policy needs strengthening in terms of sensitive local procurement that supports local production as well as better implemented food safety nets and similar policies for both urban and rural affected peoples.
Agriculture is clearly back on the development agenda. But the main concern is: what kind of agriculture is the EC supporting? Europe is one of the biggest players and has a huge responsibility. As Henri Rouillé d'Orfeuil - President of the French National Platform – said in his opening remarks at the Forum: "If, unfortunately, hundreds of million of farms – around 1.3 billion – were to be exposed, without protection to the few million farms armed for the trade war, the exclusion process will accelerate. Such dramatic losses could then affect some 800 million Chinese farmers, 700 million Indians and many more…in total, almost 2.7 billion farmers – men, women and children."
It is recognised that agriculture requires strong 'political' regulation by the State. In the CAP health check in 2009, the EU wants to maintain some tools for market regulation and supply management, as Marek Poznanski – CSA Belgium - pointed out. Shouldn't such policies be available to all countries, though? Local knowledge and decision making, knowledge of local conditions and monitoring of impacts, as well as local accountability and consultation, are key to successful coherence between trade and development policies, added Tina Wallace – formerly Christian Aid. Current trade reforms are top down and instead promote accountability to donors and trading partners. There must be reforms in OECD markets, increased flexibility, and special treatment for developing countries in trade deals.
Critically, it is the pressure from African farmers' organisations that can impact the most powerfully on European policy. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) did not sign an EPA agreement last December in Lisbon because of the work of the farmers' organisations in the West Africa supported by European civil society organisations (CSOs). CONCORD has a specific responsibility to make better use of its official relationship with the EC. Through the EFSG it should strengthen discussions among its members so that we can participate more effectively in the official EC agenda, opening up opportunities for African social movements' inputs.
It was agreed that the CONCORD Forum on Food, Agriculture, Trade and Environment will meet twice yearly and will focus on three main areas: 1) European support to agriculture in developing countries e.g. Advancing African Agriculture; 2) European policies having an influence on security of food supplies: e.g. CAP, Agrofuel policy; and 3) EU engagement with international institutions dealing with food issues e.g. FAO, WFP. The EFSG is mandated to take these issues forward.
The UK Food Group represents BOND in the EFSG.
Email for more information about the UK Food Group
For more information on the EFSG, please contact Patrick Mulvany, UK Food Group.
Future Meetings
Minutes of Meetings
European Food Security Group Meeting 21 September 2007 (135KB)
Papers and Reports
Agrofuels: Opportunity or Danger? A Global Dialogue on U.S. and EU agrofuels and Agriculture Policies and their Impact on Rural Development in the North and South, Conference Report (12 - 14 December 2007) (pdf 155KB). This was produced for the European project Spotlight on the Marginalised in association with the UK Food Group, Germanwatch , FIAN Germany, FIAN International, BothENDS and African partners (SEND Foundation in Ghana, Consent in Uganda and CSTNZ in Zambia).
World Food Day Event: details of the event held on 16 October 2007 and its outcomes, as well as publications and campaigns launched at this event and associated weblinks can be found at www.ukabc.org/wfd2007.htm
The UK 's World Food Day event on 16th October was organised by the UK Food Group, OND's working group on global food and farming issues. The very interactive event included a lively debate on "the future for marginalised farmers in Africa", organised by Concern Worldwide (UK), which was promoting its 'Unheard Voices" campaign to increase DFID's support for marginal farmers. It brought together speakers from DFID and Ghanaian partner and member organisations, with many interventions from the floor. Other seminars, organised by Send a Cow, Practical Action and Progressio, focussed on environment-sustaining livestock production, Farmers' Rights and the launch of a campaign, Say No to Terminator seeds: become a seedsaver.
Discussions centred around realising the Right to Food through supporting small-scale crop and livestock farmers, who should be at the heart of decision making about food, farming and related environmental policies - issues that are embraced by the Food Sovereignty policy framework.
One speaker in the debate was Mohammed Issah from SEND Foundation, Ghana, who spoke about the detrimental effect of the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU on smallholders. He illustrated this by pointing out that, for example, it would not halt the flow of cheap imported chicken "spare parts" - subsidised chicken pieces - that undercut the local poultry trade. He said, "The EU EPA will worsen the livelihoods of Ghana 's smallholder farmers". He also reported that farmers' organisations were strongly opposed to signing the agreement. See Papers and Reports for more information.