Green party launches election manifesto

Launched in Brighton by party leader Caroline Lucas, the manifesto promises the Greens will localise the food chain, with help for small farms, starting farmers’ markets, farm box schemes and locally-owned co-operatives.

It will set new targets every five years and look for a minimum 10 per cent of UK production converting to organic every five years.

As far as the CAP is concerned, the Greens will replace it with support for smaller farms, organic agriculture, local food markets and measures to increase biodiversity in the countryside. European subsidies must support planet-friendly farming, it says.

It will support GM-free zones and continue to work for a complete ban on GM food in Europe.

The manifesto says the party will measure and reduce the impact of meat and dairy consumption in a bid to reduce greenhouse gases, while recognising that traditional rotational grazing has potential for storing carbon in the soil.

The Greens will try to reduce supermarkets’ dominance by such measures as ‘vigorously enforcing’ monopoly legislation against the existing largest chains, and introducing a supermarket ombudsman to ‘protect farmers from supermarket bullying’.

The party plans to phase out all ‘factory farming’ of animals and enforce strict animal welfare standards, including in organic agriculture. It will also end live animal exports and limit journey times for all animal transport, and implement a full ban on the production and sale of eggs from hens in battery cages, including ‘enriched’ cages.

It will also maintain the ban on hunting with dogs and extend this to other blood sports, and oppose badger culling.

On the environment, the Greens will promote landscape-scale conservation, using CAP reform and the planning system to encourage restoration of heathlands, woods, marshland and other important habitats.

It will dramatically reduce the use of pesticides and introduce measures such as buffer zones around sprayed fields. It will also press to extend the amount of land covered by the EU Habitats Directive in the UK and set up a national Environmental Protection Commission to promote and integrate R&D on public health and environmental protection.

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