Food & Water Europe Welcomes Withdrawal of Plans for a Mega Dairy in the UK
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U.S.-style factory farms are moving into the EU, forcing food quality down to push corporate profits up and driving smaller operations, often run by families, out of business. Food & Water Europe thinks agriculture policies should support farmers, not factory farms, to help build strong rural economies which deliver the kind of healthy, ethical food and farming Europe wants.
Europe is addicted to industrial soy imports to fuel these factory farms. This is a new problem. Until 1995, Europe was growing its own soy, and production was on the rise: EU soybean output nearly tripled from 1980 to 1990, and imports were steady.
This didn’t suit everyone. U.S. agribusiness claimed a 53 per cent reduction in their exports and wanted something done. So trade agreements restricting what European farmers can grow were part of setting up the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since then, EU soy production has plummeted and imports are up 57.1 per cent. Now EU soy imports are big business, dependent on factory farms to survive.
The Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) is a group of multinational traders (such as Cargill), agribusinesses (such as Monsanto), processors (such as Nestlé) and food retailers trying to greenwash industrial soy, including GM soy. Read more in “New ‘responsible’ soya label meets global rejection” and our press briefing, “Over 25.000 people tell Ahold: stop misleading consumers, genetically modified toxic soy is not responsible!”
GM soy-fuelled factory farms are not inevitable, they are a choice. Food & Water Europe chooses small and family farms because they produce the humane, quality food which people want and the environment needs — while nurturing rural communities.