The UK government's International Development Committee today released a report on Global Food Security, in which committee members make a series of radical recommendations they say will contribute to ending hunger and poverty.

The MPs warn, amongst other things, against the overconsumption of animal products, feeding edible grains to livestock and using potential food crops as biofuels. Although farming industry groups have reacted strongly to the report, the MPs' recommendations are nothing new; food policy campaigners have been making similar recommendations for over a decade.

Sir Malcolm Bruce, chair of the International Development Committee warned on Tuesday, "There is no room for complacency about food security over the coming decades if UK consumers are to enjoy stable supplies and reasonable food prices."

He pointed out that two notable 'shocks' or 'spikes' in global food prices have impacted upon consumers in the UK (who are more insulated against such fluctuations) in the past five years. Price peaks in June 2008 and February 2011 "hurt many parts of the UK food industry and strongly undermined the global fight against hunger," according to Bruce and his fellow parliamentarians.

Reduce waste

In addition to making recommendations that livestock are reared in extensive systems, on grass, and that consumers reduce their intake of animal products, the Commons committee called for a Government-backed campaign to reduce household waste; in contrast to developing countries, where the majority of waste occurs early in the food chain, in 'Western' cultures retail and household waste, which occurs further down the supply chain and is associated with consumerism, presents much more of a problem.

MPs in the development committee said a campaign to tackle this should include "national targets to curb food waste within the UK food production and retail sectors, with clear sanctions for companies that fail to meet these targets." They said current global trends towards more meant and dairy consumption are "unsustainable."

Biofuels are detrimental

Echoing European policy makers, who have called for curbs on rapid growth in the biofuels sector, made possible by EU funding, the MPs were highly critical of agricultural biofuels. Expressing concerns over the environmental and social impacts of these fuels, MPs warned "agriculturally produced biofuels are having a major detrimental impact on global food security by driving higher and more volatile food prices."

They added that EU targets requiring 10 per cent of transport energy to be drawn from renewable sources by 2020 are likely to cause dramatic food price increases and urged the UK and European governments to revise renewable fuel obligations to specifically exclude agriculturally-produced biofuels.  

    
Commenting on the biofuels issue on Tuesday, Sir Malcolm added, "Biofuel crops not only displace food crops but are in some cases providing energy sources that are potentially more damaging to the environment than fossil fuels. So while we recognise that refining the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation will make it harder for the UK to meet current EU obligations, the relevant target does not kick in until 2020 so there is nothing to stop the UK from revising the RTFO now to exclude agriculturally-produced biofuels."

Angry reaction from industry groups

Although recommendations resulting from the Global Food Security report tie in with similar advice issued by EU and UN policy makers in recent months, industry leaders in the UK reacted strongly to Gordon MP Bruce's counsel.

NFU chief livestock adviser Peter Garbutt contested the calls to cut meat consumption; he added that red meat forms "a traditional part of the British lifestyle and is enjoyed by most of the population."

Making the case for meat production, Mr Garbutt continued, "The UK livestock sector plays a crucial role in sustaining some of the nation's most beautiful and treasured landscapes as well as being the bedrock of rural communities. Almost 60 per cent of farming's uplands, which is dominated by livestock, is designated as National Park or areas of natural beauty. The reality is that if red meat consumption falls dramatically there would be a very real risk of the most valuable environmental assets being abandoned."

Though he too has come in for criticism from uplands farmers, in his latest book, environmentalist George Monbiot claims that reducing livestock production and 'rewilding' areas of the UK would provide many benefits for the environment and wider human society.

International issues and support for small farmers

On an international scale, the Committee expressed concern that large corporations are buying up massive areas of land, enclosing them and preventing access to local communities, which often includes driving smallholders off land they previously tended. Although the MPs said the issue was mainly a problem in developing countries, a recent report revealed similar patterns of enclosure also exist in Europe.

Having expressed concerns over the fate of smallholder farmers in the face of 'land-grabbing,' the development committee backed this model of farming as one that will play a key role in feeding a growing global population and in reducing rural poverty. MPs called for more funding to be directed into supporting the formation of inclusive farmer organisations, co-operatives and agricultural extension services, particularly those aimed at women.

Commenting on these issues Sir Malcolm added, "Farm extension work went badly out of fashion decades ago in the aid sector, but should now be expanded… Smallholders and large commercial producers all need an enabling environment with adequate training, investment in roads, storage and irrigation infrastructure. They also need new skills and methods with which to improve the resilience of their cultivation systems in the face of climate change, a challenge already making it much more difficult for farmers in many communities to decide when to sow, cultivate or harvest their crops."