Small-farmers’ union the Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) has promised to highlight the inequality and unsustainability inherent in the dominant food system later this month, at a protest to be held outside British Sugar’s factory in Bury St Edmonds.

The protest has been called by the union to mark the international day of peasant struggle on 29th April. Part of the International Day is being coordinated by La Via Campesina, the global small farmers’ organisation, to which LWA belongs.

Last year, LWA demonstrated outside the offices of Defra and the NFU in Smith Square, London, where union members claimed that agribusiness interests have consistently been represented in government policy and farm union lobbying in the UK, at the expense of smaller food producers and the general public.

LWA said it would be targeting British Sugar later this month to highlight once again government support for big agri-businesses, and to point out that the current subsidy system underpins “exactly the wrong sort of agriculture.”

A statement from LWA reads, “The priorities in UK government are glaringly obvious; happy to cap welfare benefit but fighting to ensure massive payouts to their corporate friends. We need a National Food Policy that changes this unequal playing field and creates a consistent approach to health, agriculture and environmental protection.”

The union claims that government health messages - recommending we eat five portions of fruit and veg each day - stand at odds with a subsidy regime and government agriculture policy which support large-scale mono-crop producers and large landowners over smaller, diverse farmers growing fresh produce.

In its statement, LWA added that it does not oppose farmers growing sugar beet, but rather the way  the industry is governed, stating “We want UK sugar production, but not from British Sugar’s industrial monopoly.”

As part of its vision for fairer subsidy distribution and improved support for small-scale and ecologically minded food producers, LWA is calling for an upper limit of £150,000 to be placed on CAP payments, and for the money saved to be channelled into supporting small scale and sustainable farms, as well as young entrants into farming. The union has called on the government to produce a holistic food policy, that would consider food production, public health, soil health and the environment as interconnected and equally important.

LWA is also working with Coventry University to build up the first accurate picture of the country's small-scale and family farmers. More information is available here.