There is a crisis in world agriculture.

* Despite much-criticised subsidies to farmers in the UK and other industrialised countries, many small and family farmers are faced with bankruptcy as farm gate prices fall

* Dumping of subsidised produce in developing countries puts local producers out of business

* Tariff barriers in rich countries encourage the import of unprocessed agricultural commodities instead of local processing

* The food chain from field to plate is becoming increasingly controlled by transnational corporations, which wield greater and greater power

* Biodiversity is being lost and agricultural environments are degrading in parts of the world

* Fair Trade produce, though growing, remains very small and transnational food processors refuse to support it

And people are going hungry!!

How can these problems be solved? Will it require global action or can states act alone? Should the Simultaneous Policy address these issues, and, if so, what are the solutions and what are the implications?

Find out more at the next CAMSPAG policy forum, with guest speaker Hetty Selwyn from Farmers' Link, an East Anglian group linking farmers in the region and UK with farmers around the world. All welcome.

Best wishes,

Mike Brady
--
Cambridge SP Adopters Group Coordinator
 http://spdev.gn.apc.org/
Meeting the first Wednesday of every month at Emmanuel Church, Trumpington
Street, Cambridge.

Tel: 07986 736179