The commoditisation of land, seed and water jeopardise the creation of socially and environmentally just food systems by taking the resources necessary for food production out of the hands of producers. Addressing and overcoming the obstacles that prevent food producers from having greater access to and control over land, seed and water are fundamental to the ethics of what we do.
We believe that:
Land is essential to food growing, yet very few food growers have security of tenure or access to the land they work on. We support genuine agrarian reform which gives food growers and farmers who use ecologically sounds methods of production more control over the land they work. We believe that access to land must be free from discrimination of all kinds and available to those who wish to cultivate it.
Access to a wide variety of seeds, and the rights to save, sow and exchange seeds are essential to food growing and to the maintenance of agricultural biodiversity, which is a foundation stone of resilient food systems. The legal framework in Britain supports the patenting of seeds and allows for the contamination of seed stock by genetically modified (GM) seeds. These regulations are inappropriate to the realities of small scale agriculture. Small scale producers should have the right to save, sow and exchange their own seed in a political and economic climate free from the commoditisation of seeds by intellectual property rights and the contamination of seed stocks by GM seeds.
Access to water is essential to food growing. The industrial model of agriculture has polluted water systems and unsustainable usage has created water shortages. We believe that water should be under local, democratic, and sustainable management and a right guaranteed to producers who use ecologically sound methods of production.
