Wasting the Water of Life

I want to recommend the work of Prof. Arjen Hoekstra, University of Twente.

Hoekstra invented the Water Footprint, similar to the carbon footprint, and has published vast amounts of data. He also has emphatic views:

In Europe, the average consumer’s domestic use is typically only 1 to 2 per cent of their total water footprint: the vast majority relates to the products you consume ... about 90 per cent of our global water footprint relates to food. About one-third relates to the production of feed for the animals we consume.

In California, for instance, the state’s biggest water use is for feed crops. Meanwhile, you have this drought going on, and all of the time the focus is on how terrible it is to have a drought. But the real focus should be on how stupid it is to have such a big water demand in a region where droughts are fully expected.

You can use less and less water per unit of production, but if your population is growing and your consumption booming, then that is simply not sufficient.

Because it imports so many goods, three-quarters of the UK’s water consumption is actually outside of its borders. And about half of that usage is not sustainable.  

We in northern Europe should realise that we are actually quite well off with water, and ask why we import water-intensive goods from water-scarce areas. It doesn’t make sense that we produce so little of our own food.

 All round the world we are mining water rather than recycling it. Ground water WILL run out and if we aren't ready we will all be in bad trouble.

Some campaigns I support

Since becoming a candidate I have agreed to support the following causes (sorry for lack of detail!). I've also offered qualified support to a number of others:

• CND's opposition to replacing Trident.
• CAMRA's manifesto (beer and pubs)
• Crisis' No One Turned Away (homelessness)
• Cancer Research's Cross Cancer Out campaign
• Barnado's and others A Stitch in Time campaign
• The Royal Statistical Society;'s Data Manifesto
• The Public Service Users Bill
• Traidcraft
• The Frack Free promise (FoE and Greenpeace)
• The League Against Cruel Sports' five animal welfare calls.
• The Living Streets Manifesto
• Compassion in World Farming
• Breast Cancer Campaign
• The OneKind pledge
• The Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England's manifesto.
• The Local Goverbnm,ent Association's four points
• The RSPB's I'm Backing Bob campaign
• The Disability Benefits Consortium's 5 asks
• The CTC
• The Terrence Higgins Trust
• The Empty Homes Agency
• The LGBT Whip
• London Cycling Campaign's demand to remove TSRGD
• The Tibet Society's demand for human rights for Tibet.
• The ASI

The question of soil

After Friday's hustings someone asked me to explain the Party's policy on soil!

In fact it's a very good question. Good soil is obviously vital - 95% of our food comes from soil. Yet last December a senior UN official said that at current rates of degradation all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years.The official, Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), blamed chemical-heavy farming techniques, deforestation which increases erosion, and global warming.

This is a key concern for Greens - it's one of the ways in which human activity is overloading the planet's carrying capacity. It's no accident that the Green Party of England and Wales is the only UK party led by someone with a degree in agricultural science!

[By the way, Cameron and Miliband both read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford. But I digress.]

So what is our policy on soil?

The whole food and farming policy is at here. Paras 630 to 639 are the most relevant.

In summary we would make a transition to a more sustainable agriculture, that is, an agriculture that does not depend on large inputs of fossil fuel energy and which improves, not degrades, soil fertility.  It's not really that new. The Norfolk Crop Rotation does exactly that and was invented in the 17th century!  Doubtless we can do better now.

In the UK we would:

• Support a rapid increase in the proportion of land designated as organic by providing advice and subsidies.
• Encourage a reduction in the use of synthetic fertilisers by taxing them and supporting alternative methods of retaining soil fertility, such as green manures and composting
• Support a shift towards farming systems based on perennial crops through targeted support and funding.
• Progressively remove some of the tax rebate on fuel for agricultural use. 
• Fund research into the best ways of making the transition.

Those policies address Semedo's "chemical-heavy farming and deforestation" in the UK and we also have energy and transport policies that would sharply reduce and then eliminate our contribution to climate change.

Looking beyond the UK we would encourage other countries to adopt similar policies and, especially, to halt the wave of deforestation and natural habitat destruction that is sweeping the tropics. Since much of that destruction is driven by our demand for the crops that replace old forests, notably oil palms, a complete solution requires all the developed countries to reduce their use of such products. That is also our policy and much more than an add-on to this one.

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For more information about soil see the WWF view and Fred Pearce in New Scientist on losses from salt contamination and some US Soil data.

Concerning the Countryside Alliance

The Countryside Alliance was formed to defend the countryside and, in particular, to stop parliament from making foxhunting illegal. In this election it’s presented candidates with a manifesto which it summarises as follows:

• Digital Communications: Full digital connectivity for rural communities to ensure they can compete economically and socially.
• Food and Farming: A fair market for British farmers and producers through proper country of origin labelling.
• Rural Communities: Fair government funding for rural areas; local affordable housing; and reduced VAT on domestic repair, maintenance and improvement work.
• Rural Services: Protection for rural services, in particular local post offices and the Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation (USO).
• Wildlife Management: Proper engagement by government and its agencies with those who actually manage the countryside; wildlife management to be based on principle and evidence, and repeal of the Hunting Act.

In the manifesto itself the Hunting Act occupies less than one page out of 6. Perhaps the CA has accepted the inevitable?

Since it’s my policy to reply to all letters I read the manifesto. Now Enfield North is a largely urban constituency so it has limited relevance to – though we do include farms, parks and riding stables. But all greens should care about the countryside, above all because it provides much of our food – and may have to provide more in future. 

I therefore replied to the Executive Chairman, Sir Barney White-Spunner, as follows:

Sir Barney,

….  I'm pleased to say that as a Green Party PPC I'm very sympathetic to most of the points you raise. For instance digital connectivity, food labelling, more affordable housing and support for Post Offices all seem consistent with our policies.

Issues of government funding are difficult. My own constituency faces rising numbers, increasing house prices and serious poverty in some parts. I don't generally agree with the government but in this case we are 'all in this together'. In my view these problems cannot be solved without fundamental social change – change we shall not get from the mainstream parties. 

There's one issue on which we will not agree. I welcomed the Hunting Act and would not vote for repeal.

Though most Britons live in cities we would not live at all without the work of farmers and growers. Greens understand the value of the countryside both for food and for recreation. We need a prosperous, healthy countryside.

For humane and sustainable farming

As a member of the Green Party, I support Compassion in World Farming’s (CIWF) charter for a sustainable and environmentally friendly farming system. This would be good for human and animal welfare, and for the long-term viability of our countryside.
 

The need for sustainable ways of life, that is, ways that leave a healthy world for our grandchildren, and maybe their grandchildren, is a top priority for all green activists. In the case of farming that leads the Green Party to support sustainable agriculture and farming practices that help conserve and enhance the land for future generations.

It is our policy to phase out all forms of 'factory farming' and support a transition to small free-range units, mixed rotational farming and extensive grazing. We support the highest levels of animal welfare in farming and aim to ensure that the ‘Five Freedoms’ listed in the Animal Welfare Act are applied to all farm animals.

In addition, we support localisation and a shortening of the food chain, to reduce fossil fuel use and the vulnerability of the global food supply to climate change and rises in the price of fuel.

We recognise that high rates of consumption of meat and other animal products in richer countries, and rising demand elsewhere, means that an increasing requirement for animal feed competes with food production for direct human consumption. Globally, the combination of increasing population and prosperity on the one hand and of climate change and soil degradation on the other will drive up food prices. It will also create actual shortages and wild price fluctuations. 

The UK must prepare for this by developing farming systems that are more productive yet less dependent on fossil fuels and sustainable.

The Green Party will encourage healthy and sustainable consumption patterns, including a shift towards more plant-based foods. On good land arable farming produces at least three times more nutrition per acre than grazing – sometimes much more. This shift would enable an increasing world population to be fed sustainably and would help to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss.

Like CIWF, we believe in working with nature rather than against, because we recognise the fundamental connections between human society and the rest of the biosphere.