The main parties have now launched their manifestos ahead of the General Election on 7th May. We bring you the main points from each one relating to a key part of our own manifesto - food and farming. Read our own manifesto chapter on food and farming here.
Conservative
- Develop 25 year plan to promote British food
- Treble the number of apprenticeships in food, farming and agri-tech
- Promote British food abroad by setting up a Great British Food Unit
- Ensure all government departments buy food to British standards of production by the end of the next Parliament
- Push for country of origin labelling in Europe
Green
- Move away from the intensification and industrialisation of animal farming and enforce strict animal welfare standards
- End factory farming and introduce ban on cages for hens and rabbits and zero-grazing units for dairy cows
- Improve food labelling and traceability including mandatory labelling of meat and dairy products on method of production and slaughter
Labour
- Create a world- leading Food, Farm and Fisheries sector that creates better paid jobs and apprenticeships across the rural economy
- Expand the role of the supermarket watchdog (Groceries Code Adjudicator) to support the growth of the sector and protect food producers from unfair practices by the major supermarkets
Lib Dem
- Encourage investment, growth, innovation and new entrants, securing the future of the UK food and farming industry
- Eliminate the remaining production and export subsidies and support the development of environmentally sustainable solutions to growing food demand
- Introduce a National Food Strategy to promote the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable and affordable food
- Allow the Groceries Code Adjudicator to use discretion when holding a supermarket responsible for the treatment of suppliers to help ensure farmers get paid a fair price
UKIP
- Introduce a modified UK Single Farm Payment (SFP) to replace payments made under the Common Agricultural Policy following exit from the EU
- Require the Competition Commission to promote fair practice in the food chain
- Food labelling, under the control of Westminster following exit from the EU, will ensure animal products are labelled to show the country of origin, method of production and transport
- Support research into GM foods and will allow a free vote in Parliament on their commercial cultivation