Green Party backs policy to cut amount of animal farming in half

Green Party members have backed a policy on climate change and agriculture which would see the amount of animal farming in the UK reduced by 50 per cent.

Members voted for a motion which included this policy at the party’s autumn conference.

The motion opened amended the party’s existing policy on climate and agriculture by removing text which read: “We will promote a move to a diet with significantly less meat consumption that will require fewer farm animals. This will reduce emissions from ruminant digestion and release land for crops, forestry and wildlife”.

In its place, the conference agreed to replace it with the much more specific commitment to reducing the amount of animal farming by 50 per cent.

The new text reads: “We will promote a move to a diet with significantly less meat and dairy consumption that will require at least a 50% reduction in the scale of animal agriculture and that will require fewer farm animals.”

In addition to this, the motion went yet further, stating that: “The level of animal farming and the number of animals farmed will continue to decrease after this. The reduction of animal farming will start with reducing the level of factory farming with a block on new developments that can be classed as factory farms”.

The motion says that the party would seek to use taxation, and a ban on meat advertising as a means of delivering this reduction. It does not specify by what date the Greens would seek to reduce animal agriculture by 50 per cent.

Green Party members have the power to set the policy of the party. This does not, however, automatically mean that everything adopted by a party conference ends up in a general election manifesto. Instead, it forms part of the party’s long-term vision for how it would seek to transform society.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: Jon Craig – Creative Commons