The official website of the
West Oxfordshire
branch
of the
Green Party
of England and Wales
.
Serving members, supporters and citizens in the towns and villages around West Oxfordshire, including the following wards:
NOTE: Wards listed above in larger font have Green Candidates in 2024 local elections
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Welcome to our West Oxfordshire Green Party page on Food and Farming. You may also be interested to join in discussions in our Food and Farming Blog
Three quarters of our constituency is presently covered by farmland (56% cereals, 30% livestock) with a population of 687,466 (2019) largely in Witney, Burford, Carterton, Charlbury, Chipping Norton, Eynsham and Woodstock and villages in between. Every year, more and more agricultural and green spaces are sacrificed to new housing developers.
At the moment we have an appealing mix of access to pleasant green spaces and centres for business but this doesn't remove us from the alarming symptoms of climate emergency. Some members will recount their personal experiences of repeat flooding in their properties since 2007.
Simultaneously we have been experiencing grave concerns about the water quality of our beloved rivers, Windrush and Evenlode.
Join us at our on-line event on 25th November (8.00 pm)
Healthy Food Shouldn't Cost the Earth
When Baroness Natalie Bennett will Chair presentations addressing the threat toour Food chain from GMO's and how local food producers are reducing their impact on biodiversity and farming sustainably.
We know the farming industry could make a hugely significant contribution to our carbon storage if we were collectively minded to seize the opportunity.
More recently, our changed status with the EU and Covid-19 has made us question where we plan to source our food from and indeed, how it's grown. Can we influence a different use of the land that is on our doorstep?
The past years have been hugely challenging for our farmers who have had to depend on subsidies from the EU whilst also needing to raise income with other activities apart from the land, just to make ends meet.
Margins are very tight, supermarkets and multinational cereal companies drive the hardest of bargains and conditions.
Trends, guided by government post WW2 have persuaded farmers to push for higher yields at the unacknowledged cost to biodiversity.
We also have a situation where younger people are discouraged by the exodus from the sector and lack the very considerable capital to get started should they desire to farm independently.
We cannot afford to lose any more of our top soil into the rivers, nor allow these rivers to flood as they presently do, being constantly polluted with nitrates and phosphates.
Some of us have used lockdown to spend more time growing food than before and found satisfaction in the putting down of roots, caring for the soil and wildlife sharing our spaces.
We have been really encouraged by:
- the highly successful Oxford Real Farming Conference:
- the regenerative farming movement with its ethos of seven year rotation allowing the roots of a variety of plants to become established rebuilding life underground
- Community Supported Agriculture which has set up the Kitchen Garden Scheme stimulating both local employment and opportunities for us to have supplies of vegetables on a regular basis within our towns and villages.
To allow us to reflect on how we, the members and supporters of the Green Party, can improve this situation and how we can convert those thoughts into action we have created a Real Food and Sustainable Farming blog .
Please feel free to contribute, as issues and relevant thoughts arise.
Rae Cather 05.02.21