Food

Wales is not only famous for its mining and heavy industry - it is known also for its ruminants. Methane is a key issue here: this greenhouse gas, belched by cows and sheep when they digest food, is 23 times more powerful than C02 in terms of its impact on the climate.

With the highest density of sheep in the EU, we have a massive methane footprint in terms of emissions per capita.

And according to Friends of the Earth, the meat and dairy industry causes more climate-changing emissions than every plane, train and car on the planet.

Not only do cows create methane, but in winter they are often fed on imported animal feed. South American rainforests are regularly destroyed in order to create monocrop soy plantations to feed our livestock.

Food accounts for 20% of our ecological footprint here in Wales - and this doesn't include the energy used in cooking and travelling to shops.

By minimising our consumption of meat and dairy produce, and by growing our own fruit and vegetables instead of buying out-of-season produce encased in plastic, we can help to reduce our footprint.

The government's Sustainability Scheme One Wales, One Planet, launched in May 2009, states that over time it would like to see "a huge expansion in allotments and community gardening" in Wales.

Interest in vegetable growing has rocketed in recent years. But a Freedom of Information request suggests that people are waiting for many years for allotment plots to become available.

One person has been waiting for 14 years for a plot in Gwynedd. There are 915 people on the waiting list in Cardiff and people are waiting for up to 4 years in Port Talbot and Monmouthshire, 5 years in Carmarthenshire and Denbighshire, and 7 years in Swansea.

Allotments are managed by local authorities, who often ignore legislation concerning the provision of plots. There is currently no protection for allotment holders on private land. And while the 1908 Allotment Act allows people to petition their local authority for allotment land, such applications are often refused.

The WAG has not set any targets to increase the number of plots in Wales or initiated changes to the planning system.

In the meantime, land is coming under increasing pressure for development, and waiting lists are getting longer.

Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood is pushing for policy change on this issue, arguing that everyone in Wales should be granted an "allotment right".

Overgrazing and soil erosion from intensive farming causes a great deal of environmental damage. Rivers are under pressure from pesticide, slurry and silage pollution. And many of our plant, animal and bird species are under threat of extinction as a result of agricultural practices and a changing climate.

But the government's farming schemes are becoming more focused on climate change and ecology.

The link between the number of animals produced and the grant farmers get is now going to be cut. The new Glastir scheme, which replaces the five existing agri-environment schemes, has a stronger focus on carbon storage in soils, careful water management and protecting biodiversity.

Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones AM has introduced new grant aid to support conversion to organic farming, and she is upholding the Welsh government's opposition to GM crops.

And this summer permaculture enthusiasts were celebrating when a Welsh Assembly planning officer sanctioned the first ever low-impact development in Wales, known as the Lammas eco-village.

Despite some fierce local opposition, nine families have been permitted to build houses from local materials on agricultural land in Pembrokeshire and to farm the land using sustainable farming practices. This could set a precedent for similar developments elsewhere in Wales.

The WAG states in its Sustainable Scheme that in future it wants to see more of us eating "seasonal fresh local produce".

The Community Food Co-operative in Pontypridd has recently received government funding to establish a network of food co-operatives in Wales.

And in July 2009, Minister Elin Jones AM launched the Sustainable Supply Chains initiative - a pilot scheme in South Wales aiming to safeguard the long-term viability of Welsh food and drink businesses by helping them to develop local and resilient supply chains.

But the government's enthusiasm about localising the food economy is not reflected in planning policies on supermarkets.

David Thorpe from the group Keep Mach Special is fighting a proposed Tesco development in the market town of Machynlleth.

He argues that supermarkets tend to centralise the distribution of food, support intensive farming rather than small-scale farms, and undermine local food infrastructure.

"Half the vegetables and 95 per cent of the fruit you see on supermarket shelves has been imported into the UK," he says. "Much of it flown in, and then it is trucked all over the country. So this produce carries a massive carbon price tag."

The fact that the age of cheap and easily available oil is coming to an end means that our dependency on imports makes us vulnerable to rising prices and future food shortages.

Yet the Assembly Government has so far failed to limit supermarket expansion and some analysts believe that the issue of national food security should be given much more prominence.

So although we have made some progress in producing food more sustainably, this has been described by some environmental analysts as "tinkering at the edges" of a deepening crisis.

Written by Angharad Penrhyn Jones, environmental campaigner

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