CFFG Don't Think There's a Food Security Crisis
We made the news!
Farmers Movement Cornwall gets a mention in the Cornwall Food and Farming group newsletter number 160.
After choosing to parrot the Cornwall Council ‘concerns about some of the information being promoted by FMC on their website’ the unnamed editor of the piece goes on to describe (with some inaccuracies) the two facebook admins of our group, myself and Jo and then finishes with the statement that he/she doesn’t think that we are facing a food security crisis and that ‘it would be very unhelpful for local government bodies to make such declarations’.
Firstly to clear up the inaccuracies:
- I am not Sovereign Pete, that is another Pete who campaigns on matters related to knowledge of the law/private trusts etc.
- The National Housing Party policy on immigration does not call for a total ban on immigration, it calls for the total ban on the giving of British citizenship to those of foreign ancestry who come to the British Isles to work/study/claim genuine asylum. It calls for all immigration to be managed via a temporary visa scheme such as the one currently in place for tourism.
- I am no longer a member of the National Housing Party UK having joined The British Democrats as of March 2025. There is however a broad political policy alignment between the two organisations as they are both ethno nationalist parties who seek to first and foremost represent the interests of the indigenous people of the British Isles within their homelands.
Secondly in response to their position that we are not facing a food security crisis:
1. Clearly consecutive governments have not been listening for many years to concerns about falling food security and food system resilience….so how else are we going to get them to sit up and listen? …….other than a mass civil declaration of a crisis coming from the general public, the farmers and local councillors of all political colours?
2. Can these facts which summarise our case for a food security crisis declaration be ignored?
We are not as self sufficient as DEFRA figures would lead us to believe, in real terms we are around 35 to 40%.
Domestic production has been falling at 5.5%/decade for the last 40 years.
The farming sector is in financial distress.
Shock losses of up to 34% due to warfare and extreme weather events have been seen several times in recent years.
Our supply chain is predominantly of a fragile ‘just in time’ nature.
We have almost no policy related to food shortages and zero civil strategic food reserves held in the country.
Labelling regulations are woefully inadequate and leave us uninformed about food quality and welfare disparity.
3. Could the decisions taken by organisations such as The Cornwall Food and Farming Group to not declare a food security crisis be influenced by their own political bias and dislike for my right wing political views?
Perhaps it’s time to move on from political tribalism and attempts at character gaslighting to focus on the facts and work together to build solutions to the problems that we face as a nation?
Best wishes
Pete
Anyway here is what they wrote:
Farmers Movement Cornwall
We’ve recently been made aware of the organisation called Farmers Movement Cornwall (FMC) which has written to Town and Parish Councils under the heading “A Request for Parish Councils and Local Authorities to Declare a ‘Farming Crisis and Food Security Emergency’ and to Adopt a ‘Food Security Restoration Policy to Address the Problem.’
Following on from our recent conference on Food Security, these are headlines which might make us sit up.
Concerns about some of the information being promoted by FMC on its website have been raised by Cornwall Council. This website includes information which the Council considers could be seen as discriminatory in nature and, as such, not in line with local government values.
Farmers Movement Cornwall is one of several ‘politically motivated’ groups which have arisen seeking to galvanise farmers – because farmers are always ‘angry farmers’ aren’t they – to disrupt the status quo. In this instance, FMC is a small bunch founded and run by Peter Lawrence – aka ‘Farmer Pete’ or ‘Sovereign Pete’ – who stood for the Truro/Falmouth seat at the last election to gain 498 votes, less than 1% of all votes cast. An ‘Independent’ he was very anti-vax, anti-global trade, etc. He has since declared himself a member of the National Housing Party whose main plank seems to be a total ban on immigration, unless controlled by short-term work permit. It is very much on the right-wing of the political spectrum.
The other name associated with FMC is Jo Wood (no relation) a ‘digital creator’ and member of Farmers For Action whose Facebook page declares Kier Starmer a traitor and other such rantings.
So, are we indeed facing a food security crisis? At present, I don’t think so and it would be very unhelpful for local government bodies to make such declarations. Better they make sure that they support British food production, processing, and distribution in other, positive, ways. Such as in their purchasing, where they buy, and in the decisions they make generally (including planning). At present 60% of food consumed in UK is produced in UK. We will never be 100% food secure or food self-sufficient, particularly if we want avocados, pineapples, and out-of-season fruit and veg. Given that over 20% of food is wasted and we consume over 20% too much thereby adding to obesity issues, we are not in crisis – yet. But we do need to be careful in our approach to land use – development, access, nature recovery, carbon emissions and so on. It’s about choices and about seeking a balance, not forgetting that many countries can only pay us in food for goods and services we want to export to them.
Editor
