Food for Thought

Well, last month I was in The Gambia also in west Africa, and although the tiny country doesn't grow cotton on the scale of other west African countries, it was quite obvious that cheap, often subsidised, imports from developed nations were harming farmers there.

Cheap Dutch eggs of dubious quality made it difficult for local farmers to compete. It was the same for vegetables, rice and dairy products - all of which could be produced in the country.

Again, what does this have to do with me you're asking - I produce none of those things.

Maybe not, but, in my mind, there are two points that it's worth spending just a few minutes thinking about.

Firstly, we're campaigning for Fair Trade for ourselves. Morally, I think we have a duty to help those farmers much poorer than ourselves.

Secondly, there are a surprising number of parallels between the problems facing farmers here and those in Africa. The solutions might be similar.

Addressing the first issue - what can we do to help farmers in Africa? Everybody knows that governments there are corrupt and any money given to charities all gets spent on admin costs and flash Toyota Landcruisers that bounce across the game parks of Africa.

It's just pouring money down the drain isn't it?

No, of course not. It just has to be done carefully and it doesn't have to involve any money at all.

We could ask those who negotiate international agricultural policy on our behalf to insist developing nations are not disadvantaged by the deals agreed. But more of that later.

In terms of charities, forget the lumbering aid giants of the world - I'm as cynical about them as the next person - there is a new breed of smaller, fast-moving charities that don't just throw money at problems, but rather aim to put farmers in a position where they can support themselves on a commercial basis and stand on their own feet.

Concern Universal is one. It took me to The Gambia so I perhaps I should confess an interest. But I was very impressed with what they were doing - in particular, one project partially funded by Haygrove, a UK fruit grower.

The Gambia is Good project was directly countering the threat of imported EU vegetables by providing farmers with the means to sell their produce to tourist hotels.

The farmers still had to put in the extra effort - if their vegetables weren't good enough they weren't accepted - and they had to accept the daily market price so it wasn't a cash windfall everyday.

But for those prepared to take that step the rewards were great. Farmers were able to move from hauling water from wells in buckets to mechanical pumps. One we saw was even using a petrol generator.

In Africa we call it charity, at home it's DEFRA diversification grants and free farm business advice.

There were huge rewards for the Gambian farmers, but also rewards for Haygrove.

It had direct involvement with the project and was able to use the expertise of its staff to help Concern Universal.

In a world where companies are having to compete harder for the best staff and young people are becoming more concerned about ethical issues, a strong ethical policy could go a long way towards tempting the best recruits.

So if you want to help Africa through a charity there are ways to do it knowing that your money won't be wasted. And if you have a business with specialist skills to offer, your assistance could go many times further and help you into the bargain.

And that brings me to my final, but perhaps most important point.

Most of us know that the ongoing round of Doha world trade talks is aimed at making trade freer. Many of us may even feel that makes sense - let the market decide - it's a question of consumer economics and supply and demand. If you can't do it at a profit let somebody else who can.

But as we all know, even the world's richest nations don't want to give up the power to subsidise their farmers, whether they're growing cotton in the US or wheat in Europe.

I believe trade talks should have a moral angle as well as economic one. And that's where there are parallels between the UK and The Gambia.

Farmers here are forced to compete with imported livestock that is produced without the additional cost of complying with farm assurance regulations.

And are we sure that in the future there will be enough food in the world to feed everybody? This government may not agree, but ensuring the UK maintains at least a modicum of food security would seem commonsense to me.

Food policy is too important to individual countries to be dictated by the broad brush of the WTO.

Africa's farmers needs protection from cheap imported food but I don't think that is mutually exclusive from ensuring farming here has a bright future.

What I don't agree with, however, is developing nations flooding the rest of the world with subsidised or unwanted produce that will damge the economies of poorer countries. They should be allowed to defend themselves from that.

And is it right that the cotton industry of west Africa is devastated by politically driven farm subsidies in the US?

Perhaps this all sounds idealistic and maybe we should just let free-market economics rule, but I think there must be a balanced way of making trader fairer, not just freer for all.

And if UK farmers want to be treated more fairly themselves, they should fight for the same right for others not quite so fortunate as themselves.

I'd like to know what you think.

To see the blog entries from my trip including a video clip of traditional Gambian dancing go to www.fwi.co.uk/gambia