FAMILY FARMERS from the Landworkers' Alliance took part in a stunt football match outside the Houses of Parliament this week - taking on bowler-hatted comedians intended to represent the moneymen of big agribusiness.

Held to coincide with United Nation's World Food Day, the LWA organised the protest to highlight the lack of a level playing field between corporate interests and small-scale farming.

In particular, campaigners criticised the coalition government for changing agricultural policy, leading to what they described as unfair support and a skewed market that encourages production on large-scale industrial farms at the cost of smaller-scale alternatives.

"Defra policy is increasingly driven by the demands of big business and large landowners" said LWA'S Dan Taylor. "We have seen clear examples of this with their recent decision to strip small farmers of entitlements to public support while at the same time refusing to limit payments to the country's biggest industrial producers.

"As a referee for UK farming, Defra is not only shortsighted but inherently biased."