honest 'country of origin' labelling to restore trust
The Conservatives are demanding honest 'country of origin' labelling to restore trust and allow people to choose British food with confidence. When you buy a 'British' pork pie, you assume that the pork comes from Britain. In fact, meat from abroad can be imported to be processed into bacon, sausages and pies which can then be labelled to suggest they are British. “We think this is dishonest. People have a right to know where their food comes from. Meat labelled 'British' should be born and bred in Britain, raised to our high welfare standards”. Consumers should be free to choose food from any country, but real choice requires real information.
Organic lobby FORMER Secretary of State for the Environment, John Gummer, launched an attack on the organic farm lobby at the Conservative Party conference. Mr Gummer, Environment Secretary between 1993 and 1997, said the organic movement was ‘dogmatic to its detriment’ in its ‘my way or the highway’ attitude. He was speaking at a morning fringe event on the subject of food security.“We need all forms of production to feed the growing population. But we need an acceptance of each other. My worry is that the organic movement cannot and do not accept that other forms of farming can contribute to sustainable food production.” He also attacked the organic lobby for its criticism of pesticide use on conventional farms especially given the essential use of copper sulphate pesticides on organic farms.
All UK’s leading grocery retailers have signed the Courtauld Commitment, an industry-wide food waste reduction objective. Signatories have agreed to work together to reduce the amount of food the nation’s householders throw away by 155,000 tonnes by 2010, against a 2008 baseline.
