This report should be an interesting read:
Putting food on the nation’s plate
9 September 2008
We need to make radical changes to the way our food gets from farm to fork over the next fifteen years; changes that will offer a better deal to consumers, the environment and animals.
A groundbreaking report out today, 'Food distribution – an ethical agenda', provides answers to heated public debates over ‘food miles’, and about the pros and cons of local and imported food.
The report assesses what we’ll eat, where our food will come from, and where we’ll live in 2022. And it shows how competing demands on our food system, from climate change to the credit crunch, from international development to home-grown food policy, and environmental and animal welfare concerns, could all play a part in shaping a sustainable food system.
The Food Ethics Council looks at how, fifteen years hence, these different factors can work together to offer a future where we:
• Eat a healthy and sustainable diet
• Care for the people who produce our food – both at home and abroad; and
• Feed our cities sustainably.
Dr. Tom MacMillan, Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council said:
“To ensure the health and welfare of people, animals and the environment in Britain and around the world, government and business need to start taking its commitment to sustainable food distribution seriously.”
“The bottom line is that the way our food gets from producer to plate is doing untold damage to the environment and local economies. So far government and industry efforts to improve food distribution have been at best ineffective, and at worst misleading.”
By 2022 we should see that:
• The biggest cuts in greenhouse gas emissions come from changing what we eat and how it is produced rather than from cutting food miles. That means less meat and dairy, and more fruit and veg on the menu.
• We still trade food internationally but shift away from highly perishable produce to products that gain ‘added value’ and long-shelf life from basic processing near the point of production – fair trade chocolate or sun-dried fruit are examples where this happens already.
• Local food and urban farming flourish as efficient distribution hubs give small producers access to thriving independent high streets in towns and cities. This has the added benefits of giving shoppers the opportunity to support their local economy and engage with the people who grow and make their food.
• The weekly car trip to the supermarket gets replaced by well-stocked community convenience shops with direct delivery for the boring basics.
Food distribution – an ethical agenda shows that while shoppers can do their bit to support a more sustainable food system, government and business need to work hand in hand make this vision a reality.
The Food Ethics Council calls for:
• Government to adopt tougher measures to cut greenhouse emission 80% by 2050 and radically rethink its approach to planning, trade and economic policy.
• Food companies to become trusted ‘choice editors’, taking responsibility off their customers’ shoulders. To achieve this they must prove that they are not carbon hypocrites, focusing green measures on the biggest problems rather than the easiest ones, and demonstrate how they support fair trading practices across the board.
Dr MacMillan says that this report clears up some of the dilemmas facing shoppers who feel caught between a rock and a hard place. He adds “It will take decisive action by government and food companies to get us out of this fix.”
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Notes to editors:
1. 'Food distribution- an ethical agenda' is the result of a two year research project by the Food Ethics Council, and funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. It is available online at www.foodethicscouncil.org/node/399
2. The Food Ethics Council is the advisory body on food and farming that provides research and analysis to help find ways through difficult and controversial issues, and builds tools to put ethics at the heart of decisions about food and farming.
