Plans to improve school dinners
BBC News, 25th November 2005
Retraining London's school cooks in an effort to improve food is among ideas being discussed at City Hall on Friday.
Plans to continue the work started by TV chef Jamie Oliver at Kidbrooke School in Greenwich, south-east London, will be outlined at a seminar.
Speakers will advocate a "whole school approach", in which meals are improved, but also junk food in vending machines and nutritional classes are targeted.
They will also back more investment into staff and kitchen facilities.
Jenny Jones, chairwoman of London Food - set up by the mayor to improve public health - said a food strategy would be launched next spring, which would include plans for school meals.
Meals replaced
She said: "The damaging effects of excessive junk food on kids are well recognised, and this conference will help improve food in London through the mayor's London Food Strategy."
The seminar will also look at what has happened in Greenwich since filming on Jamie's School Dinners finished.
The chef replaced all the processed foods at Kidbrooke School with freshly cooked meals.
The seminar will consider how his ideas on retraining school cooks in London could be implemented.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/4469284.stm
Have your say about feeding London
Organic and Natural Business magazine, November 2005
Food producers, manufacturers and distributors in and are in London are being urged to have their say about radically changing food productions and supply for the capital.
The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and London Food have launched a draft to improve Londoner’s health. The vision is of a vigorous regional food economy centred on the needs of the capital.
London has been described as the gastronomic capital of the world and places like Borough Market are now tourist destinations in their own right, said Ken Livingstone. He added however: “London’s food system does have negative environmental impacts, and many Londoners cannot easily access affordable, nutritious food. This strategy aims to develop the capital’s food system to make London a truly sustainable world city”.
London Food wants to encourage people to grow more food in the capital, to source more from the home counties, to make it easier for smaller companies to benefit from public procurement, to set up distribution hubs to reduce delivery vehicles, reduce waste and improve school meals.
Source: Organic & Natural Business magazine October/November 2005
London sustainability needs producers
Food Manufacturer, 10th August 2005
Manufacturing will be a key feature of a draft sustainable food strategy for London to be unveiled by early next month, according to London Food Link, which will run a public consultation.
"We consider it essential that we get the views and involvement of food manufacturing," said Ben Reynolds of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, which co-ordinates the Link.
Although Sustain declined to reveal specific details, manufacturing will be promoted as an important aspect of the proposed London Development Agency strategy, which will try to ensure more sustainable production and delivery. Issues are likely to include the development of infrastructure for more production and trading in and around London and more local purchasing by the public sector.
"It's going to have action, it's going to have targets, it's going to have people identified," said Reynolds. The strategy is intended to pull together existing initiatives and systems and much of the money needed was already available, he said. A final version could be agreed as early as January.
Meanwhile, Sustain is also due to submit a final draft proposal for a sustainable food centre in London to store, process and distribute food from around the capital.
The centre could adopt electronic ordering and promote organic products, said project officer Dan Keech, and include space for the development of processing, packaging and marketing.
The final draft is being prepared by Professor John Whitelegg of Eco-Logica, following widespread consultation. Keech said that a go-head for the two-year project, probably funded by local and central government, could be given this winter.
Farmers in revolt over imposters at 'local' stalls
The Times, 25th June 2005.
Valerie Elliott
THE MARKET stalls groan with exotic produce: baklava from Turkey, olives from Greece, biltong from South Africa. You would be forgiven for thinking you were in a marché in the Mediterranean, not a farmers’ market in London.
And that’s the problem. Because this exotica, popular though it may be with customers, has sparked a row in the world of farmers’ markets over claims that it is a corrupting influence — and could bring an end to the markets themselves.
“Real” farmers’ market holders insist that olives, citrus fruits and even bread made from imported Canadian wheat have no place on their stalls.
They are incensed at markets that allow traders to pad out their own grown vegetables with out-of-season exotics bought in bulk. Now they are demanding a legal definition of farmers’ markets and are lobbying Lord Bach, the Food and Farming Minister, to issue guidance on the do’s and don’ts for the markets.
Farmers’ markets originated as a revolt against oligopolistic supermarkets and offered an ethical way for city dwellers to keep in touch with the countryside. Their strength was that they sold produce from local farmers — many will not sell produce beyond a 30-mile limit — and that the food was always fresh and seasonal. But those farmers believe that their wholesome image is now under threat from traders who sell foreign, out-of-season goods. Stallholders who sell meat and poultry from refrigerated vans are particularly reviled.
Ben Reynolds, from Sustain, which campaigns for locally produced food, said: “The problem is that deli markets are calling themselves farmers’ markets but the stallholders haven’t a clue how the food is grown or the animals reared.”
The concern that deli markets are trading as farmers’ markets was raised this week at the annual conference of the National Farmers’ and Retail Markets Association (Farma), which runs 250 of the country’s estimated 500 markets.
Graham Matravers, who runs a 300-acre livestock farm near Loughborough, in Leicestershire, said: “I was at a market recently and saw this guy who says he is a small producer with a huge chilled lorry. If he’s only got a few animals there is no way he could fill a vehicle like that with his own meat. He must have bought it in.”
A vegetable grower from Kent, who did not wish to be named, said: “I sell my seasonal produce but it’s very frustrating when you see another stall and he is blatantly selling Spanish goods. Broccoli and squash, for example, are commonly sold out of season at markets. Others are more brazen and sell olives and citrus fruits. That really is pushing it too far.”
Jo Foster, inspector at Islington farmer’s market, said: “It is incredible what you see: coffee, chocolate and even Moroccan ready meals. They may be very nice but chickpeas and rice are not genuine farmers’ market food.”
Chris Elder, who runs seven City and Country Farmers’ Markets, says consumers want choice. He allows farmers and small food processors in his markets and they sell goods as diverse as pastries, Moroccan snacks and biltong (dried beef).
He said: “I don’t let them just sell olives, but if they (make) a marinade that’s fine. As for bread, every market has bread. If all the bread sold used English flour the loaves would be as hard as bricks.”
He added: “What have they got to say about their bread on sale stuffed with olives?”
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article537099.ece
Driving food home can cost the Earth
New Scientist.com News, 2nd March 2005
Andy Coghlan
Buying home-grown produce instead of exotic imports will not help save the planet if it must then be driven home. That is the message for consumers from a comprehensive analysis of the hidden environmental and economic costs of food in the UK. The report could have implications for all industrialised nations with similar patterns of food production and distribution.
"Go local is the key, and you create a benefit by not driving," says Jules Pretty of the University of Essex in Colchester, UK, who led the study. It concluded that shuttling food around by road and rail within the country imposes a far greater environmental burden than so called "air-miles" widely touted by green campaigners as the greatest menace.
Using data from previous studies, Pretty and his colleagues estimated the hidden economic cost of environmental damage caused by a number of factors, including car transport, farm pollution and government subsidies. These produce hidden impacts, such as that of exhaust pollution on respiratory health and the capacity of vehicle emissions to accelerate global warming. Repairing this damage is not factored into the price of food, and so is a "hidden" cost.
Combining these estimates with published data on national food consumption patterns and freight distribution, Pretty and his colleagues worked out that in total, hidden costs would add a further 11.8% to the price of the average UK food basket, and by far the biggest contribution to this comes from transport within the UK. Taking food from farm to shop accounts for 29% of the hidden costs, and taking it home 16%.
Tiny contribution
The other big contributions come from government subsidies (36%) and the unmet costs of environmental damage on farms, such as cleaning up pollution or replanting hedgerows (19%). But the air- and ship-miles contribution is tiny, less than 0.1%, the study suggests.
Of the two million tonnes of produce imported into the UK by air each year, just 110,000 tonnes are fruit, vegetables and meat, says Pretty. And this compares with a massive 1.58 billion tonnes of food transported by road internally, much of it shuttled between geographically distant distribution hubs and processing plants by farmers and retailers.
Pretty doubts whether this pattern of distribution is likely to change to one that is more locally focused unless there is a shock to the system, such as a huge increase in oil prices. "It all works within the context of transport being artificially cheap," he says.
Van delivery
So for now, says Pretty, the only hope is for consumers to cut the amount of car journeys, but he accepts that only the environmental hard core are likely to respond to the call. And if walking, cycling or public transport is out, the next best option is to order by van. "One trip going to 20 houses is better than each house making a return trip to the supermarket," he says.
"The paper shows that more needs to be done to support local food systems and networks, and the rule of thumb is to source within 30 miles (50 kilometres)," says Ben Reynolds of Sustain, a UK-based alliance lobbying for more sustainable food and agriculture.
The British Retail Consortium, which represents the country's supermarket chains and retailers, says it would "welcome the opportunity to introduce further transport efficiencies".
Journal reference: Food Policy (vol 30, p 1)
Source: http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn7092-driving-food-home-can-cost-the-earth.html
How we make food cost the earth
NewScientist.com News, 5th March 2005
Andy Coghlan
IF YOU want to do your bit to save the planet, try walking or cycling to the supermarket or having your food delivered. Don't imagine you can save the world by buying home-grown produce instead of exotic imports, if you then drive it home.
That's the message for consumers from a comprehensive analysis of the environmental costs of food in the UK. The study has implications for all industrialised nations with similar patterns of food production and distribution.
"Go local is the key," says Jules Pretty of the University of Essex in Colchester and head of the team which conducted the analysis. It concludes that shuttling food by road and rail within the country imposes a far greater environmental burden than the so-called "air-miles" widely touted by greens as the greatest menace.
Using data from previous studies, Pretty and his colleagues estimated the economic cost of environmental damage caused by factors such as car transport, farm pollution and government subsidies. These produce hidden impacts, such as the effect of exhaust pollution on respiratory health and global warming (Food Policy, vol 30, p 1).
Pretty and his colleagues worked out that paying for these impacts would add 11.8 per cent to the price of the average UK food basket. When these extra costs are broken down, transport from the farm to the shop and then to the consumer's home makes up nearly half, while international transport accounts for less than one-hundredth of 1 per cent (see Chart).
The figures rest on Pretty's assumptions about how to convert a vast array of environmental impacts into costs, and this creates plenty of quibble room for critics. But Ben Reynolds of Sustain, a London-based NGO lobbying for sustainable food and agriculture, says that the pattern is so stark that the conclusions would not change fundamentally unless the assumptions are vastly wrong.
Of the 2 million tonnes of imports flown into the UK each year, just 110,000 tonnes are food, Pretty says, so tackling food air miles is a drop in the ocean. By comparison 1.58 billion tonnes of food is transported by road, much of it shuttled long distances between distribution hubs and processing plants. The British Retail Consortium which represents supermarkets and other retailers says that it is in its members' interests to reduce transport costs. "Making existing resources work harder makes both good environmental and commercial sense," says a spokeswoman.
But Pretty sees little prospect that things will change unless there is a shock to the system, such as a huge increase in oil prices. "It all works within the context of transport being artificially cheap," he says. Even home deliveries are more efficient than driving to the supermarket
From issue 2489 of New Scientist magazine, 05 March 2005, page 17
Sustain plan
Food Manufacture, February 2005
Manufacturers, retailers, caterers and public sector representatives will this month discuss setting up a sustainable food centre for London, which might include processing and warehousing.
Dan Keech, a project officer at the Sustain alliance for better food and farming which has proposed the investment, said that the centre would handle food from the regions, as well as sustainable exotic imports.
“We feel that there is a gap in the infrastructural services and support services”, said Keech. A Sustain meeting on February 9 will consider a study by Professor John Whitelegg of Eco-Logica. No cost has been put into the project.
Source: FOOD Manufacture
First UK tomatoes come in from the cold
The Daily Telegraph, 29th January 2005
David Derbyshire
The nights may still be bitter, the winds biting and the first signs of spring weeks away, but tomorrow marks the official start of the British tomato season.
Producers will start harvesting the first new crop of the year this weekend, ready to get the fruit on the high street tomorrow.
The harvest is the earliest ever for cherry tomatoes grown under natural light in the UK and marks a new victory in the battle to make summer vegetables available all year round.
But for some food campaigners, the early tomatoes highlight how shoppers have lost touch with the natural ebb and flow of seasonal fruit and vegetables.
A survey at one supermarket yesterday found that out of the 30 vegetables on sale just seven were traditional British winter ones. While the store was selling mangetout, runner beans, sweetcorn and asparagus shipped from Africa, America and Asia, it appeared to have given up on British cabbage.
The record-breaking cherry tomatoes have been grown in greenhouses on the Isle of Wight. Although the greenhouses are heated, the plants have not been exposed to artificial light, have not been genetically modified and have not been plastered with chemical pesticides.
Wights Salads, the largest producer of tomatoes in Britain, says it is the earliest it has been able to produce a crop. The mild winter and lack of hard frosts helped the plants, the company said.
"Last year we started harvesting on Feb 5, but it's pushing forward all the time," said the company's spokesman, Rik Connor. "The maritime climate here favours growing tomatoes because we don't get the vast fluctuations of weather."
Tomatoes sold in Britain in the winter are often imported from Spain or Israel. In order to cope with the voyage, they tend to have thicker skins and are picked while green.
"Because we are so close, our tomatoes are allowed to ripen on the vine," said Mr Connor. "They also have thinner skins and a better flavour."
Supermarkets and producers argue that year-round availability of vegetables and fruit gives shoppers greater choice.
However, critics argue that we are losing the novelty value of seasonal food. If strawberries are available in December, then the June strawberry season becomes less special, they say.
There are also complaints about the environmental impact of importing food from around the world - particularly when the same vegetables and fruit are grown in Britain - and the loss of flavour when produce is stored for weeks on end.
Christian Cull, of Waitrose, defended the increased availability of vegetables and fruit. "It's bizarre that some people worry about that when we are rightly concerned about people not having the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables each day," he said.
But a survey of the vegetables available in a small city centre Tesco yesterday revealed how dependent stores have become on food transported thousands of miles.
Alongside the British seasonal carrots, sprouts, onions, parsnips, potatoes and mushrooms were Israeli radishes, Ugandan chillies, Kenyan leeks, Tanzanian beans, Mexican spring onions, Thai sweetcorn and Peruvian asparagus.
According to Ben Reynolds, of the food campaigning group Sustain, some of these could have been grown much closer to home.
He said: "It comes down to the misnomer of choice -that everybody wants everything all the time. Obviously in winter there's only going to be a limited amount of produce in season in Britain. The problem is that when there is local produce in season, the supermarkets still import it, as they have done with apples."
Sustain recommends the use of farmers' markets and independent grocers, which usually have close links with local suppliers and producers.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/29/ntom29.xml
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