Government fails dismally to make Food Matter

On the day it is due to publish a report on the importance of food to public health and the environment(1), campaigners have criticised the government for not putting its money where its mouth is.

The attack follows the publication of a government report(2) which shows that the public sector is buying cheap produce from poor countries without any assurance that it has been traded ethically. The report shows that only 8% of tea and coffee purchased last year by the Department of Communities and Local Government was fair trade certified. At the Foreign Office, dignitaries and Heads of State who visited the UK between 2007 and 2008 are not likely to have been served fairly traded refreshments after it was revealed that only 18% of the tea and coffee purchased by the department met fairly or ethically traded accreditation.

Alex Jackson spokesperson for the Good Food for Our Money campaign, said: “Government food procurement is currently a mess, allowing food to be bought with our tax payers' money that is bad both for people and the planet. Buying food from poorer countries, without any assurance that is has been fairly traded, is the tip of the iceberg. Procurement standards are weak and not enforced and there is a lack of political will to improve. The food bought using our money should improve our health, our economy and the environment.”

In a second embarrassing revelation, the publication of a leaked email(3) shows that the £48 million pound School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme will not include sustainability criteria or be used to support British farmers. The leaked email, from a company responsible for managing the contract for supplying £48m worth of fruit and vegetables to schools throughout the UK, states that food procurement decisions will be based largely on cost and ease of management rather sustainable development, which was described as “fluffy”. The email also shows that public sector contracts are not including smaller, local suppliers in tenders for school fruit and vegetable contracts it make any tender “hugely complex” and “impossible to manage”.

Alex Jackson commented: “This leaked email is just one example of where the government is paying lip service to the 'Food Matters' agenda. The biggest single step the government can take to improve the healthiness and sustainability of our food system is to use the £2 billion of tax payer's money spent each year on food to help the environment and British farmers”.  

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1) “Food Matters: One Year On”, is billed as the follow-up to a landmark Cabinet Office food policy paper published a year ago which intended to radically improve the health and sustainability of food consumed in the UK. The original “Food Matters” report, commissioned by Gordon Brown in one of his first actions after becoming Prime Minister, examined the implications of current UK food consumption and production on the economy, society and environment and set out objectives for the country's future food strategy. The report made specific reference to the importance of government purchasing power through public sector food procurement to lead this change.

2) Information comes from a report published by the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs, as part of the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative, on the amount of domestically procured food used by government departments. The report is available at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/procurement/pdf/psfpi-datareport081125.pdf

3) This email was from a senior purchaser for NHS Supply Chain who manages the tender process for the School Fruit and Vegetable scheme.

ENDS

For more information please contact Alex Jackson on 0203 5596 777 / 07734 902909 (mob) or, if unavailable, Richard Watts on 0203 5596 777 / 07710 782719 (mob).

 

Note to editor:

1. The Good Food for Our Money campaign aims to achieve primary legislation that will introduce mandatory standards for 100% procurement of healthy and sustainable food in the public sector.  The campaign believes that the public sector has a responsibility to purchase healthy and sustainable produce, not least because this food is bought with tax payer's money. This money must be spent on food which supports people's health and well being and the environment. Only by introducing mandatory procurement standards can government achieve the necessary change, economies of scale and investment which is required to achieve healthy and sustainable public sector food.

The campaign is run by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. Sustain advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. It represents around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level. Details of our work are at: www.sustainweb.org.

2. Food Matters: Towards a strategy for the 21st century was published by the Cabinet Office in July 2009, and featured a policy proposal for a Healthier Food Mark to improve the health and sustainability of public sector food, see; http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/strategy/assets/food/food_matters1.pdf

3. The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme was launched in 2000 and by the end of 2004 covered all of England. It provides a piece of fruit or vegetable each day to just under two million 4-6 year old pupils in 16,400 LEA maintained infant, primary and special schools in England. The supply arrangements for SFVS are broken down into 9 regions in England. Each region will feed approximately 200,000-300,000 children every day.

4. A product meets fair trade accreditation when it is proved to guarantee better prices and decent working conditions for producers, and certifies local sustainability and fair terms of trade. 

Below is a table showing the percentage of all tea and coffee purchased by six government departments that was accredited fair trade in the year 2007/2008. The figures were published by the Department of Environment Food and Rural affairs as part of the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative.

Government department	% fairly traded tea and coffee
Department for Communities and Local Government	8%
HM Treasury	10%
Home Office	10%
Foreign Office	18%
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	30%