The new food review by Defra promises much but offers little*. As far as I can make out, there is a lot of widescreen chin-stroking (sorry, moral leadership) about future food shortages and the need to get green but nothing remotely concrete - unless you count a new website “Food 2030″ for the public to write in with suggestions.

Instead we are left with loads of vague platitudes and some worthy suggestions. My favourite, which appears to have been drawn from the old “Viz Top Tips” archives, is this one:

Supermarkets should swap Bogofs for half-price offers.

o Trialling and introducing retail promotion strategies that are less likely to lead to food waste in the home e.g. “buy one get one free” offers on short life, perishable food items in favour of “half‐price” offers, backed up with hints, tips and recipes to enable consumers to take advantage of promotions.

* Today’s bumpf is only a precursor to something later this year called “Food Strategy for the Future”. Let’s hope it offers a little more in policy terms.

Benn’s problem is this.

1] GM offers the potential to solve food shortages; but there are still concerns about it.

2] Eating less produce flown in from the other side of the world is bad for the environment; but banning it will hurt subsistence farmers in the Third World.

3] Families should eat five fruit/veg a day; but you can’t force them.

4] Over-use of packaging is not very environmental; but the government is struggling to persuade the industry to reduce it voluntarily.

5] Climate change will hit the security of future food supplies; solving this may be outside Defra’s remit.

The department’s “progress” on these hugely important issues boils down to a list that includes:

* In October 2008, Hilary Benn established the Council of Food Policy Advisers to provide advice on the practical measures Government should take to create a healthy, sustainable food system;

* The Change4Life campaign launched in January 2009 encouraging us to ‘eat well, move more, live longer’

* Hilary Benn hosted a roundtable discussion on skills in the farming industry in April 2009;

* Defra is contributing £10 million to the Anaerobic Digestion Demonstration Programme

* By June, the first group of restaurants, cafes and food outlets were displaying calorie information on menus;

* The G8 committed funding of $20 billion over three years to the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative in July 2009 with $1.8 billion coming from the UK

* Hilary Benn has hosted a roundtable discussion on ways to increase production and consumption of fruit and vegetables in England

August 10, 2009 12:26pm in Labour | Comment