Legislation

Following the Food Standards Agency's recent announcement that Northern Ireland pork is not affected by contamination and remains unaffected by the contaminated feed incident, the Republic of Ireland authorities have now put in place measures to restore supplies of Irish pork and bacon.

As the investigation continues into the contamination of Irish pork, pubs, bars, resturants and supermarkets are being warned not to sell or serve any Irish Pork until further notice.

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation was last night awarded the prestigious title of Credit Suisse Outstanding Woman in Business at this year’s National Business Awards. The event was hosted by Andrew Marr at a ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, has responded to the Department of the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs’ discussion paper, “Ensuring the UK’s food security in a changing world”

The Food Standards Agency has spoken out against the current consumption levels of saturated fat in the UK. The average UK citizen eats 20 per cent more than the government recommendations – a statistic which has caused concern in the Agency and discussions to launch a public health campaign.

The government has recently released a ten-month Strategy Unit project looking at food policy. It will focus on food issues in the UK such as trade and productivity restrictions, rising demand and climate change.

Following the debacle of introducing genetically modified crops, fears have arisen over the latest scientific breakthrough in food – cloned animals. Potential safety issues and the moral questionability of cloning animals are cited as the biggest objections by those opposed to cloning – ‘time bomb’ diseases such as BSE in cows, for example.

Animal rights campaigners, Muslim groups, nutrition experts and other organisations are fiercely criticising proposals to feed chickens with pig remains in response to the global food shortage. However, with cereal feed prices rising drastically, farmers could save millions using by-products of slaughterhouses.

Farmers are citing that a decline in numbers of migrant workers is a precursor to a shortage of fruit and vegetables. The decline in the exchange-rate value of the pound has been blamed for the shortage, alongside the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme limiting foreign labour to just Bulgarian and Romanian nationals this year.

ADAS
Environmental consultancy ADAS is working with Defra and the Carbon Trust to monitor the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions created by the food supply chain.

Defra and the Carbon Trust are currently working with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a robust, consistent approach for measuring GHGs, which organisations can use to calculate and reduce the the carbon footprint of products they buy or sell.