Sustainable Food

HC 879, Eleventh Report of Session 2010-12 - Volume I: Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence

Author:: House of Commons - Environmental Committee
Publisher:: TSO (The Stationery Office)

Price: £23.00

Obesity and diet-related illness is on the increase, fewer young people are being taught how to cook or grow food and advertisers are targeting them with junk food products. 'Sustainable Food (HC 879)' examines what steps the Government may take to help relieve this problem in the face of an increasing global population.

The Committee make the following recommendations:

stricter advertising limits on junk food marketing;
food skills, such as cooking and gardening, should be part of the curriculum in all schools;
new national planning policy guidance for Local Authorities should ensure communities have access to healthy food and land to grow their own produce;
Government Buying Standards for food must be improved on meat and dairy and extended to cover hospitals, prisons and schools;
the Office of Fair Trading's remit should be amended so supermarkets are not blocked from cooperating on sustainability initiatives; and
the scope for simple and consistent labelling on the sustainability of food products should be examined.

The report warns that there is no overarching food strategy in place. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Green Food Project, due in June, examines only part of the food system and the focus on 'sustainable intensification' risks ignoring wider social and health implications.

The UK does not currently have the basic science base to deliver more sustainable food and relying on markets to identify and direct where the research is needed is likely to fail.

Extent	224 pages	ISBN	9780215045003
Size	A4	Price	£23.00
Format	Paperback	Published	13 May 2012
Availability	Colour copy: 3 - 5 days	Delivery	Delivery options and charges