There’s been much in the British press lately framing Prime Minister Gordon Brown hectoring the country to not waste its food. Sadly, an important message is being clouded by the hostility of the press and its tendency to trivialise and personalise key policy issues.
All of this stems from an important Government report. In true New Labour policy wonk style, the report calls for more joined-up approach to UK food policy that pursues fair prices, safer food, healthier diets and better environmental performance.
This is all well and good, you may say. It goes on to state its key findings include
World food output must rise to feed a growing, wealthier population. The World Bank estimates that cereal production needs to increase by 50% and meat production 80% between 2000 and 2030 to meet demand. But this will need to be achieved in a changing climate and in a world where natural resources – especially water – are becoming more scarce;
For the world and for households, cutting waste would help – in the developing world up to 40% of food harvested can be lost due to problems with storage and distribution, and in the UK consumers waste £10 billion worth of food each year
In farmgate value terms, half of the food eaten in the UK is home-grown, nearly 70% of the rest comes from elsewhere in the EU. Everything else, from tea to pineapples to prawns is sourced from across the world;
The food chain creates 18% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. Farming and fishing contribute around half of this total. Changes to farming practices, such as more efficient use of fertiliser and providing animals with diets that specifically match their nutrient requirements could reduce emissions from agriculture;
A third of the food bought for home consumption is wasted – 6.7 million tonnes. Most of this could have been eaten. Wasting food costs the average UK family £420 a year. Eliminating the unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions that this wasted food produces would be equivalent to taking one in five cars off UK roads. By using 60% of food thrown away by households, enough energy could be generated to provide power for all the homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
If UK diets met nutritional guidelines, 70,000 premature deaths could be prevented each year. On average, adults and children eat more salt, fat and added sugar than is good for their health, and too few fruit and vegetables despite high awareness of the ‘5 a day’ target. A new push on the 5 A DAY campaign is needed.
Now, here’s where the joined-up approach vegan-wise could step in. Put the Grumpy Vegan in charge of Britain’s agricultural policy and this is what he’d do:
1. Switch all government subsidies from animal-based to vegetable-based food products–it’s better for the environment and our health to grow food to feed directly to people
2. Accelerate the replacement of chemicals in food production toward organic farming practices
3. Educate the public to understand why a vegan diet is nutritious and can be tasty
4. Implement a policy positioning meat and dairy products on a par with tobacco products given their social and economic costs to society
Clearly, these are broad strokes and there is much more that needs to be done. At the very least, we can’t allow to go unchallenged the contradictory statement that calls for an 80% increase in meat production and an increase in fruit and vegetable production.
“If UK diets met nutritional guidelines,” says the British government, “70,000 premature deaths could be prevented each year.” Well, Prime Minister, yesterday’s great policy initiative to stop consumption of tobacco products needs to be expanded today to include new joined-up policies to reduce and replace the consumption of meat and dairy products. That’ll say countless human and animal lives.
