Report back by Rob Squires on the Labour Party Conference fringe event at the Climate Clinic, Sun Sept 21st, 2008.

Two years ago, at the 2006 Climate Clinic I put the question to Alan Simpson MP (Nottingham), “What kind of government intervention can we expect, in order to support local food?” to which he replied that there was nothing in the pipeline what-so-ever. Two years later on, the situation does not seem to have changed significantly, although during this time the issues of the meet, dairy and fishing industries, on the environment, global food security, and health, have shot up the political agenda, from obscurity, to a point where their devastating effects are now acknowledged and beginning to be discussed in public.

                                                        
Speakers:

• Hilary Benn MP - Secretary of State, DEFRA;
• Felicity Lawrence - Guardian Columnist and writer,
• Vicky Heard – Friends of the Earth.
• Chair: Richard Watts – Sustain.

Hilary Benn gave the first talk, and used a fairly typical politician’s approach, by not saying anything particularly remarkable, other than covering the major issues that are threatening food security*: climate chaos, oil prices, unstable markets, and increasing prosperity in India and China, driving the global demand for meat production, thus increasing competition for land resources. He was noncommittal when quizzed by Adam York from Glebelands Market Garden, about why the government is more committed to funding research into GM crops and nitrate fertilisers, than it is in funding organic production, saying that we should, “Go with the science”, and that he was opposed to people who trash GM trials.

For me the most interesting statement by the Secretary of State was his admission that he has been vegetarian for 36 years. After his talk, and some quick questions, he left the meeting early, in order to attend three other fringe events, including a meeting with the NFU, who incidentally are committed to increase meet and dairy production.

Following Benn’s departure, Felicity Lawrence, author of Not On the Label, a best selling exposé of the food industry, and Vicky Heard gave interesting talks. There was plenty to say about the interconnected issues of climate change, peak oil, biofuels, and rising global populations (predicted to be 9 billion by 2050). Also in light of the economic crises plenty of attention was given to the government’s intervention to protect the interests of bankers, and shareholders, whilst there is very little intervention to protect food security.

Also there was a lot of talk about meat, diary and fish production, which course 18% of climate change, greater than the entire global transport industry, which causes just 13.5%. Meet, dairy and fish production are also at the heart of pretty much every major environmental problem on the planet, plus have a huge impact on food security and physical health. (See my article on 09/05/2008 for a report on VIVA – Vegetarian’s International Voice For Animals in Manchester.)

Non of the speakers were willing to speculate on how expensive food is likely to become in the future, although there would seem to be a general expectation that it will become a lot more expensive. My overall impression of the event was that, despite the secretary of state being a vegetarian, for the government, it is business as usual, with little or no intention to move away from policies that support global free markets and corporations.

Although I am not proposing that everybody should become vegetarian or vegan, I do think there are overwhelming personal, social, and environmental reasons why most people in the UK should eat less, and more local animal produce. At the recent Food Futures board meeting (on which I act as a community and voluntary sector representative), we were discussing how Food Futures should be communicating with the public. My point was that communications have generally been around healthy eating, and that there needs to be a subtle shift in focus, to healthy and local (or sustainable) eating. As part of this shift in focus, and in light of the damaging effects of the meet, dairy and fish industries, I propose that there should be a sharper focus on encouraging people to think more about their animal produce eating habits.

* The Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) will shortly be publishing a paper entitled ‘Ensuring the UK's Food Security in a Globalised World’. This report will set out the key factors which affect food supply and pricing, and encourages discussion with stakeholders including producers and retailers about ensuring long-term food security. See the government report, Food Matters: Towards a Strategy for the 21st Century for more information on this.