Farmers attack ministers for not heeding own advice on buying British

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/13/farmers-british-food-uk

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Ministers have come under attack from farmers for failing to heed their own advice to buy more British food.

Last week the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, urged consumers to buy British in order to support the UK's food and farming industry, now the country's biggest manufacturing sector.

But Adrian Ivory, a farmer and the co-chairman of the Oxford farming conference where Paterson made his speech, said that public sector procurement of British food falls a long way short of where it should.

Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers Union, said: "I can see no reason why British produce should not be the standard [in public services such as the National Health Service, schools and prisons]. I think that is what people want and expect."

Paterson told farmers at the conference: "This is a huge opportunity, and it's up to all of us – farmers, food manufacturers and government – to take action. By buying seasonal fruit and veg we can improve the nation's health, help the environment and boost the economy."

He said the public sector should lead the way. "The public sector bought £2.1bn worth of food and drink last year. That's an astonishing amount of money. The public sector should be taking advantage of our top quality products, supporting our world class farmers."

Farmers agree, but are concerned that the public sector is not sourcing produce from UK farmers, and that supermarket consumers are being foxed by confusing labelling that makes overseas products appear to be of British origin.

Ivory told the Guardian that buying British was a lifeline for hard-pressed farmers, and good for consumers. "As a supplier of quality Scotch beef to Asda, I'm all for consumers asking for and buying more British food because it allows family businesses like ours to continue to invest in our farm and the innovation that we employ in our production systems," he said. "It's equally important for public procurement contracts to source British food first – but the reality falls a long way short of where it should. It's incredibly important that the origin of food items is clearly and honestly labelled – British food on the label should mean British food in the packet. However, there are still a lot of unclear and ambiguous labels which mislead consumers into thinking that the food items they buy are from a British farm when they aren't."

At present, public sector bodies are guided by what is cheapest, and this can lead to foreign imports. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was unable to provide up-to-date figures on how much food from the UK is sourced by public bodies, but broadly more than a quarter of food eaten in the UK is imported from overseas.

European Union regulations mean that public bodies are not allowed simply to specify that the food they buy should come from the UK. But some other member states reportedly get round this issue by specifying food that is more likely to originate within their own borders. For instance, by specifying a particular national variety of cheese, or products such as national dishes, they can ensure that the suppliers will be local rather than foreign.

In the UK, Defra has made some efforts towards this approach in the past, for instance by encouraging government departments' catering managers to specify apple juice – nearly always from the UK – in preference to orange juice, which is always imported. But these efforts have fallen foul of budgetary restrictions that demand the cheapest, even though buying British could improve the economy as a whole.

Defra said in a statement: "We encourage the public sector to ensure that all food reaches high UK food-production standards. However, because we live in an EU free-trade area, we can't commit departments to buying only UK-produced food but we certainly encourage it."

James Withers, of Scotland Food and Drink, told the Guardian: "Look at where British food could be going – every government department, like the Ministry of Defence, it's a huge opportunity. But UK public institutions are buying from abroad because it's perceived as cheaper, even if there are lower welfare standards and lower quality products. UK food is competitively priced, and we have very high quality products."

For consumers, trying to buy British is compounded by the fact that labelling can be confusing. Supermarkets can – perfectly legally – label goods as British even if they were only processed here. Meat that originates from livestock raised in other parts of the EU can be repackaged and sold here under a UK label bearing the UK flag, which for most consumers is likely to suggest a UK-sourced meat.

Paterson said that this confusion over labelling was "a conundrum" to which there was "no single solution." Defra said technology, such as a registration code that followed animal products from the abattoir to supermarkets, could help.

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