Brits Launch Twenty Year Sustainable Food Effort
Shoppers in Britain sure love free-range eggs and fairtrade food. Consumer campaigns and changing shopping habits have led three of the biggest grocery stores to ban cage and barn laid eggs, whilst the biggest chocolate companies are gradually moving to fair trade. Now, the UK government is hoping that Brits will do the same for all sustainable food in a big twenty year campaign, called the Food 2030 plan, to revolutionize agriculture.
The Labour government wants a consumer-driven campaign to reward farms that use less water and produce less carbon emissions. The environment secretary is also hoping to build on the one in three people in the UK who already grow their own fruit and vegetables by setting up "land banks" to allow communities to lease land from private landholders. (Urban farming has been popular in Britain since World War II mobilized millions to grow their own food.) The hope for the new plan is that encouraging people to grow their own food will "foster community spirit and skills as well as physical and mental health," reports the Guardian.
The campaign is largely concerned with shoring up food security -- having enough food as well as having healthy and sustainable foodin other words and so-called "revolutionary" methods such as GM crops have not been ruled out. Of course, it looks like the Labour government won't survive the next election so these plans may not come to fruition, but the likely victors will be the Conservative party who have their own plan to help farmers: They have outlined plans to establish a regulatory body that would ensure big grocery stores don't exploit small farmers.
Brits already have an appetite for healthy, ethical food, and building a better infrastructure and better supporting farmers, they could put on a path to join organic, fair trade, and free range as the next green movement led by consumers putting their money where their mouth is.
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