A welcome return home for the Olympic Torch
- Today's leader
PM’s plea on food wasting
Monday 7th July 2008, 11:55AM BST.
Hard-pressed families were told by the Government today to stop wasting food – and earn a bonus by saving up to £400 a year on their shopping bills, writes London Editor John Hipwood.
A study by the Cabinet Office reported that families throw away an average £8 a week in leftovers and food left unused in the fridge.
Launching a global plan to tackle the food crisis at the G8 summit in Japan, Gordon Brown said: “If we are to get food prices down, we must also do more to deal with unnecessary demand, such as by all of us doing more to cut our food waste which is costing the average household in Britain about £8 per week.
“That’s why I am proposing that we take action to both increase the global supply of food and reduce unnecessary demand.
“We will be discussing at the G8 how we can help Africa realise its great potential as a food producer and we would like to see production of key food stuffs in Africa double over the next five to 10 years.”
Mr Brown said waste could be reduced by better storage of fruit and vegetables to stop them going off, and by planning meals in advance to ensure food is used up rather than thrown away.
Today’s Cabinet Office report shows families in Britain spend an average of about nine per cent of their weekly income on food, rising to 15 per cent among the poorest 10 per cent of households.
Those on lower incomes also spend proportionally more on staples such as milk, eggs and bread – which have seen the biggest price rises over recent months.
Families in the UK are throwing away a total of 4.1 million tonnes of perfectly good food every year, costing each about £420 annually, according to the 10-month study.
Environment and Food Secretary Hilary Benn warned food prices were unlikely to fall again to the low levels of a year ago, and stressed the importance of increasing production across the globe.
“We are living at a time when, over the next 50 years, there will be another 2.5 billion mouths to feed on this planet so we are going to need a significant increase in food production if we are going to make sure that everyone has enough to eat,” he said.
Friends of the Earth food campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said it was important to tackle food waste but also called for changes to policies on biofuels and international trade.
She said the G8 nations were promoting policies that were “causing the food crisis in the first place”.
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Perhaps Brown would like to do something about the “best before” dates on food? Families will not eat food that’s a day past its “best before” date for fear of getting some kind of fatal illness, hence they throw the food away, when, in reality, the food is fine. It’s another case of this nanny state giving us a problem via the rules and regulations it has imposed and then blaming us for the consequences.
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Quite agree ‘H’. My Mum, bless her, worries herself daft about use-by and sell-by dates. She either throws away perfectly good food or else she (a widowed pensioner) only buys smaller packets of food, which cost more in long run, for fear of the contents ‘going off’ because there’s only her to eat them.
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@H. St. John Peasbody: That’s a rather ill-considered comment. The key to avoiding throwing away food that’s out of date is not to buy it in the first place. Plan what you’re going to eat for the week and then buy to plan. Also, exercise portion control so that you don’t buy or cook more than you’re going to eat; this also helps to reduce calorie intake and leads to less wasted packaging. It’s common sense. As for buying smaller packets of food… last time I looked most fruit and veg was available loose, not in packets.
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Right, what next – Woolton Pie, “Dig For Victory”, “Don’t be at home to Mr Squanderbug”, or perhaps government appointed inspectors to make sure we’re not using more than three inches of bathwater?
What’s his problem – worried there won’t be enough left in the trough for him and the rest of his freeloading chums?
I can’t believe the sheer breathtaking cheek of this after the recent vote on MPs’ expenses.
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This is a very complicated issue and as on other issues recently Gordon Brown appears to show a lack of knowlege on the underlying issues many of which emenate from Brussels and are therefore sacrosanct to him. For example the whole issue of agricultural subsidies to uneconomic units in “mainland Europe” and in particular their redirection to centres of modernised production [in which area the UK is a leader].
He indicates that on average households waste about £8 per week but perhaps should be made aware that many OAP`s dont even have this amount left to spend on food.
Another good start would be to explain to the average citizen that “Best Before” is generally meaningless and that “sell by” is critical, most people don`t seem to know the difference. A lesson in economic purchasing was given on TV recently by one of our leading chefs who admitted to scouring his local supermarket each Monday to buy food marked down because of its proximity to a best before date.
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I think the Government could get its messages over in a more acceptable and understanding way. British people don’t like being told what to do in their private lives, and with so many new laws, taxes , regulations and advice emanating from Government, care needs to be taken in how helpful advice is given by Government , otherwise it does not feel like advice , but bullying and dictat.
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How can anyone take the gutless clown serious!
He had 10 years of wasting our taxes, and day by day this futile New Labour project sends us further in the mire, not fit for purpose, not fit to govern.
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Once again the government telling us what we can and can’t do.Dont drink dont smoke buy a more efficient car. Meanwhile the taxpayers money affords these fools trips to Japan and anywhere else, while at home they travel around in Jaguars and Range Rovers.When everyone packs in drinking smoking and driving, what will they rake in money from.
This country has gone down the pan.
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How dare he tell us once again how to live our lives. They have just given themselves a pay rise, + 24k allowance, + 10k communications allowance, and an extra £7,500 London weighting. They are ripping off the tax payer – to whom they should be accountable; as they like every government body are employed by us and should be accountable to us.
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its good to hear gordon brown talk some sense for a change, this is a critcal issue for our economy and our environment
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It’s worth reminding people that Gordon Brown hasn’t “told” anybody to do anything, as has been reported above. What he actually said was this…
“We have got to get the price of food down through cutting the tariffs and subsidies in Europe and America, so we need a world trade deal.
“We have proposed that we double food production in Africa so that they can sell to the rest of the world as well.
“It is right to remind people that about £8 a week is wasted in our food consumption and we could do better at home as well.”
That reads somewhat differently to “Hard-pressed families were told by the Government today to stop wasting food – and earn a bonus by saving up to £400 a year on their shopping bill”, as summarised in the Shropshire Star report!
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wonder when GB last set foot in a shop?
possibly as frequently as he buys petrol.
Never has a man been so out of touch with the people of this country.
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A lesson in economic purchasing was given on TV recently by one of our leading chefs who admitted to scouring his local supermarket each Monday to buy food marked down because of its proximity to a best before date.
It`s not confined to a Monday and we do it all the time.
Mr Brown, this story was doing the rounds weeks ago,fingers still on the pulse?
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Most people understood this point we did not require the so called leader of our country to make this point for us.
However perhaps if Mr Brown et Blair had not wasted billions of tax payers money on pointless wars in Iraq, Afganistan and the peacekeeping missions now required, this country would not be in the state it is in today.
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Here here, Phil!
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Sorry Phil, Stan, I can’t agree with the “pointless wars” bit. I would look rather at the billions we hand to the EU and the impact that the endless regulations it churns out have on us. I don’t know what GB was thinking of when he hopped on this particular bandwagon, or perhaps it was a case of it seemed like a good idea to his advisors at the time?
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So what do you think the point of the war was then Bob? it certainly hasn’t brought peace (war never does).
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Surely the obvious thing we should all do to stop wasting food (other than to eat more!) is to start composting at home, its a real fun activity to get a bin a pile in all your garden waste, food waste, cardboard, leaves, twigs etc and watch the miracle of nature rot it down and produce lovely thick brown soil which you can then add to the garden. So come on everyone if you have to make just one resolution this year, take up home composting!
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I had to read the statistics above twice – “an average of about nine per cent of their weekly income on food” – and a higher percentage if you are very poor.
So theoretically, if I earn’t £1000 a week (and I don’t) i’d spend £100 or so on food? Well I do spend £100 a week on food for my family (and no we don’t throw very much out either) so I must be very, very poor because that’s a lot more than 10% of my wages.
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Bob – the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was VERY Pointless.
Apart from the huge cost we paid in fighting it – both financial and lives of our armed services lost, it has also damaged our standing in the worldwide community to the extant that even in small contests ie Eurovision no other country will vote for us. If you look at the damaged in that contest how do you think we are faring industrially with relations with other countries? Not very good!!!
So for Brown to say that we should save money by not throwing away food is a joke. Everyone is pennypinching at the moment and it is all a consequence of bad leadership from Brown and Blair before him
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why slag of brown, you are just jumping on the band wagon, this is a serious point man, people are starving and we all landfill edible food, listen to the man, its important and glad we have some serious politians to address these serious issues
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and more of our tax money going to that bottomless pit of africa. something tells me that the money that has been sent there over the last few decades wasnt used properly otherwise we souldnt need to be sending more. surely in a few decades you can teach someone to feed themselves? how are they going to spend the next billion of our tax money? in 10 years time are there going to be renewed calls to send even more aid to africa? something is not right with the current process!
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i think its criminal that people throw food away, the best thing to stop this though is the rising prices, food is too cheap in the country that is why we are obese and landfill so much yummy grub
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I work in IT and I would make a suggestion, if you order on line you can monitor your consumption patterns better and get the right amounts delivered, to ensure you throw away less food that way
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I find it amusing that while Brown was saying we should no waste food – he was enjoying a 6 course banquet in the Far East.
very Ironic
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i agree with G.B. there is too much food wasted in this country because its too cheap and we are all so rich after 14 years of economic boom, i think this is the same with energy, soon as the prices go up, people will eat up and turn the lights off etc
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Im glad he raises this serious issue, i see my friends do it all the time, they think they are green by recycling but chucking out food is the environmental equivelent of driving a 4 x 4, it must be stopped
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yes food in landfill sites release more methane into the environment but its also all those waste lorry journeys – next time you are stuck behind and artic on a rainy day on the M54 think about it 40% of those journeys are not necessary they are taking food to a warehouse only for you to drive it home and put it out for the bin men to drive around further, think of the carbon footprint!!!!!!!!!!
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Agree with some of the statements on this page but don’t think wasting food is the highest priority item on the agenda GB should be concentrating on right now.
Ideally we would all be eating fresh cooked food every day with minimal waste and peelings etc going into our composting bins or wormeries, but it isn’t an ideal world and sometimes buying fresh and cooking, rather than getting prepared meals, is far more expensive – not always but sometimes.
I’m a working Mum who tries to plan meals over the week with fresh food but for example I bought fruit at a weekend which was rotten on Tuesday (peaches from Tesco this week) and have had veg go the same way – the food industry is not helping us!
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ironically what we need is more non recyclable plastic packaging to keep the stuff fresh in the first place? AND more energy guzzling fridge freezers to preserve it?? How do you square that equation then mr green brown?
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probably the bigger cause of lorries on the road is demand for aggregates etc for house building, well that will stop soon hey!! I agree we should eat less and waste less food though, we need to be like the italians and have a love affair with real food, slow food, not fast food, more quality less quantity, that will result in less waste too
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agree we should waste less food, we need to learn better cooking skills like my gran always used to use left overs bones and veg to make soups
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im just glad we finally have an intelligent PM raising intelligent and important issues
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good on the PM hes clearly greener than that tory fake
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he;s right of course
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