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This World Food Day almost one billion people around the globe will go to bed hungry. Rising food prices, the global financial crisis and crop failures are likely to make things worse.

The Food Ethics Council, an independent charity that works for a fairer food system, and the Fairtrade Foundation, are calling for the UK Government to renew its commitment to a sustainable food system at home and abroad.

Despite severe financial constraints on the public sector, we urge our government to face up to the fact that the mass availability of cheap food has come at a huge social and environmental cost. We recommend that our government:

• Commits to reducing global poverty, leading international efforts to reduce food price volatility by imposing regulation to limit food price speculation;
• Supports fairtrade and holds the European Commission to its commitments that poor countries are free to protect their food and farming sectors;
• Ensures that UK benefits and minimum wage levels are high enough for families to achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living; and
• Puts its own house in order by committing to the sustainable procurement of all the food that central government buys.

Dr. Tom MacMillan, Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council said:

“The facts about world hunger are bleak, and it’s not just in the developing world that we find people living without enough food. Around 925 million people globally are undernourished, almost 200 million of whom are children under five. Even in the UK around 20% of people on low incomes regularly reduce or skip meals because of financial constraints.

“We already grow enough food to feed all the world’s hungry, but the way food and land is distributed is unfair. It’s estimated that the amount of cereal-based food wasted in the UK and US alone could lift 224 million people out of hunger.”

Harriet Lamb, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation said:

“The question before us is: Who is paying the price for very these very unfair food policies and practices? Will it continue to be those who can least afford it, or will we be able to re-balance the system and shift the cost to those who are in a far better position to pick up the bill?”

World Food Day is a wake-up call to governments, businesses and citizens to work together to defeat hunger, extreme poverty and malnutrition. The latest report from the Food Ethics Council, Food justice, supports that call.

Food justice: the report of the Food and Fairness Inquiry found that our food system is profoundly unfair, and this deep-rooted social injustice hampers our progress towards food security, sustainability and public health.

It examines the symptoms and causes of food-related injustices and analyses the complex relationships between unfairness, environmental degradation and ill-health.

Our Inquiry, comprising 14 experts from across the food sector, including business leaders and trade organisations, found that the UK government has a pivotal role to play in making the global food system sustainable, healthy and fair.

ENDS

Notes to editors
1. The Food Ethics Council believes we can have a food system that is healthy and fair for people and the environment. We work with businesses, government and civil society to help find a way through the difficult issues surrounding food and farming.

2. We have worked on meat and climate change, GM technology, water scarcity, supermarket power, food miles, environmental labelling, and much more.

3. The Food and Fairness Inquiry was a major investigation into the global food system, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. We brought together 14 people from across the food and farming sectors and convened three evidence sessions around key areas of inequity in the food system. The resulting report can be found here.

4. The Food and Fairness Inquiry committee members were Helen Browning OBE, Chair of the Inquiry and Director of External Affairs at the National Trust; Dr. Charlie Clutterbuck, Director Environmental Practice at Work; Elizabeth Dowler, Professor of Food and Social Policy at the University of Warwick; Andrew Jarvis, Principal, GHK; Dr. Susan Jebb, Head of Nutrition and Health Research, MRC Human Nutrition Research; Terry Jones, acting Director of Communications, National Farmers’ Union; Harriet Lamb, Chief Executive Officer, Fairtrade Foundation; Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, Food and Drink Federation; Jeanette Longfield MBE, Coordinator, Sustain – the alliance for better food and farming; Ben Mepham, Special Professor in Applied Bioethics, University of Nottingham; Andrew Opie, Food Policy Director, British Retail Consortium; Christopher Ritson, Professor of Agricultural Marketing, University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Geoff Tansey, Joseph Rowntree Visionary for a Just and Peaceful World; and Paul Whitehouse, Chair, Gangmasters Licensing Authority.

5. The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. An independent certification body, it licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. Recognised by 72% of UK consumers, it appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million farmers, workers and their families across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.

6. Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, fresh and dried fruit, smoothies, biscuits, honey, jams, chutney, rice, herbs & spices, seeds & nuts, wines, beers, sweets, yoghurt, flowers, and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys, cotton wool and olive oil.