FOOD SECURITY PUBLICITY

This week we heard a lot of warnings about "food security", about the impacts of climate change and global population growth on our food supply over the next five to 20 years.

Following the publication of the report on UK food security by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) we were told:

• "We have to feed another two and a half to three billion mouths over the next 40 to 50 years" (Environment Minister Hilary Benn);
• that food production policies are to be debated with consumers, farmers, the private sector;
• Britain is more self-sufficient now than it was in the 1930s and 1950s, but everyone needs to start thinking ahead about how to produce more using less water and less fertiliser.

The publicity about this report made readers feel powerless and insecure - there appears to be a real danger that there will not be enough food for everyone in the future, and there is little that we can do about it. There was a more positive, but much less publicised, message as well, things that we can all do to ensure that there will be enough food for everyone. This was a call for a re-think on "best before" and "sell by" dates to reduce waste.

Reducing "... food waste has the potential to cut carbon emissions equal to taking a fifth of the country's traffic off the roads." See Supermarket offers and food waste targeted in government's food strategy.

At present roughly one third of the food that enters our homes is not eaten but is wasted: reducing this waste will go a long way to ensuring that there will be enough food for everyone.

Early readers of this blog will realise that reducing food waste is something I feel very strongly about - I won't repeat my entries of January 15th and 22nd - new readers may like to read them in the "archives" - or click on the tag "food" below.