Tag Archives: Owen Paterson

The recent heatwave has got everyone hot under the collar – none more so than MP’s keen to reject a pay RISE. Whilst the country was sweltering the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) proposed a cool 11% hike in MP’s salaries from their basic £66,396 to £75,000 per annum ‘after years of pay restraint’.

The Conservatives considered it ‘entirely inappropriate’ that Government should cost more in times of austerity.

This triggered the Party Leaders to outdo each other in rejecting any increase. PM David Cameron kicked-off by saying the Conservatives considered it ‘entirely inappropriate’ that Government should cost more in times of austerity. His deputy Nick Clegg responded for the LibDems who consider it ‘totally incomprehensible’ given the restraint imposed on other public sector workers. Finally, Ed Milliband topped them both by announcing Labour rejected any increase outright and if it was imposed then personally he won’t accept it.

Westminster watchers are waiting to see if this goes nuclear. Will IPSA be disbanded as part of the public sector cuts and party leaders impose a pay CUT on all MP’s? That’s one way to show solidarity with the country and win the next election.

PR campaign to convince the EU genetically-modified food is the solution to food price hikes.

This news was less than welcome to well-meaning Environment Secretary Owen Paterson who was already having a bad month. Only three weeks after launching his PR campaign to convince the EU genetically-modified food is the solution to food price hikes the world’s leading GM seed producer, Monsanto, announced it was pulling out of Europe.

The Company confirmed it was withdrawing all it’s applications for new crops in frustration at EU delays in approvals. ‘As the EU today is effectively a conventional seed market…we will focus on enabling imports of biotech crops’ it said. In other words: ‘We won’t grow GM in the EU but we will continue to sell GM produce’. Hmmmmmm… Maybe Greenpeace and the Prince of Wales should postpone any celebration.

Meanwhile other campaigners were also having a poke at Owens department, Defra. They launched fresh calls for a ‘plastic bag levy’ in England after it was revealed a record-breaking 7 billion single-use plastic bags were handed out to shoppers last year. The figures from WRAP – the Waste and Resources Action Programme – confirmed that ‘Bags for Life’ sales fell whilst suggesting that top-up shopping at convenience stores was causing the rise, together with online groceries delivered in plastic bags.

England is the only part of the UK which does not have a levy on plastic bags and saw a 4.4% increase in bag usage last year.

In Wales, where a 5p levy was introduced in 2011 usage has plunged by 76 per cent so Samantha Harding, spokesperson for the ‘Break the Bag Habit’ Coalition, said there was ‘no credible excuse’ left for not imposing a levy.

But Owen Paterson’s department, Defra prevaricated and said: ‘We’re considering all the relevant factors, including the pressure on household budgets’ and ‘We intend to work with the industry to encourage the development of a viable biodegradable carrier bag’.

What is not clear is why Defra needs to get involved at all. The Welsh Assembly just introduced a ban and waited for retailers to find solutions, which they were commendably quick to do.

Tesco and Asda have admitted their ‘Everyday Value’ and ‘Smartprice’ Still Water is actually tap water.

Finally, do you remember the episode of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ where Delboy rebottled tap water to sell it as ‘Peckham Spring’? Hilarious – and like all good ideas quickly copied by the competition. Tesco and Asda have admitted their ‘Everyday Value’ and ‘Smartprice’ Still Water is actually tap water bought at one third of a penny per litre before being bottled and sold on for 17p for two litres. Apart from the massive profit margin this makes sense because tap water has already been filtered with chlorine to polish off any nasties. Tesco though were then accused of taking the proverbial in the heatwave by hiking the price for two litres from 17p to 24p.

This not-entirely-earthshaking news was revealed in Cardiff when NHS nurse Ross Evans, 33, went shopping at the Culverhouse Cross Tesco to buy water for his patients. Quite why an NHS nurse was buying water for his patients is unclear but strange things happen in Cardiff. You may remember how Tesco Cardiff barred the Jedi Knight brotherhood from shopping whilst wearing their hooded robes. And banned Elaine Carmody and her friends for shopping in their pyjamas and bare feet.

Anyway, the 33-year old father-of-two said: ‘I didn’t expect Tesco to be so immoral as to put up the price of water in the middle of heatwave and cash in on people’s misery. This is shameless profiteering. When I realised the price of the bottles had gone up from 17p to 24p I put them down again and walked out.’

Beer may well be a better choice.

The Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson comes across as pretty credible when making speeches, but he can be let down by his friends. Last month he made a major speech in Parliament to overcome public scepticism and persuade the EU to allow cultivation of Genetically-Modified crops. His speech was straightforward enough but a lot less entertaining than John ‘Mad Cow Disease’ Gummer who, you’ll remember, made his point by force-feeding his daughter with a beefburger on TV. But Owen still has to persuade the Prince of Wales, Prime Minister and House of Commons Catering Committee to put ‘Frankenstein food’ on their menu.

A meat-based diet is amazingly inefficient in terms of resource-use compared to a plant-based one.

Paterson wants the EU to approve a long list of new GM crops, including herbicide-tolerant maize and sugar beet on the basis they offer increased yields which keep food prices down. Critics say the technology is unproven, threatens human health and the ecosystem and is driven by the corporate greed of food producers, not the needs of consumers. The precursor to Paterson’s speech was a report by the Parliamentary International Development Committee two weeks earlier to the G8 ‘International Summit on Nutrition’ held in London. It is generally acknowledged that a meat-based diet is amazingly inefficient in terms of resource-use compared to a plant-based one, so it was hardly surprising when the Chairman Sir Malcolm Bruce announced:

‘There is no room for complacency about food security if UK consumers are to enjoy reasonable food prices. With the UK never more than a few days away from a significant food shortage, UK consumers should be encouraged over time to reduce how often they eat meat.’

The ‘Springwatch’ presenter and president of the RSPB, Kate Humble was pretty supportive of both. She suggested the Sir Paul McCartney approach to meat consumption was one solution.

One solution is meat has to become a luxury – a treat.

‘Don’t be too quick to knock the science’ she said. ‘One solution is meat has to become a luxury – a treat. We need to stop having bacon sandwiches for breakfast, chicken sandwiches for lunch and steak for dinner.’

Whilst the well-rehearsed arguments for and against GM are kicked back and forth across Europe now could be a good time to read the report. It recommends the UK Dept. for International Development continues to help smallholders in the developing world increase food production and reduce reliance on imports. It emphasizes the damage which rising commodity prices do to the UK food industry and consumers and is particularly critical of the EU requirement that 10% of transport energy must be provided from renewable sources by 2020.

Diverting production from food into bio-fuel solves one problem but creates another…

…as seen when the USA shifted production of maize for export into maize for bio-fuel. The resulting price hike in this staple food sparked riots South of the border.

But the report does leave several elephants wandering through the room e.g. whether GM or better farming practices is the solution and whether DFID’s budget should be hacked in the government spending cuts. It does not shy away from the contentious issue of population control in the developing world and points out that when world population grows from 7.1 billion today to 9.3 billion by 2050 as predicted then food prices (let alone energy prices) will go through the roof. The Committee praises DFID’s efforts to meet the need for contraception in many developing nations and urges HMG to maintain a keen focus on women’s reproductive rights.

The Committee also took some shots at emerging problems e.g. investors who buy up areas of land farmed by smallholders in developing countries. They recommended UK-domiciled corporations are required to be transparent about such land deals.

There is ‘considerable scope for the Government to reduce domestic food waste and set national targets to curb food waste within the UK food production and retail sectors…with clear sanctions for Companies which fail to meet these targets’.

Of course one way to keep prices down for the UK’s (relatively-static) population is to increase domestic production, hence Owen Paterson’s speech. Another is to reduce food wastage. According to the committee there is ‘considerable scope for the Government to reduce domestic food waste and set national targets to curb food waste within the UK food production and retail sectors…with clear sanctions for Companies which fail to meet these targets’. It sounds like portions may be about to get smaller at the Market Cafe – which is one way to curb obesity and save money for the NHS.

Meanwhile, a Good Food news story: The miserable weather this spring may have caused the unexpected surge seen in the number of elvers migrating up the river Severn. Cool weather may have shifted ocean currents and helped the baby eels return to the Severn estuary from their birthplace in the Sargasso Sea. Elvers are a local delicacy in Gloucester but when exported to the Far East sell at a price, pound for pound, higher than caviare. I was introduced to catching elvers many years ago by a friend who fries them with smoky bacon and serves them with scrambled egg on toast. Very nice, but too expensive nowadays for anything but an occasional treat.

Netting is strictly controlled by the UK Environment Agency to between February and May and because of the decline the EU has imposed a ban on exports to outside Europe.

Sadly, elver numbers have fallen by 90% over the last 20 years (no-one really knows why) so the European Eel is now on the EU list of endangered species. Netting is strictly controlled by the UK Environment Agency to between February and May and because of the decline the EU has imposed a ban on exports to outside Europe. The French have, predictably, refused to sign-up to the ban and continue to employ their preferred fishing method of trawling by boat. This is of course far less fun than risking your life with a hand net on a muddy Gloucestershire riverbank through a freezing night.

Hopefully the eels now know all about the French and will continue to return to the UK instead.

The joke potential of the horsemeat scandal is just too good to ignore:
So a horse walks into a bar and the barman says: ‘Sorry mate, we don’t serve food in here’.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has told the Food Standards Agency to investigate claims that regular warnings of horsemeat entering the food chain were ignored.

Public anguish at revelations that we’ve been eating Shergarburgers has now eclipsed outrage at tax-avoidance by Amazon and Starbucks. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has told the Food Standards Agency to investigate claims that regular warnings of horsemeat entering the food chain were ignored. The Meat Hygiene Service allegedly warned DEFRA two years ago that the ‘horse passport’ scheme designed to stop horsemeat from entering the food chain was not working – ironically because of concerns about British horsemeat exports of which there are some 9,000 animals a year. The service was worried about the 75 UK organisations which can issue horse passports and make it easy for fraudulent traders to export horse carcasses as beef.

Ignoring the warnings may have been doubly-unfortunate as the Romanian government has banned horse carts from public roads as ‘not consistent with membership of the EU’ and horsemeat has sometimes been found to contain the veterinary anti-inflammatory drug phenylbutazone. This can be dangerous to humans but the risks are pretty slim so anyone consuming horsemeat is likely to remain stable.

This agricultural co-operative is accused of fraudulently re-labelling some 750 tonnes of horsemeat before selling it onto manufacturers like Findus who churned-out some 4.5 million ready-made meals in 13 countries.

Where did all the horses end up? Not, it seems the Welsh retirement home for pit ponies in Pontypridd but the French meat processor, Spanghero near Toulouse. This agricultural co-operative is accused of fraudulently re-labelling some 750 tonnes of horsemeat before selling it onto manufacturers like Findus who churned-out some 4.5 million ready-made meals in 13 countries. The irony of selling horsemeat onto the ‘Rosbifs’ may not have been lost on the French government but given how snobby they are about their reputation for cuisine the Consumer Affairs Minister Benoit Hamon promptly closed it down.

Testing by the FSA has so far identified seven different products which have been withdrawn from sale: Tesco value frozen burgers and spaghetti bolognese, Aldi’s special frozen beef lasagne and spaghetti bolognese, the Co-op’s frozen quarter-pounder burgers, Findus beef lasagne and Rangeland’s catering burgers. There’s no mention of any other Quarterpandas. The Chief Executive of the FSA, Catherine Brown has confirmed the number of people in schools, prisons and hospitals who have unknowingly eaten horsemeat will never be known but also confirmed there is no public health risk as it was hygienically processed. She did though admit that personally she wouldn’t eat a Findus Lasagne and the solution was more accurate testing and labelling. From now on, meat processors will have to clear even more hurdles.

Some industry sources are claiming EU Directive 854/2004 is the root cause of the scandal. The BSE and E-Coli.crises of the 1990’s forced the UK to introduce stringent inspection requirements to a point where our meat hygiene regime was generally considered to be the best in the world. A meat inspector would be present on a daily basis in meat processing plants inspecting carcasses and coldrooms, but after the directive the FSA and DEFRA cut costs and staff numbers from 1,700 to around 800 today. As a result it might now be anything up to 8 weeks between inspections which leaves plenty of time for a rogue operator to pass off horsemeat as beef to his customers.

The 2006 EU Directive defined the inspection requirements so that inspectors need only be present ‘with a frequency appropriate to achieving the objectives of this regulation’. This so-called ‘light touch’ approach is consistent with EU policy of placing responsibility for safety on producers by self-assessment of the risks rather than enforcing compliance through government inspection. This is obviously much cheaper to implement and consistent with EU directives on issues such as Health & Safety. The ultimate sanction for non-compliance is criminal prosecution and an unlimited fine.

‘Consumer confidence in meat products is once again very low and true consumer protection will not be achieved until daily, unannounced inspections are back in place.’

In response to the public outcry the FSA has now introduced additional unannounced inspections at meat plants, but whether this is happening at foreign plants is unclear. Unison, the trade union representing the meat inspectors said: ‘Meat inspection, Environmental health and Trading standard services have been severely reduced by government cuts and light touch regulation. Consumer confidence in meat products is once again very low and true consumer protection will not be achieved until daily, unannounced inspections are back in place.’

If you want to know more about what has gone wrong with the food chain I can recommend two books by investigative journalist Joanna Blythman: ‘Shopped: The shocking power of British supermarkets’ and ‘Bad Food Britain – How a nation ruined it’s appetite’. Sources close to Downing Street say Owen Paterson has already bought up all unsold copies. In a newspaper article Joanna pointed out the blindingly-obvious:

‘If we want to eat safe, wholesome food that won’t make us fat or ill, we need to choose unprocessed ingredients and cook them ourselves. The very essence of food processing is taking apart natural foods and reinventing them in a value-added form that is more lucrative for their makers. The horsemeat fiasco has merely provided us with a snapshot of just how under-policed, and liable to fraud and adulteration, manufactured ready meals and processed meat products really are’.

So a man orders a burger in a restaurant. The waitress says: ‘Would you like anything on that?’ and he says: ‘Yes, a fiver each way’.