Thought for food
Food Ethics Council
Platonic ideal of a cheese sandwich realised in Britain
Think global and buy local, say British food gurus
Many labels on food 'misleading'
Local food 'greener than organic'
School dinners around the world
UK seas 'in peril' – says report
Where is the best place on Earth to eat?
Middle classes are junk-food eaters
Some Baltic Sea Fish Too Toxic to Eat, WWF Says
Think fruit, buy fruit – then throw it in the bin
Common skate a symptom of UK marine crisis
Olive-oil acid 'cuts cancer risk'
Chickens bred for meat have a friend at the EU
Say, is there really a toad cooked in that hole?
Puppets aid healthy diet lessons
Environmental catastrophe that can be averted
We must act now – before the world runs out of fish
Health advice to eat more fish 'is threatening stocks'
Britain says safe to ease mad-cow controls
Phasing-out of meat ban marks end of BSE crisis
Experts name the smelliest cheese
£600m foot and mouth fiasco
Food Ethics Council
Platonic ideal of a cheese sandwich realised in Britain
Think global and buy local, say British food gurus
Many labels on food 'misleading'
Local food 'greener than organic'
School dinners around the world
UK seas 'in peril' – says report
Where is the best place on Earth to eat?
Middle classes are junk-food eaters
Some Baltic Sea Fish Too Toxic to Eat, WWF Says
Think fruit, buy fruit – then throw it in the bin
Common skate a symptom of UK marine crisis
Olive-oil acid 'cuts cancer risk'
Chickens bred for meat have a friend at the EU
Say, is there really a toad cooked in that hole?
Puppets aid healthy diet lessons
Environmental catastrophe that can be averted
We must act now – before the world runs out of fish
Health advice to eat more fish 'is threatening stocks'
Britain says safe to ease mad-cow controls
Phasing-out of meat ban marks end of BSE crisis
Experts name the smelliest cheese
£600m foot and mouth fiasco
Thought for foodTo think ethically about our food is to ask what it is really worth, to us and to others.On average in the UK, we only spend a tenth of our household incomes on food. But its actual cost to us is far greater, because every year we also spend £3 billion subsidising agriculture and at least £1.5 billion cleaning up after it. Even then, our national diet is so unhealthy that heart disease, obesity and related ill-health annually cost £2.5 billion in lost work days and NHS treatment. Not only are we paying more for our food than we might expect, but its value in our society is also greater than the sum of its costs and benefits. When we consider what our food is worth, we must therefore ask broader questions about such issues as choice and fairness, as well as counting its costs. Do people have a right to food? How do decisions we make about food in this country affect the livelihoods of people elsewhere? What effects do different production methods have on the environment? Is food from animals produced humanely? These are questions for us all, as consumers, in business and in government. An ethical approach helps us to address such economic, environmental and moral concerns. Ethical concerns are more than just sentiment. At the Food Ethics Council we carry out research and develop tools to help make ethical thinking a standard practice in policy, business and everyday life. ↑ Top ↑ |
Food Ethics CouncilThe Food Ethics Council (FEC) was established 1998, in response to widespread public concern about recent developments in food and agriculture. The FEC is independent of government and industry and not affiliated to any political party or religious organisation.Since 1998, it has published invaluable reports on ethical issues ranging from drug use in farm animals to intellectual property in agricultural research. The FEC has an 'open access' policy, and all reports can be downloaded free as pdf files (see here). The most recent report, launched in November 2004, Just Knowledge? Governing research on food and farming argues that the ethics of science and technology – the values and assumptions that get built in during research, innovation and regulation – must be opened to greater public scrutiny and challenge. It also explores how that can be done. Here is the full report. Here is a summary of the report, and its launch symposium. Here, in full, is the FEC's thought-provoking statement about its aims (also available as a printed leaflet). ↑ Top ↑ |
Platonic ideal of a cheese sandwich realised in Britain05/03/2005When the legendary American food writer Ruth Reichl brought her team of restaurant reviewers to Britain, they were bowled over by the fare on offer… But while top restaurants like Gordon Ramsay and the Fat Duck at Bray, both of which have three Michelin stars, inspired her admiration, it was a £3 toasted cheese and onion sandwich from a market stall that most blew her away. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/05/nchees05.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
Think global and buy local, say British food gurus03/03/2005LONDON – People should buy their food as much as possible from local sources as part of global efforts to stop potentially catastrophic climate change, British environment experts said on Wednesday. They stressed this did not mean shutting down world trade in food – comparatively little of which travels by air or sea – but radical reform of road distribution in developed countries that sent even carrots hundreds of miles to reach consumers. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29806/story.htm ↑ Top ↑ |
Many labels on food 'misleading'03/03/2005The nutritional information on some food products is 'wildly inaccurate', a consumer magazine has warned. Which? looked at 570 nutrients in 70 products and found just 7% exactly matched the quantities on the labels. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4311087.stm ↑ Top ↑ |
Local food 'greener than organic'02/03/2005Local food is usually more 'green' than organic food is, according to a report published in the journal Food Policy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4312591.stm ↑ Top ↑ |
School dinners around the world01/03/2005In Britain there has been much debate about the healthiness – or more particularly the unhealthiness – of school lunches. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has promised to toughen the minimum nutritional standards of school meals in England. But at present, a snapshot survey of pupils' eating habits showed that 40% of pupils had eaten chips that day at school and 85% had eaten sweets, cakes or biscuits. BBC News takes a look at what pupils in a selection of other countries are eating during their lunch breaks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4298245.stm ↑ Top ↑ |
UK seas 'in peril' – says report01/03/2005Fishing and climate change are harming UK marine life, according to a report by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4307901.stm ↑ Top ↑ |
Where is the best place on Earth to eat?Not Paris, Rome or New York... but London27/02/2005 London is the best place to eat on the planet, according to America's leading food magazine. The latest edition of Gourmet says its restaurants are far superior to rivals in Paris, Rome and New York. Editors of the 'food bible' said they were 'blown away' by London's food. 'The glory days are back, said one. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/27/ngrub27.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
Middle classes are junk-food eaters26/1/2005The British middle classes are eating more junk food and exercising less, according to new research from University College London, which was published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. http://www.naturalproductsonline.co.uk/home.asp?ItemID=348&rcid=70&pcid=69&cid=70 ↑ Top ↑ |
Some Baltic Sea Fish Too Toxic to Eat, WWF Says(Now that we are seeing wild Baltic salmon substituting ever-depleting stocks of Scottish salmon…)25/1/2005 - OSLO Some fish from the Baltic Sea may be too toxic to eat because of industrial poisons that are also harming wildlife from seals to eagles, the WWF conservation organisation said on Tuesday. It estimated that about 31 kg (68 lb) of poisonous PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, accumulated every year in fish caught in the Baltic Sea from 1980 until the early 1990s 'and almost certainly ended up on people's plates'… http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29183/story.htm ↑ Top ↑ |
Think fruit, buy fruit – then throw it in the binBy David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor22/1/2005 Millions of shoppers are buying their weekly quota of fresh fruit, piling it high in the fruit bowl and then watching it go off, according to research. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/22/nfruit22.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
Common skate a symptom of UK marine crisis19/1/2005 - LONDONThe Common Skate has declined so much around Britain's shores that recent surveys have failed to find a single one, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29081/story.htm ↑ Top ↑ |
Olive-oil acid 'cuts cancer risk'10/1/2005 - LONDONScientists in Chicago say they have uncovered why a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil seems to cut the risk of developing breast cancer. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4154269.stm ↑ Top ↑ |
Chickens bred for meat have a friend at the EU10/1/2005A broiler chicken's life is not a happy one, but the EU wants to make it better by improving standards for hygiene and welfare during the birds' short lives. Chickens bred for their meat, known as broilers, are closely packed in large sheds in massive flocks of between 20,000 and 50,000 birds, reaching slaughter weight in six to seven weeks. Nearly 46 billion such chickens are reared in the world. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28869/story.htm ↑ Top ↑ |
Say, is there really a toad cooked in that hole?By Tom Leonard29/12/2004 British art, fashion and music may have conquered New York over the years, but the city's taste buds are proving harder to win over. Despite a string of 'British' restaurants opening in the city this year, New York's traditionally adventurous diners are proving reluctant to embrace the notion that British food can ever be more sophisticated than fish and chips, say restaurateurs. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/29/wfood29.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
Puppets aid healthy diet lessons10/12/2004 - LONDONFinger puppets, story books and a 'fruit and veg CD' are being sent to schools to help educate children about the importance of healthy eating. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4085335.stm ↑ Top ↑ |
Environmental catastrophe that can be avertedBy Charles Clover, Environment Editor8/12/2004 The collapse of the world's fisheries is the greatest environmental challenge facing the human race after global warming, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution said yesterday. Urgent action is needed to prevent more species becoming extinct or further damage to food supplies, it says. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/08/nfish108.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
We must act now – before the world runs out of fishHRH The Prince of Wales6/12/2004 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/12/06/do0601.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
Health advice to eat more fish 'is threatening stocks'By Charles Clover, Environment Editor6/12/2004 Government advice that people should eat two portions of fish a week should be scrapped because rising consumption could destroy depleted fishing grounds, says a report out tomorrow. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/06/nfish06.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
Britain says safe to ease mad-cow controls2/12/2004 - LONDONBritain moved to put nearly two decades of crisis over mad cow behind it on Wednesday, saying it was safe to scrap a key measure protecting humans from the brain-wasting cattle disease. The UK farm and health ministries said Britain could start removing the Over Thirty Months (OTM) rule, whereby cattle over that age are banned from entering the food chain, and replace it with a new testing system after mid-2005. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28380/story.htm ↑ Top ↑ |
Phasing-out of meat ban marks end of BSE crisisBy David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor2/12/2004 The ban on meat from cattle aged 30 months or older is to be phased out, a year and a half after Government advisers declared that the risk to the public from BSE was negligible.The belated announcement, which effectively signals the official end of the mad cow disease crisis in Britain, was welcomed by farmers yesterdat. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/02/nbse02.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
Experts name the smelliest cheeseBy David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor26/11/2004 Even the most devoted admirers admit that it's not a cheese you would choose to enjoy in a confined space… the overpowering first impression when presented with a plate of Vieux Boulogne is of unwashed feet and unwashed tom cat. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/26/ncheese26.xml ↑ Top ↑ |
£600m foot and mouth fiascoBy Charles Clover25/11/2004 Taxpayers will have to pay an extra £600 million towards the costs of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic, according to the European Commission, because of concerns about the way the epidemic was handled. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/25/nfnm25.xml ↑ Top ↑ |