back to menuThe Chairman of the Food Standards Agency has been announced. He is Professor Sir John Krebs, formerly Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and a Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Zoology at Oxford. The appointment is not without controversy, but Professor Krebs has said publicly that his commitment is to put consumers first, restore public confidence, and insist on the highest standards in all aspects of food. He will, he says, publish the ‘science’ and "there will be no closed doors in the Agency"
The Deputy Chairman is to be NfCG Individual Member, Suzi Leather, who has an outstanding reputation for representing consumers’ interests, particularly those on low incomes. The Chief Executive is to be Geoffrey Podger, well known to members of the MAFF Consumer Panel. He has played a leading role in creating the new Agency and is currently head of the joint Food Safety and Standards Group of the Department of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
The way we shop, prepare (or do not prepare) and eat our food has changed out of all recognition, even in my lifetime. The way our food is grown and sourced from all over the world has changed just as much. I was familiar with farming in the 1950s but even a fully organic farm nowadays is unfamiliar.
Is all this change for our good? Could we not, during this next century, rediscover a philosophy of humane animal rearing and of sustainable crop growing without monoculture, which makes farmers dependent on just one crop, so that they have to take unprecedented precautions to ensure that it does not fail?
Could we not also rediscover a philosophy of civilised eating, where a meal is more than just a refuelling necessity but an important social occasion? We have to eat to survive but within this necessity there are opportunities, which our ancestors understood, for intellectual exchange and understanding but which we are neglecting to our disadvantage.
Let us get rid of pretentious menu descriptions such as ‘pan fried’ Halloumi (goat’s milk cheese made in Cyprus). After all, how else would you fry it? Then there are roasted vegetables. What is wrong with baked, as in baked potatoes to accompany the roast rib of beef - or should that be ‘baked’ beef’? Let us insist on the French practice of ‘fixed price’ menus.
During the first week of January 1 bought some groceries at a local supermarket. They had a bogof ( see page 13) for Avocados so I put two in my basket. I noticed that they did not have any labels. Obviously taken off to alert the till operator to the special offer, I thought. Not so, it seems. The good lady looked closely at one, turning it round and round to find the label. Finally she asked "what is it?". "Avocado Pear" I replied without thinking. She spent some time consulting a book." Are you sure?" she said. "Look up ‘Avocado’" I suggested and she found it. When the code was keyed in, the two-for-one offer was apparent. "Are they nice?" she asked. "Yes, particularly with shrimps" I replied, thinking that the sooner they installed Vegi Vision the better.
A Ford Focus has been on show which contains three times the amount of recycled material in its manufacture as is in the usual car. The company uses 9,000 tonnes of recycled materials each year in its European factories and the cars themselves are around 85% recyclable by weight. The problem for most of our towns and cities is that markets for these materials are unstable and may require long-distance transportation.
Incineration is expensive but produces power where it is needed though, despite improved treatment of the emissions, there are still doubts as to what happens to hazardous chemicals during the processing and how much toxic dioxin is released. The ash still has to be disposed of, usually in a landfill site. [A Ford Ka is on show at the London Aquarium which is full of fish swimming around. Of course my grandsons tried to open the door! - Ed]
Have you noticed that this is the 200th issue for the year 2000! It took some cunning manipulation to achieve, as did the 199th issue for the end of 1999!
This issue is for the period up to March. We shall then resume our normal bimonthly publication for April/May. Please send contributions to reach me by March 8th - No Smoking Day - by whatever means suits you best. Those who use a word processor should be able to copy the article onto a floppy disk and I have received contributions successfully by e-mail (john.brown6@virgin.net).
The address is No. 6 Priory Gardens, Dartford, Kent. DA1 2BE and 01322 280673. This is also the fax number. Apologies to anyone who sent me a fax or e-mail in the week beginning January 10th and received no response. Both communication systems had temporarily failed and I felt quite cut off from the world!
John Brown
Copyright: The material contained in Consumer News may only be reproduced by federated groups unless otherwise indicated. The articles do not necessarily represent the views of the National Federation of Consumer Groups, its Groups or its members. © 2000 NfCG
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