NEWS
European
Union Conciliation on Procurement Directive
The EU Procurement Directive has been clarified on applying sustainability
criteria in tender evaluation.It leaves the door open for consideration
of any sort of environmental concerns in the award phase (e.g.
external costs related to air pollution).
original source: Sustain
£77m
for fruit and school scheme
One million children are now receiving free fruit at school every
day. The milestone has been achieved under the National School
Fruit Scheme (NSFS), set up to promote healthy eating and help
tackle obesity.
Oxfam
citical of CAP
A new report by Oxfam describes the CAP as "perverse"
and condemns it for distributing one fifth of the budget to only
2% of farmers.
Oxfam’s report shows how payments in the cereals sector are
determined by the size of the holding and how this rewards large
farmers disproportionately. Initiatives such as organic cultivation,
or the pursuit of more environmentally friendly methods, are not
sufficiently rewarded by the current system.
NFU
slams inaccuracies of Oxfam report, branding it as inaccurate
and one-sided.
Call
for new supermarket code
An alliance of 15 environmental, farming and consumer organisations
have called for a new statutory code of practice to be imposed
on the UK's biggest supermarkets. The alliance – which includes
Farmers For Action, Farm and the Soil Association – said
it wanted the existing code scrapped whatever the outcome of the
Office of Fair Trading's impending review of the code.It also
called for the new code to be backed up by a supermarket watchdog,
created to ensure that it would benefit consumers, protect suppliers
and stop supermarkets abusing their market power.
Hill
farms teetering on the breadline
Agricultural families in the Peak District are existing on less
than the minimum wage according to a report into rural deprivation.
It found the average hourly income was £2.50.
The study also found farm incomes have dropped by 75% over the
last 10 years, with hill farmers particularly badly affected by
the decline in agriculture.
Small
organic farms under threat
Price pressure and poor returns could push small and medium organic
farms out of business, leaving only huge industrialised units
as the survivors, according to Patrick Holden, director of the
Soil Association.
Speaking at the association's conference in Edinburgh on Friday,
9 January, Mr Holden said he passionately believed small, family-run
organic farms should, and could, be viable.
The solution, he suggested, lay in arming the public with information.
Farming
and food strategy group to continue for another year
Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs, has given Sir Don Curry's Implementation Group
another year to continue their work on the government's wide-reaching
Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy.
EU Council Resolution on hospital nutrition
The Council of Europe adopted a useful new resolution which means
that Countries should be drawing up new strategies on tackling
poor nutrition in hospitals and making food provision part of
the care programme.
For instance they will have to draw up and implement national
recommendations on food and nutritional care in hospitals and
base these on assessments of nutritional risk which should take
into account nutritional status and the severity of disease.
For a full copy contact Sustain.
PUBLICATIONS / WEBSITES
Canteen
survey
The Sustain Canteen survey is available for sending out to the
public.
EU
Sustainable Procurement Update November-January 2003/2004
for the European wide (and not just food) procurement initiative
ICLEI - available as an email from Sustain.
It includes details of the the ICLEI World Congress
EVENTS
DEFRA Food Procurement events
These workshops will address the key issues of the Initiative
from a national and regional perspective, with a mixture of presentations
and interactive working.
London 9th Feb; Bristol 10th Feb,Birmingham 17th Feb, York 19th
Feb
There will be a cost per delegate of £50 + VAT
Contact Amy Thompson
Growing for Local
Markets29th March 2004
Growing with Nature, Pilling, Lancashire
This event is aimed at growers who wish to develop a local market
or who want to explore other local opportunities.
To book a place please call: 0117 987 4587 or 0117 914 2400
JOBS / TENDERS
Cardiff Riverside Market - market and community
projects manager
The Market Association is seeking a manager
for their award-winning project work, helping to develop the market
and related community food and health activities.
For an informal discussion, contact Steve Garrett on 029 2022
7982
www.riversidemarket.org.uk
Adverts cost £100 (circulation over 1000).
Please send copy to:mail@locafood.org.uk
