Parliamentary report calls for Government action on sustainable food

The Food Ethics Council welcomes the publication of the Environmental Audit Committee's report on Sustainable Food, published today.

Sue Dibb, the Food Ethics Council's Executive Director, who gave evidence to the inquiry says:

"The strong message from this report is that Government needs to do much more to provide the strategic policy framework for achieving a fair food system that provides healthy and sustainable food for all. We hope the Government will respond positively to this recommendation. Businesses need a clear sense of direction in order to plan and invest, and consumers need help in understanding what sustainable food means in practice.

"The Food Ethics Council is particularly pleased that the Committee accepted our argument that competition policy needs to be revised to allow businesses to collaborate to promote sustainable food. It is clear form our conversations with business leaders that this is a very real barrier to progress."

The report also supports our calls for greater public sector research to support the transition to sustainable food systems and for the Groceries Code Adjudicator to have sufficient powers to be an effective supermarket watchdog.

The Food Ethics Council calls on Government to accept the report's recommendations and to work across government, with businesses, researchers, consumers and NGOs to deliver on the actions it identifies.
Sustainable food systems are essential to address the overwhelming global challenges to health, the environment and social justice that we face.