The government’s independent sustainability watchdog the Sustainable Development Commission has said that the 5 A DAY message will not succeed while high-calorie low nutrient processed foods are promoted so aggressively and that a concerted approach is needed to control the power of the supermarkets.
The SDC’s review of policies said the aggressive promotion of processed foods makes fresh produce appear expensive and unappealing and that government cannot successfully combat obesity, waste, climate change or fair-trade issues without harnessing the multiples.
The report Green, Healthy and Fair - A review of the government’s role in supporting sustainable supermarket food also found that too many supermarket practices are unhealthy, unjust and unsustainable in its recent study.
Obesity and waste are being fuelled by multi-buy promotions, over-packaging and non-recyclable packaging and climate change policies aimed at reducing emissions from supermarket operations fail to address transport issues, including goods transportation and the effect of planning laws on customers’ car use.
Professor Tim Lang, commissioner at the SDC said: ”Government cannot resolve the problems of obesity, waste or climate change alone. Given the enormous influence wielded by supermarkets, working with them effectively is essential.
“There are many areas where the government and retailers are already working together, but government needs to be more ambitious. With public scrutiny of retailers’ behaviour increasing, many supermarkets are keen to work with government to develop a green, healthy and fair food system. In fact, our research with supermarkets has shown that in areas such as climate change or recycling policy, they are often frustrated by the lack of clarity or long-term strategy on which they can plan for the future.”
Although the government maintains an official ‘hands-off’ approach to supermarkets, the SDC found 19 Whitehall departments with a total of almost one hundred policy responsibilities related to supermarkets and food with conflicting policies from different areas of government are also making it impossible to achieve targets - for example, supermarkets and consumers are confused over the relative merits of ‘local’ food versus the value to overseas development of foods such as green beans airfreighted from Kenya.
The SDC, which is chaired by former Green Party and Friends of the Earth leader Jonathon Porritt, identified six priority areas for government and supermarket action: waste; nutrition and obesity; climate change; fair supply chains; ecosystems and water.
The report recommends: Defra develop an ambitious packaging Strategy to follow its waste strategy; a mandatory front-of-pack system of nutrient labelling to eliminate the confusion caused by multiple schemes; a clear agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the food chain by 2020; phasing out refrigerant greenhouse gases, HCFCs, by 2015; an examination of the OFT to ensure it safeguards fairness in the supply chain; an enforceable definition of local food and standard fair-trade systems to bring Fairtrade out of the realm of NGOs; a Green Tractor mark for universal sustainability standards and a water footprint system.
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