Food and farming minister Lord Rooker was yesterday forced to admit that his attempts to force a domestically-oriented public procurement policy across the halls of Westminster have failed to date.
“I feel that this should be a more patriotic government and have tried to drive a policy across the departments of Whitehall that would encourage more people to buy more from British farmers,” he said yesterday.
“So far we haven’t succeeded on anything like the scale we should have done - there is a £2 billion market out there and we haven’t got close to it yet.”
Rooker was responding to criticism from both opposition parties. First Conservative leader David Cameron told the NFU Conference: “It is a national disgrace that we don’t have a proper public procurement policy for British food,” he adding citing that only five per cent of the meat eaten by the British army is domestically produced. “I know that there are rules on open procurement, but don’t try and tell me that the French army eats British beef.”
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg joined the debate at the conference. “Government should look again at what it buys,” he said. “Every year, 617 million school meals are served in England. And the NHS spends £300m on food. Isn’t it time they started buying sustainably?”
