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17-06-2023, 07:11 PM
Will Hutton
Sun 23 Apr 2023 09.31 BST
Last modified on Sun 23 Apr 2023 13.26 BST
Britain’s system for producing and distributing the food we eat is not working. Last week, we learned that UK food prices rose an astonishing 19.1% in the year to March. Yes, they are rising everywhere, but faster in Britain – over 2022, 40% higher than in the EU.
......
British consumers eat more cheaper, fatty food than other Europeans. As a result, nearly one in three is now classified as obese, the highest in Europe besides Malta and Turkey. Five million people are estimated to be at risk of contracting type 2 diabetes
......
Brexit has imposed a layer of additional costs on household food bills – an average of £210 per household over the two years to 2021
......
Imports from the EU constitute around a third of our food supply: it is now more time-consuming and expensive to navigate newly imposed border controls when importing EU foodstuffs than it used to be
......
All the Brexit promises about cheaper food and warnings about the costs of the common agricultural policy are now revealed as fantastical ravings.
......
the anti-EU critique had its roots in the right’s ideological belief in minimal government, the perfect power of free markets and the moral and economic imperative of running an economy and society around individual choice and responsibility. There should be no “nannying” by government, especially unaccountable EU bureaucrats from whom Brexit freed us. Business should be allowed its head; markets will do what they will do; individuals should take their chances. It is this mindset that is at the root of the food supply crisis and accompanying public health disaster.
......
Powerful lobbying, from a food and drinks industry that employs 3.5 million people, to abstain from effective action has been one important influence, but the key problem, says the institute, is political. Despite the evidence from the success of banning smoking in public places, governments have been terrified of “nannying” accusations. Thus the retreat to ask for only voluntary action by industry, with consumers left to take responsibility guided by food labelling or educational campaigns.
......
But this voluntarism ignores almost everything we know about human behaviour. Human biology welcomes sugary, fatty food; our bodies, once accustomed, crave for at least the same amount of bad food to maintain our body weight. Urging individual responsibility in an environment that supplies ever more of what makes us ill is bound to be a failure.
Much better to read full report at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...g-to-nanny
Sun 23 Apr 2023 09.31 BST
Last modified on Sun 23 Apr 2023 13.26 BST
Britain’s system for producing and distributing the food we eat is not working. Last week, we learned that UK food prices rose an astonishing 19.1% in the year to March. Yes, they are rising everywhere, but faster in Britain – over 2022, 40% higher than in the EU.
......
British consumers eat more cheaper, fatty food than other Europeans. As a result, nearly one in three is now classified as obese, the highest in Europe besides Malta and Turkey. Five million people are estimated to be at risk of contracting type 2 diabetes
......
Brexit has imposed a layer of additional costs on household food bills – an average of £210 per household over the two years to 2021
......
Imports from the EU constitute around a third of our food supply: it is now more time-consuming and expensive to navigate newly imposed border controls when importing EU foodstuffs than it used to be
......
All the Brexit promises about cheaper food and warnings about the costs of the common agricultural policy are now revealed as fantastical ravings.
......
the anti-EU critique had its roots in the right’s ideological belief in minimal government, the perfect power of free markets and the moral and economic imperative of running an economy and society around individual choice and responsibility. There should be no “nannying” by government, especially unaccountable EU bureaucrats from whom Brexit freed us. Business should be allowed its head; markets will do what they will do; individuals should take their chances. It is this mindset that is at the root of the food supply crisis and accompanying public health disaster.
......
Powerful lobbying, from a food and drinks industry that employs 3.5 million people, to abstain from effective action has been one important influence, but the key problem, says the institute, is political. Despite the evidence from the success of banning smoking in public places, governments have been terrified of “nannying” accusations. Thus the retreat to ask for only voluntary action by industry, with consumers left to take responsibility guided by food labelling or educational campaigns.
......
But this voluntarism ignores almost everything we know about human behaviour. Human biology welcomes sugary, fatty food; our bodies, once accustomed, crave for at least the same amount of bad food to maintain our body weight. Urging individual responsibility in an environment that supplies ever more of what makes us ill is bound to be a failure.
Much better to read full report at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...g-to-nanny
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