Sustainable Food Conferences 2009

"Food is not a commodity like others" 
Clinton says on World Food Day '08

LATEST FOOD REPORTS
relating to Health and Environment

SUSTAINABLE 
FOOD GUIDE

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Nov 30 - Dec 1 Sustainable Agrciultural Supply Chain Conference "Delivers The Farmers As Well As The Retailers, Manufacturers And NGOs: A Real Chance To Engage With The Other End Of The Supply Chain On Sustainable Sourcing".

Nov 20 Hovis announce that it is moving to 100% British wheat across its entire portfolio. From January, the bread company said that only British wheat will be used to make products, requiring about an eigth of UK crop.

Nov 14 Incredible Edible Day in Todmorden, Yorkshire where our Charlie will be running a workshop on 'What are the Real Challenges for Public Sector?' Workshop Report. Our Visit to Tod

Oct 26 Compass Group launch its Truly British and Truly Local criteria "to clearly define what British and local sourcing really means, giving clients and customers the information they need to make informed choices and opening up opportunities for small locally-based suppliers."

Oct 23 DEFRA launch Fruit & Vegetable Task Force that "will help us to grow and eat more fruit and vegetables and improve the nation’s health as a consequence." We ask: "What happened to the "Strategy for Sustainable Fruit n Vegetables" of only 10 months ago, and whose link has now broken with no trace of of its existance now on DEFRA site?

October 19-21

CABI Global Summit "Food Security in Climate of Change" brought together "environment and agriculture ministers and other senior government officials from around the world....major funding organizations and representatives from international development and corporate organizations. Read our Review, with links to all presentatations.

October The Future Policy Award 2009 celebrates successful policies for Food Security and the Human Right to Food. "Policies are nominated that create fair and sustainable food systems, working towards ensuring access to adequate food for all citizens". The winner this year is The Belo Horizonte Food Security Programme (Brazil) (film). In joint second place the Cuban policy on Urban Agriculture and the Tuscan policy on the Protection and Promotion of the Heritage of Local Breeds and Plant Varieties are both highly commended.

Sept 23-25 Better Food at Work: Nordic & Baltic experience: "One of the most important settings is the workplace where a great part of the adult population eats one or more of their daily meals, and which, increasingly, take on a health responsibility." Aalborg University Estonia

August Horticulture Week's Save our Science campaign "calls on the Government to match-fund growers' HDC levy contributions as a first step towards securing a better future for horticultural research and the industry it serves." Leave your messages of support in their forum

July Onward Food Ethics Council Inquiry into "Food & Fairness". If you have any views on How fair is the global food system? Who are the winners and losers? & Who is responsible for making it fairer? whether you work in farming or food, in business, policy or campaigning or simply eat their products.

July 16 Walmart host a Sustainability Milestone Meeting, where they explained how they are working to accelerate and broaden the company's efforts in sustainability.

July 9 Charlle is chairs the Conference "GM - The Way Forward pdf" @ Leatherhead Food International.

July 3 Unite the Union tables resolution @ Tesco's AGM, a first for a British Trade Union, calling "for action to end the exploitation and discrimination of workers employed by companies in the UK and Ireland that supply meat to Tesco.".

June
Our mate Geoff Tansey won "an unprecedented double" at the Guild of Food Writers Awards for his book The Future Control of Food. This is a "guide to the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity and food security." It discusses the the changes to global rules and how this affects the direction of research and development, the nature of global negotiation processes and various alternative futures.

May 5

Landgrab Conference: The race for the world's farmland

"With increasing frequency, wealthy, food-importing countries as well as the private sector are investing in farmland overseas. This conference examines the patterns and motivations of such investment, considers the implications for investors, host countries, and food security, and features case studies from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the former Soviet Union." Live on Webcast from Wisconson.

April

Council of Food Policy Advisers Notes of Meetings in progress throughout 2009/10.

March

Smith Institute Feeding Britain - A high-level seminar on food supply in the UK March 25 08.30 am with Hilary Benn + Shadow Secretary, + Chair of Council of Food Policy Advisers. Everything points "to the need for new thinking, new policies and possibly changes in existing international institutions in order to meet what is generally agreed to be a serious challenge to the global food economy." Feeding Britain pdf

RELU Land Use in the Future - Natural Science & Engineering week of events

February

EFRA Select Committee on Challenges for the UK in securing food supplies up to 2050. Written Evidence to Committee (all 70 Memoranda from CLA, NFU, Freinds of Earth etc).
Webcams of oral evidence: (for complete list)

Session	Oral Evidence	Some points
Feb 25	Tesco and Unilever (with Food & Drink Fed)	Tesco have not thought about 'Food Security' in 20-30 years time.
Feb 4	Chatham House Rothamsted/Warwick WRI	Chatham House (Andrew Jarvis) says: why bother increasing UK production on a few fields in East England when we could lever our science worldwide to help produce more for us.
Jan 28	Tim Lang & John Beddington	TL to provide definition of "Food Security"

The All Party Parliamentray Group (APPG) on Agriculture and Food for Development launched new inquiry into the UK's role in tackling the challenge of Global Food Security up until 2050. First oral evidence session Feb 25. Close for written evidence March 31.

January

New Food & Environment Research DEFRA Agency launched "to promote better integration between policy development, scientific evidence and inspection services. The merger will also enable a more rapid response to protect the public interest, and remove delays for businesses involved in both national and international trade". Originally this agency had been set up to "to support and develop a sustainable food chain" - See Hays

The World Food Crisis and the Global South Conference addresses "the perception that there exists a ‘global food crisis’ is commonplace, with claims that the ‘era of cheap food’ is over. Yet there is no consensus on either the causes or the long-term implications of the current situation." 27-28 Jan SOAS London.

2008

2007