Food eco labels to aid shoppers
Shoppers could soon be filling their trolleys according to the environmental impact of each item after the Government unveiled plans to introduce a new eco-labelling system.Shoppers could soon be filling their trolleys according to the environmental impact of each item after the Government unveiled plans to introduce a new eco-labelling system. Speaking at the NFU conference in Birmingham, Environment Secretary David Miliband said "carbon labelling" would help both consumers who often felt "confused" and producers who felt environmental efforts went unrewarded. It would be similar to one already announced by Tesco, which said that it planned to introduce new labels on the 70,000 products it sells to allow shoppers to compare carbon impacts. Read the full story in the Shropshire Star
Speaking at the NFU conference in Birmingham, Environment Secretary David Miliband said "carbon labelling" would help both consumers who often felt "confused" and producers who felt environmental efforts went unrewarded.
It would be similar to one already announced by Tesco, which said that it planned to introduce new labels on the 70,000 products it sells to allow shoppers to compare carbon impacts.
It is currently investigating how to develop a "universally accepted and commonly understood" measuring system and has not said when labelled products will be in its stores.
Mr Miliband said he hoped the food industry would be able to establish a way to show environmental information on packaging alongside nutrition details.
"Consumers want to be able to choose food that is not just good for the health of their families but good for the health of the planet.
"I can envisage the next step where, as well as nutritional standards, environmental standards become the norm on food packaging."
But he warned: "This is not an easy piece of work and will take time, particularly if this includes the whole lifecycle impact of food from production to distribution.
"In the shorter term, we want to develop environmental standards specifically for food production.
"This could cover a range of factors including energy inputs, fertiliser use, soil management, waste management and water pollution."
Delegates at the NFU conference in Birmingham earlier heard the union's head, Peter Kendall, warn that the UK dairy industry faced "meltdown" unless supermarket chains acted to create a fairer deal for their suppliers.
Mr Kendall said it was "encouraging" that retailers were pledging to become more green and responsible, but the proof would lie in the way they treated farmers.
Speaking before his keynote address, Mr Kendall called on the big retailers to follow what he called the "Waitrose model".
"Waitrose pay a fair price," he said.
According to the NFU, dairy farmers get just over 17p a litre for milk that costs 21p a litre to produce.
By Nathan Rous at the NFU annual conference in Birmingham
