Terry Jermy, Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk and Founding Member of the Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG) has launched a campaign to support the county’s farmers with a call to secure more honest labelling for British produce.
The ‘Spring Push for Farming Profitability’ campaign, spearheaded by the LRRG is calling on the Government to introduce ‘Honest Labelling’ to improve the profitability of British farms.
British consumers overwhelmingly both want to buy more British produce and clearly understand the origins of their food yet face complicated labelling with overlapping and unclear symbols. Honest Labelling will improve consumer choice through two new mandatory labels and ensure that British farmers are properly rewarded for maintaining high animal welfare and environmental standards.
Based on the Made in Australia system, new mandatory origin and manufacturing labelling will make it clear whether food is grown, produced, or made in the UK, and what percentage of the ingredients are British.
Improved origin labelling would also help the Government meet its commitment for 50% of publicly procured food to come from British or high standard suppliers by making it easier to confirm the origin of food.
Terry Jermy, MP for South West Norfolk and Founding Member of the Labour Rural Research Group said: “As is the case across the country, South West Norfolk is made up of a patchwork of small and medium farms, crucial to both our local economy and communities, and forms the bedrock for a more sustainable UK food supply. However, for too long, our higher-welfare British farmers have been undercut. Our proposed policy changes would be a win for our farmers, a win for consumers, and a win for farmed animals too.
“These proposals would also help drive demand for products from higher-welfare farming practices and help consumers play their part in delivering the biggest boost to animal welfare in a generation.”
A tiered 1 to 5, colour-coded welfare label would clearly communicate the conditions animals were reared in and how they were treated, as well as highlighting British farmers’ pre-existing high quality and welfare standards.
To level the playing field, the LRRG are also calling on the Government to ensure that the same food standards we have domestically are applied to imported goods, so British farmers aren’t undercut. The LRRG are also urging for the Groceries Code Adjudicator – the body responsible for overseeing deals between supermarkets and farms – to be strengthened to help tackle bad supermarket practices and make sure farmers get a fair deal. When almost every farmer is experiencing unfair practices, clearly something is wrong.
Previous Conservative administrations failed to produce a tangible post-Brexit plan, and the cost of inputs, equipment and labour has increased considerably, as have regulation and environmental requirements.
When the previous Conservative Government did negotiate deals, they were at a huge cost to farmers.
The LRRG is also asking the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to launch a review into what duplicate and unnecessary regulations can be removed, without lowering welfare standards.
