From the FOOD ETHICS COUNCIL

Introduction

We have sent you this newsletter so we can keep you in touch with the work of the Food Ethics Council without swamping you with email. If you would prefer not to receive future editions, please email Ann Baldridge with the subject "REMOVE FROM MAILING LIST".

In this edition:

• The Food and Fairness inquiry needs you! Please share your views now at www.foodethicscouncil.org/foodandfairness
• Water labels on food: issues and recommendations
• Job and intern opportunities

Please forward this newsletter to any friends and colleagues who might be interested.
Kind regards

Liz Barling
Communications Manager,
Food Ethics Council

Vote in this month’s poll:

Organic nutrition research shows:

• Evidence of no difference
• No evidence of difference

The Food and fairness inquiry needs you!

“Fat is a class issue. Healthier diets cost more, so policies that tackle obesity must also address economic inequality.” That is the opinion of Prof. Adam Drewnowski, a leading US academic working on food poverty. Along with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, best-selling writer Raj Patel and many others, he has given evidence to our major independent inquiry into food and fairness.

Run by the Food Ethics Council, the inquiry committee brings together leading figures from across the food sector including Fairtrade Foundation CEO Harriet Lamb, Andrew Opie from the British Retail Consortium, Paul Whitehouse, chair of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, and Jeanette Longfield who runs the campaign group Sustain.

The committee has launched an online public debate to gather as many views as possible about what’s working and what isn’t in our food system. The committee will talk about those views at their meetings in the autumn. Please let the committee know your opinions and own experience – what issues should be on the Inquiry’s radar? Can you recommend evidence they should look at? You can comment as briefly or as fully as you like!

In addition to the online forum, the committee is accepting formal and informal submissions of evidence by directly email or post. Contact researcher Santi Ripoll to submit evidence on how fair the global food system is, who the winners and losers are, and who should take responsibility for making it fair. More information on the Food and Fairness inquiry, including the terms of reference, can be found here.

Please circulate this announcement to friends, colleagues and email lists that may be interested.

Water labels on food: issues and recommendations

We need water – lots of it – to grow food. We use 140 litres of water to make a cup of coffee, and 8,000 litres to produce 500g of beef.

Our use of water to produce food becomes a critical issue when water is taken out of an ecosystem faster than the system can be replenished by natural processes. This over-exploitation can lead to a range of environmental problems, including decreased river flows, shrinking lakes and polluted groundwater.

The Food Ethics Council has produced a report for Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, assessing how policy and industry initiatives can help to reduce the water footprint of the food we grow and eat. We looked at the value of labels in promoting sustainable water use and their effectiveness in communicating water footprints to consumers.

We found that there are many factors to consider when assessing whether water has been used sustainably during a production process. They include the amount of water used, where it comes from, how its use affects the local ecosystem, what other uses water in that location is needed for, and how decisions are made about the water used.

We recommended to Sustain that a water stewardship labelling system would best address the complex criteria involved in judging water sustainability. You can read the full report, and our recommendations here.

Job and intern opportunities

Congratulations to Ann Baldridge, our office manager, who has just been offered a full-time position at the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership. Ann has worked for the Food Ethics Council for five years, and will be a hard act to follow.

However, replace Ann we must, and so we are currently recruiting for an office manager to work part time in our Brighton office. We are looking for dynamic person to ensure the smooth running of the Food Ethics Council office. A full job description including salary range and hours can be found here.

We are also recruiting for research and communications interns to support our project on food and fairness and our communications and media work respectively. Job descriptions and more details, including how to apply, can be found here.

Please pass these job opportunities on to anybody you feel may be interested in applying for them.

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Food Ethics Council, 39-41 Surrey Street, Brighton BN1 3PB, United Kingdom
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