Tories support FW campaign

Conservative party leader David Cameron endorsed Farmers Weekly’s Food Miles campaign at the Royal Show this week.

“I am a great supporter of the campaign.

It is highlighting an issue that for too long has been overlooked,” he said.

“Buying food that has been produced locally is to everyone’s benefit.

It preserves the environment through reduced pollution, it promotes human health through a cleaner environment and the consumption of fresher food and is beneficial to the economy – especially the rural economy,” he added.

Mr Cameron added that he will be pushing the Prime Minister to support legislation requiring supermarkets to label the country of origin of all food stocks.

Attending the presentation of FWs petition was Sainsbury’s meat procurement manager Justin James who said the retailer fully supported the ethics of the campaign.

“As a supermarket we are fully committed to British agriculture.

In 2005 we sold 6bn of British produce,” he said.

He added that the retailer was currently responding to consumer demands for more local produce and was exploring ways that would encourage small producers to supply the retailer.

Although other supermarkets were unable to attend, Farmers Weekly so far has responses to its campaign from Tesco and Somerfield.