Food Campaign

Food production and distribution has many impacts for our health, biodiversity and climate change - not to mention our local culture and community as well.

Richmond and Twickenham Friends of the Earth have long campaigned on this issue. Most of our campaigning activities involve taking targeted action locally to make a difference not only at a local level but nationally too.

We:

• Ask local supermarket customers to voice their concerns regarding supermarket food directly to their local supermarket (e.g., concerns over pesticides in food, fairly traded food and genetically modified food)
   
• Lobby local councillors and MPs to take food seriously
   
• Campaign for policies which promote healthier more sustainable food
  For example, we have encouraged Richmond Council to review and tighten its policy in relation to GM ingredients in Council supplied meals, such as school dinners.
   
• Liaise with local farmers markets on important food issues
   
• Encourage people to shop at farmers markets

The group talking with local people in Richmond about their food views, 2004.

Our summer of campaigning on the Food Chain went very well. We had great fun with our cow costume at various summer events and we collected hundreds of letters to local MPs asking them to support action against the subsidies paid to intensive meat and dairy production which are leading to rainforest destruction because of the vast amount of soya feed now being imported.

259 MPs from all parties, including Vincent Cable and Susan Kramer signed EDM 845 on Deforestation, Climate Change and Livestock in the last Parliamentary session, and Friends of the Earth will be publishing legislation shortly as the next step in the campaign for reform.

A new report called “Eating the Planet” available on FoE’s website (www.foe.co.uk) looks at whether it’s possible to keep feeding the world’s population without everyone becoming vegetarian (it concludes that it is but we have to cut down).

To find out more about the RTFoE Food campaign contact
Vicky Phillips (020 8977 7413)