Public inquiry launched on Food and Fairness

Just how fair is our food? News of hunger, obesity and bumper supermarket profits assail us over our Fairtrade breakfast brew. The world’s not perfect, but aren’t we doing enough?

As the global food crisis and tight family budgets make this quandary sharper than ever, a major public inquiry wants your help.

How fair is the global food system? Who are the winners and losers? Who is responsible for making it fairer?

Whether you work in farming or the food business – or simply eat their products – you can give evidence until 16th July 2009.

The Food and Fairness Inquiry, commissioned by the Food Ethics Council, is led by a committee that includes leading figures from sectors and communities with a stake in food and farming.

Helen Browning OBE, chairing the Inquiry, said:

“The British public has an inbuilt sense of fairness – just think of the outcry over MPs’ expenses. But being fair isn’t always a simple case of right and wrong. What if fairness clashes with another aim, like tackling climate change or improving public health? How do we decide then what counts as the right thing to do?

“From fair trade to global hunger, food can teach us a lot. It’s seen some of the boldest efforts to tackle inequality, and some of the worst cases of exploitation.

“We want as many people as possible to contribute to our inquiry, and help increase the profile and clarity of debates about food and fairness. We want to hear first-hand experience from consumers and people working in food and farming, as well as relevant research.”

Once the committee has received your evidence, it will examine what lies behind success stories and failures, and seek to understand the responsibilities of the British government, businesses and public in promoting a fair global food system. The Inquiry’s findings and recommendations will highlight consensus and differences among the members.

The Inquiry will collect written evidence from May 2009 and hold public hearings in September, October and November, reporting in the spring of 2010.

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For more information about the Food and Fairness Inquiry or the Food Ethics Council, please contact Liz Barling, communications manager, on 01273 766 654 or liz@foodethicscouncil.org.

Notes to editors

1. The Food Ethics Council is a charity that provides independent advice on ethical issues in food and farming (www.foodethicscouncil.org). Our aim is to create a food system that is fairer and healthier for people and the environment.

2. The Food and Fairness Inquiry committee invites all interested parties to submit any written evidence that they consider relevant to the Inquiry by 16th July 2009. There is no limit to the length of submissions: the committee welcomes anything from informal notes that draw attention to existing documents, through to formal submissions that directly address questions raised by the committee. Informed by the submissions it receives at this stage, the committee will issue a second call for evidence that highlights emerging questions. Evidence should be submitted to Santiago Ripoll (santiago@foodethicscouncil.org), Food Ethics Council, 39-41 Surrey Street, Brighton BN1 3PB, UK.

3. The Food and Fairness Inquiry was commissioned by the Food Ethics Council to help inform our own and other organisations’ work towards a fair food system. We are grateful for the support of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, which has made this Inquiry possible. Further information on the Inquiry is available here.

4. There are sixteen committee members:

Helen Browning OBE, Director of Food and Farming: Soil Association; Chair of the Food Ethics Council

Charlie Clutterbuck, Director: Environmental Practice at Work; Trustee of the Food Ethics Council

Elizabeth Dowler, Professor of Food and Social Policy in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick; Trustee of the Food Ethics Council

Jeanette Longfield MBE, Coordinator: Sustain - the alliance for better food and farming; Member of the Food Ethics Council

Ben Mepham, Special Professor in Applied Bioethics: University of Nottingham; Visiting Professor in Bioethics, University of Lincoln; Member of the Food Ethics Council

Kevin Morgan, Director: Regeneration Institute, Cardiff University; Member of the Food Ethics Council

Chris Ritson, Professor of Agricultural Marketing: University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Treasurer of the Food Ethics Council

Geoff Tansey, Joseph Rowntree Visionary for a Just and Peaceful World; Trustee of the Food Ethics Council

Andrew Jarvis, Principal: GHK and Senior Research Fellow, Chatham House

Dr Susan Jebb, Head of Nutrition and Health Research: MRC Human Nutrition Research

Harriet Lamb, Chief Executive Officer: Fairtrade Foundation

Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, Food and Drink Federation

Paul Whitehouse, Chair, Gangmasters Licensing Authority

Richard Macdonald, Director General, National Farmers’ Union

Andrew Opie, Food Policy Director, British Retail Consortium

John Vidal, Environment Editor, The Guardian

(image: creative commons - Diane M Byrne)