Ask the Government for planet-friendly canteens

Re: Healthier Food Mark

I am pleased that the Government is committed to improving the health and environmental benefits of public sector food by introducing a Healthier Food Mark. Our schools, hospitals and other public services are major purchasers of food and the £2.2 billion spent by the public sector every year should be used to support sustainable food and farming – for example by rewarding farmers already investing in planet-friendly farming, and providing incentives for other suppliers to do the same. But I am disappointed that the environmental standards in the draft criteria are currently very weak. The Healthier Food Mark criteria should be ambitious but in many cases the Red Tractor standards simply reinforce existing legal requirements. The negative impacts of rising meat consumption on our health and environment are well known and outlined in the Government's Food Matters strategy. But the draft criteria do not consider the benefits of switching to less and better produced meat and dairy. Reducing meat on public sector menus would have benefits for both our health and environment. The criteria should also incentivise suppliers to produce planet-friendly meat and dairy, for example by specifying grass-fed. Moreover, much of the intensively produced meat and dairy on public menus has been fed on soy produced in South America, where forests are being cleared to make way for soy plantations. Finally, these criteria must be mandatory. Similar voluntary initiatives in the past have failed, and unless these standards are compulsory it will be too easy for public services to opt-out.

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