16th February 2009 - Honest Food campaign
John Scott MSP - Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & the Environment
11th December 2008
RENEWED CALL FOR PROPER LABELLING OF PROCESSED FOOD
Speaking after questioning Alex Salmond on concerns about contaminated Irish pork at First Minister’s Questions today, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, John Scott MSP:
“Now more than ever there is a need for clear and precise country of origin labelling in the processed food sector.
“It is simply unacceptable that chicken from Thailand or potentially contaminated pork from Ireland can be introduced into the British food chain by being imported into this country, processed here, and then sold as a British or Scottish product, with apparently the same Quality Assurance guarantees in place as our own home produced food.
“For too long this situation has gone unresolved with the inherent risks being wilfully ignored by DEFRA and the UK Labour Government, and the time for action is long overdue.
“There is no reason why the legislation could not be changed, given the political will, to reflect more accurately the contents and origin of processed food. That is why I call on the Government to once again address this anomalous situation.”
The report of the Scottish Conservative Food Security Taskforce - September 2008
Please click here to view the report in full.
From The Herald - 9th May 2008
Warnings over a ‘perfect storm’ of hunger heard at Holyrood
ROG WOOD
Food security moved higher up the political agenda at Holyrood this week when Conservative opposition spokesman for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Ayr MSP John Scott, led a debate on the subject.
He told Holyrood: "From 1988 to 2008 we have had, in an almost biblical way, 20 years of plenty, but the situation has now changed. Once again the spectre of food shortages has emerged, with world grain prices rising by 60% in the first three months of this year and China buying land in Russia and South America to feed its growing population.
"The problems that we are contemplating today have come about for three main reasons. First, oil - unexpectedly - has reached $120 a barrel, largely because of the growing awareness that oil is a finite resource and because of concerns about peak oil. That has encouraged farmers worldwide to grow crops for biofuel production on land that was previously used for food. In Brazil, for example, 90% of new cars now run on ethanol
"Secondly - and again unexpectedly - global warming is taking more and more land out of agricultural production both north and south of the equator. Australia has suffered a seven-year drought and much of southern Europe and North Africa is a virtual desert in terms of food production. Sea levels are beginning to rise too.
"Although no-one can tell us by how much they will rise, we know that a one metre rise in sea levels - a distinct possibility within the next 100 years - would reduce by a third the land that is available to feed an already hungry world.
"The third reason for the problems that we are examining today is population growth and rising standards of living. Man has been the most successful species since the dinosaurs and the world's population is heading towards nine billion by 2050.
"Increased living standards, especially in China, India and Japan, have resulted in those countries moving to Western styles of food consumption, based on consumption of meat rather than rice or grain. That has put still more pressure on grain growing, so that animals can be raised for human food consumption."
Scott warned MSPs that "the perfect storm is emerging, due to rising oil prices, global warming and world population growth. Today, we must acknowledge those facts and start to consider what we in Scotland can do to help feed a daily more hungry world".
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Farm Life Magazine - Farming Power, November 2007
John Scott, farmer, environmentalist and politician, talks to Iona Walton about the importance of buying local food
Click here to open the pdf of the article. (704KB)