CONSUMERS MUST HAVE CHOICE ON LOCAL SOURCING - WILLIAMS

9.48.42am GMT Mon 23rd Mar 2009

Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Roger Williams MP has reasserted the importance of local food sourcing ahead of a Ten Minute Rule Bill on food labelling next Tuesday.

The Ten Minute Rule Bill, to be introduced by Richard Bacon MP, of which Roger Williams is a co-sponsor, would introduce a requirement for clearer country of origin labelling. Currently food produced overseas can be labelled as "British" just because it was packaged in the UK.

The Liberal Democrats this week announced their 'New Deal' for British food, which includes proposals to create a proactive Food Market Regulator, and to encourage local authorities to free up allotment land to create Community Food Co-Operatives which would give residents the chance to grow their own food.

Answers to Parliamentary Questions tabled by the Liberal Democrats have revealed that there has been a ten percent decrease in the amount of domestically produced meat eaten in the UK, with only 65% of the meat eaten on our tables now coming from British farms. Over the same period of time the amount of fresh vegetables consumed and produced in the UK has fallen from the 63% to 55%.

Commenting, Roger Williams said:

"It is truly bizarre that bacon from Denmark could be called British if it was packaged in Denbigh.

"This proposal is important to ensure that when consumers want to buy British they are buying something that is the real deal.

"This isn't protectionism, it's about giving genuine freedom of choice to all consumers."

On local sourcing, Roger added:

"I am keen to see more information regarding the locality of the producer. We know that many people want to buy local so that they can support their local producers and reduce their food miles, so they should have the choice to do so.

"There are compelling reasons, both environmental and economic, why people want to buy local; we need to give them the tools so that they can do that.

"Both the Westminster Government and the Welsh Assembly Government have blown the trumpet for 'Buying British' and 'Buying Welsh', but they need to take action so that people have all the information they need to do so."