Rob Edwards

‘We got it wrong’ admits McDonalds

from Sunday Herald, 28 June 2009

It’s one of the world’s most popular brands, but also one of the most hated.  It makes children happy and saves parents money - or it kills us with calories while trashing the planet.

The American fast food chain, McDonalds, has often provoked fierce arguments. But it’s never been known for its humility, its tact or its diplomacy.

Yet there, between the horse manure and the hordes at the Royal Highland Show last week, were the company’s sharp-suited, short-haired executives sounding almost apologetic. In an interview with the Sunday Herald, they admitted that they had got things wrong, and that their business had suffered as a result.

Naturally they insisted that the company was now getting things right, but new evidence suggests that it is still exploiting children in its advertising, still destroying tropical rainforests and still making a massive contribution to global warming.

Whatever way you look at it, McDonalds is a $24 billion phenomenon. It serves more than 58 million people a day in 31,000 restaurants in 118 countries, and has become perhaps the most ubiquitous and high-profile symbol of American capitalism.

The global food crisis in 2008

from Sunday Herald, 28 December 2008

In Bangladesh, Shahita Khatan’s children are growing thin. Her two young daughters and 10-year-old son collect cow dung from the roadside to sell as fuel, so they can buy food.

When her husband has work, they manage to get enough to eat. But when he doesn’t, they go hungry. “The time has come when we will die starving,” she says.

Khatan is just one of the billion people in the world who now want for enough nutrition to keep them fit and healthy. High prices, the changing climate and growing demands have conspired to make 2008 the year of the global food crisis.

The silent tsunami that is killing 25,000 a day

from Sunday Herald, 07 December 2008

A silent tsunami of hunger is engulfing the world, afflicting nearly a billion people in 60 countries and killing 25,000 men, women and children every day.

The global food crisis, triggered by high prices, shortages and bad weather, is  deepening as the world’s economy moves into recession. Millions more people are now facing poverty, starvation, disease and death.

The World Bank is predicting that 967 million people will now go hungry in 2008, 44 million more than in 2007. That means that almost one in every six people on the planet is not getting enough food to stay healthy. 

Children’s growth is being stunted, immune systems are being destroyed and fatal diseases like diarrhoea, measles and malaria are spreading. “This is a tragic loss of human and economic potential”, says a report from the World Bank.

Pesticide contamination of food at record levels

from Sunday Herald, 26 October 2008

Food on sale across Europe has been contaminated by record levels of toxic pesticides, according to a draft report for the European Commission.

Half of the fruit, vegetables and cereals tested in 28 countries - including the UK and Scotland - was found to contain traces of pesticides. Amongst the worst contaminated were grapes, bananas, peppers and aubergines.

More than 2,500 samples - nearly five per cent - had levels in breach of safety limits. Altogether 354 different pesticides were detected, 23 of them at levels officially judged as a health risk.

Cheaper food in tougher times

from Sunday Herald, 19 October 2008

As the credit crunch starts to bite and prices rise, shoppers are changing their habits and starting to search out cheaper food - and avoid the pricier premium brands.

Monitoring by the market research company, TNS, has revealed a distinct shift in behaviour over the last year. The most dramatic change is a 34% rise in the sales of supermarkets’ own cut-price brands, coupled with a 2% decline in their premium brands and a 9% drop in their more expensive “healthy” products.

One year on, how green is the SNP?

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008

The SNP grew up on oil, is wedded to economic expansion and always wants to put Scotland first. As a political party, it has never developed a coherent theoretical approach to one of the defining issues of the age: the environment.

It comes as some surprise then, that after a year in power, the SNP has won warm plaudits from many environmentalists. There are still major reservations, of course, but most observers outside political parties seem to think that the SNP is doing a better job than its predecessors in government.

Plea for sustainable local food

from Sunday Herald, 13 April 2008

Ministers must put the environment at the heart of their policy on food by seeking to support local food, minimise food miles and cut pollution, say the government’s green advisers.

But in a submission to the Scottish government’s discussion on food policy this week, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) will warn that there could be “confusion and misunderstanding” if the goal of sustainable food is not properly defined.

The SDC will also call on ministers to do more to help ensure global food security, by reducing the amount of food imported into Scotland. And it will urge all public agencies to source the meals served in their canteens from local producers.

The Scottish government doesn't eat much Scottish food

from Sunday Herald, 23 March 2008

In the First Minister Alex Salmond’s well-publicised bid to eat only Scottish food last week, he would have been well advised to steer clear of the Scottish government’s own canteens.

An investigation by the Sunday Herald has discovered that as much as 80% of the vegetables and half the meat served to nearly 6,000 civil servants in Edinburgh and Glasgow are imported from outwith Scotland.

The revelation, condemned as “appalling” by food campaigners, has prompted drastic action by ministers. The contract for supplying meals and snacks to the Scottish government and its guests is now to be put out to tender to help boost local food.

Scottish government to ban bottled water

from Sunday Herald, 23 March 2008

Bottled water is to be banned at Scottish government events as part of a bid to ‘go greener’ and protect the environment.

Ministers have told the Sunday Herald that bottles of still water will no longer be provided at meetings hosted on government premises in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Instead, the water will come from the mains.

Local food project saved at eleventh hour

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

A prize-winning local food project, which was closed down last week because of a funding shortfall, has been given an eleventh-hour reprieve after an investigation by the Sunday Herald.

On Friday morning Highlands and Islands Local Food Network (HILFN) was “gutted” at having to cancel a £60,000 apprenticeship scheme for local food producers. But by Friday afternoon crucial funding had been reinstated, putting the scheme back on track.

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) office covering Inverness and east highland reversed an earlier decision not to fund six apprentices from their area to join the year-long training scheme. This means that the scheme can now go ahead, to the delight of its organisers.

Attack on government food discussion

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

The Scottish government’s public discussion on food policy has been attacked as “bland motherhood and apple pie” and “ridiculous” by an international food expert.

But the criticisms have been dismissed as an “extreme rant” by the environment minister, Richard Lochhead, who pointed out that the discussion had been welcomed by the vast majority of people.

Government food grants go green

from Sunday Herald, 16 March 2008

Food businesses in Scotland will have to prove that they are being environmentally-friendly if they want to qualify for a slice of a new £60 million government grant scheme.

Ministers have decided that commitments to sustainability, reducing waste and healthy eating will be critical in deciding whether or not to back enterprises with much-needed funds.

The shocking new face of world hunger

from Sunday Herald 09 March 2008

by Kate Smith and Rob Edwards

It is the new face of hunger. A perfect storm of food scarcity, global warming, rocketing oil prices and the world population explosion is plunging humanity into the biggest crisis of the 21st century by pushing up food prices and spreading hunger and poverty from rural areas into cities.

Millions more of the world’s most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages loom and crop prices spiral ever upwards. And for the first time in history, say experts, the impact is spreading from the developing to the developed world.

More than 73 million people in 78 countries who depend on food handouts from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are facing reduced rations this year. The increasing scarcity of food is the “biggest crisis looming for the world”, according to WFP officials.

Tackling food scarcity in Scotland

comment from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

You may think you’ve heard it all before: prolonged droughts, looming food shortages, and the threat of starving millions. But think again. This time it’s different.

As we report today, the world is facing an unprecedented combination of circumstances that is pushing it to the brink of disaster. The rising price of oil, the exploding population and the havoc wreaked by global warming are all conspiring to create food scarcity.

Biofuels: the big mistake

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

The global drive for a new green fuel to power cars, lorries and planes is worsening world food shortages and threatening to make billions go hungry.

Biofuels, enthusiastically backed by the US, UK and other European governments, have been sold as the solution to global warming. Making fuels from growing crops has been marketed as the way to cut climate pollution while keeping on driving.

But now experts are warning that this could all be a disastrous mistake. Converting large amounts of land to crops for biofuels is reducing food production just when the world needs to increase it.

Higher food bills, and eating less meat

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

Families in Scotland are going to be hit by ever higher food bills, while the nation’s farmers could play a vital role feeding the world in the future. But we may all need to eat less meat to help save the planet.

These are the main messages from Scottish food specialists worried about the growing world food crisis. As a relatively rich developed country, Scotland is unlikely to experience mass starvation, but it will have to undergo some radical changes.

Supermarket food: unhealthy, unjust and unsustainable

from Sunday Herald, 17 February 2008

Big supermarkets are selling food that is unhealthy, unjust and unsustainable - and they should be tackled head on by the Scottish government.

That is the uncompromising message being delivered to ministers this weekend by their high-level environmental advisor, the Sustainable Development Commission. Otherwise, it warns, key targets to combat obesity, reduce waste and cut pollution will be frustrated.

The supermarkets are accused of being “retail leviathans”. Their alleged offences include offers of ‘two for the price of one’, the promotion of foods loaded with fat and salt, pointless packaging, excessive plastic bags, massive food waste and an over-dependence on cars and lorries.

Revealed: £40m farm grant scandal

from Sunday Herald, 04 November 2007

Scotland's parliament and government have been hoodwinked into giving farmers an extra £40 million of taxpayers' money this year, despite advice from officials that it would be "gross over-compensation".

A dossier of internal emails and memos from the former Scottish Executive reveals that the then LibDem rural development minister, Ross Finnie, misled MSPs and fellow ministers over the payment. The European Commission was kept in the dark and rules were bent to ensure that farmers received the money in the run-up to the election in May.

The £40 million pay-out is regarded as "absolutely scandalous" by insiders. It triggered a private pre-election row between Finnie and the then Labour Finance Minister, Tom McCabe, and resulted in the retrospective doctoring of a government news release.

Inside story: how farmers won £40m from the public purse

from Sunday Herald, 04 November 2007

It all started with a three-line email on 4 October 2006 from an official in the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department. There was a possibility of a "supplementary payment" to farmers.

"I have mentioned this idea informally to Mr Finnie and he is keen that we pursue it urgently", the official wrote. And so began the saga of the then rural development minister, Ross Finnie, and his £40 million for farmers.

The fascinating inside story of how decisions on subsidising Scotland's farmers were made, reversed and misrepresented emerges from a long trail of internal emails and memos released by the Scottish government under freedom of information law.

Anger over 275,000 'free-range' hens in sheds

from Sunday Herald, 14 January 2007

Plans to put more than a quarter of a million hens in 11 huge sheds and sell their eggs as "free-range" have been derided as a mockery by animal welfare campaigners.

Glenrath Farms, an award-winning Scottish business which supplies eggs to Tesco and Asda, has run into a storm of protest over its scheme to create one of the world's largest free-range egg farms in the Borders.