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.
The new criticisms come in the wake of Friday’s report from the government’s Competition Commission, which urged extra curbs on the power of supermarkets - though not enough to satisfy those worried about the unrelenting spread of ‘Tesco towns’.
Tesco is by far the biggest supermarket chain, selling over 30% of the UK’s groceries. Along with three other supermarket giants - Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons - it controls more than 70% of the British grocery market.
The job of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) is to advise the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and the First Minister, Alex Salmond, how best to live up to their green credentials. The SDC’s UK chairman is the well-known environmentalist, Sir Jonathan Porritt, and it has a distinct Scottish organisation.
One of the SDC’s Scottish commissioners, Hugh Raven, pointed out that supermarkets had a huge impact on Scotland’s environment and public health. “The Scottish government deals with them daily - on planning policy, transport infrastructure, public health, and countless other matters,” he said.
“Yet we always hear that supermarkets' contributions to obesity, to farmers going bankrupt, to greenhouse gas emissions, is down to consumer choice and the free play of the market. These things are too important to be left to unchecked market forces.”
Raven urged ministers to not to shy away from intervention. “If the Scottish government wants to intervene - as, with its proposed food policy, it says it does - this report tells them how,” he told the Sunday Herald.
The SDC’s 110-page report, published yesterday, calls on ministers in Edinburgh and London to provide “strong leadership” to supermarkets. Many peoples’ livelihoods in rural communities, in towns and in the developing world, depend upon getting a fair deal from the UK’s food system.
Obesity currently costs the economy a staggering £10 billion a year, a sum which is is forecast to reach £50 billion by 2050, the SDC says. The food chain contributes around a fifth of UK climate pollution and is a major source of waste, much of it avoidable.
But the SDC report attacks supermarkets for making the problems worse, not better. Obesity and waste are being fuelled by multi-buy promotions, over-packaging and non-recyclable packaging, it says.
It warns that public health messages cannot succeed while high-calorie, low nutrient processed foods are aggressively promoted, making fresh produce look expensive and unattractive.
Supermarket policies aimed at cutting the pollution that causes global warming “fail to adequately address transport issues, including goods transportation and the effect of planning laws on customers’ car use,” the SDC argues.
Although the government maintains an official “hands-off” approach to supermarkets, the SDC identifies over 20 Scottish government policy responsibilities on supermarkets and food, and almost a hundred in Whitehall. Scottish ministers have launched a public “discussion” with the aim of developing a national food policy.
The SDC’s report urges the Scottish government to come up with a strategic plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the food supply system. Ministers should also work with farmers and suppliers to develop a long term vision for “low-carbon farming”, it says.
The power of supermarkets to influence consumer choice should be used to improve diet, the report argues. Rail freight, and other low-carbon transport for food should be enhanced.
Supermarkets should be encouraged to reduce wasteful packaging and to phase out single-use carrier bags, the report recommends. Ministers should also develop planning policies which reduce the need to travel, particularly to out-of-town supermarket complexes.
According to the SDC commissioner who oversaw the report, Tim Lang, the problems of obesity, waste and climate change cannot be solved without harnessing the enormous power of the supermarkets. “Working with them effectively is essential,” he said.
“With public scrutiny of retailers’ behaviour increasing, many supermarkets are keen to work with government to develop a green, healthy and fair food system. There are many areas where the government and retailers are already working together, but government needs to be more ambitious.”
Conflicts between government policies also make it impossible to achieve some targets, SDC says. Official advice to eat more fish contradicts attempts to preserve endangered fish stocks.
The SDC report urges the government to promote fair trade schemes which incorporate environmental sustainability. It also demands a single, front-of-pack system for nutrient labelling to eliminate the confusion caused by existing schemes.
“Supermarkets like to pretend that they are green and ethical champions, but this report confirms that they are not,” said Joanna Blythman, author of a book on the power of Britain’s supermarkets.
“They are bad for the environment, bad for food producers, bad for consumers and bad for our diet. Collectively they have run rings around successive governments because they are so powerful.”
Blythman, who is the Sunday Herald’s food critic, lamented the lack of action against supermarkets. “No-one has had the courage to confront them,” she stated. “Their dominance now needs to be challenged.”
The supermarkets, however, defended their environmental aspirations. “We passionately believe that the most effective way of encouraging a more sustainable food system is to engage consumers by making green, healthy and fair trade products more accessible and affordable,” said a spokeswoman for Tesco.
Tesco was aiming to halve its climate pollution by 2020 and cut its packaging by a quarter by 2010. It also used freight trains and barges to ship some products, as well as “zero-emission” home delivery vans. "There is plenty more for Tesco and others to do,” the spokeswoman added, “and we welcome the report’s recognition of the role of government in enabling and incentivising retailers.”
ASDA, part of the US Wal-Mart empire, stressed its three sustainability commitments: to be supplied 100% by renewable energy, zero waste to landfill and “selling products that sustain the environment”.
ASDA was reducing packaging, shifting freight from road to rail and cutting salt in foods, said a company spokesman. “We would be happy to sit down with the Sustainable Development Commission to discuss further the work we are undertaking.”
Morrisons simply referred inquiries to a report it published on corporate social responsibility a year ago. Sainsbury’s did not respond to a request for comments.
Scotland’s environment secretary, Richard Lochhead, promised to carefully consider the SDC’s recommendations, alongside other responses to the government’s national food policy discussion. “We have developed a positive working relationship with leading supermarkets in Scotland,” he said.
“We have already met with a number of supermarket chief executives and plan to hold a discussion event with retailers on the national food policy in April and also a supermarket summit later this year to continue the good work already underway.”
Supermarkets: overwhelming, unfair and wasteful- The largest four supermarket chains – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – controlled over 70% of the UK grocery market.
- 65% of milk, 75% of apples, 80% of fresh potatoes, 85% of beef and 90% of lamb are bought from multiple food retailers.
- Two thirds of suppliers say that relationships between them and retailers are a problem.
- Farmers’ share of a basket of food staples has fallen by 23% between 1988 and 2006.
- Supermarkets account for around three-quarters of the burgeoning £1.9 billion organic market.
- For every £1 spent on cashew nuts in British supermarkets, 77 pence goes to importers and retailers, 22 pence to traders and processors, and just one pence to farmers.
- 5.2 million tonnes of food-related packaging waste comes from UK homes each year.
- Scottish homes waste over £800m worth of food each year - an average of £366 per household.
- It takes 13 litres of water to produce a 70g tomato, 200 litres of water for a 200ml glass of milk, and 2400 litres of water to produce a 150g hamburger.
- Nine out of every ten drivers who shop at a supermarket say they always use a car to do so.
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