Governments Help Local Farmers
Thirteen out of twenty-one departments have increased the amount of home-grown food they serve, and on average over 90 per cent of the milk, whole eggs, and whole potatoes come from Britain.
Soldiers on active service eat only British pork and fish; hospital patients are only served bread made in the UK; and only a small proportion of the cheese served in prisons comes from abroad.
Food and Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: “The government is committed to helping local food producers compete for public sector catering contracts, and it’s great news that they’re increasingly offering the best value…We know that there’s still more that government departments could do, and there are areas where British producers could potentially be supplying more to the public sector.
“Government departments are looking at how they can increase the amount of food they serve which is high-quality enough to meet Assured Farm Standards, or has been fairly traded. We also know that there’s a big market there for local and seasonal producers in this country.”
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
