Support British Food Fortnight

Support British Food Fortnight, says Geoffrey Hopton, former regional director of the Countryside Landowners’ Association and a consultant on rural and agricultural matters to Worcester based solicitors Morton Fisher.

Did you realise that all the support the Government gives to British Food Fortnight, the main and only nationwide, promotional event to celebrate home grown regional food, amounts to less than a single MP’s basic salary?

The sum offered this year was £46,900! Can the Government really be serious? Serious Government support is vital if big business is to be wooed into providing the financial support necessary to underwrite the event and this sum does not exactly ring bells of confidence, does it?

British Food Fortnight, which took place in the latter half of September, even though in only its third year, was a massive success. However, it is still fighting its way up to the front, so that more of us recognise it and adopt the habit of buying home grown food and buying local; more shops, pubs and restaurants put more on their shelves and dining tables; and (we can only hope) more supermarkets follow the lead from Budgeons and promote our regional, home grown food and drink.

There is a real danger that the event will die due to lack of funds and there will be no British Food Fortnight in 2005. Proper commitment from the Government would do a great deal to increase corporate confidence, thus ensuring that the support comes in this winter and next year’s event can be inked in.

So, what can we all do? The simple answer is to write to the Minister responsible to persuade him that the Government should put its money where it claims its mouth is!

Readers who would like to see more of our own regional food and drink available; shopkeepers, publicans and restauranteurs, especially those who took part in this year’s event, who wish to see their customers eating home grown produce, should not delay, but write today to:

Lord Whitty, Minister of Food, Farming and Sustainable Energy, DEFRA, Room 407, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

The message is a simple one: Government support for British Food Fortnight amounts to no more than a single MP’s basic salary. Is this the measure of Government support for promoting home grown food in Britain?

The facts are that the Department of Education gave £20,000, the Department of Health £10,000 and DEFRA, "the Ministry of Food", via Food >From Britain a miserly £16,870! Surely, in spite of EU rules, DEFRA can do better than that!