City Food Lecture

Tim Lang, who was a panellist at the debate, said: 'Slowly, inexorably, the movers and shakers in national and international food policy are having to recognise that environmental issues are are just not going away, any more than is the awkward evidence about public health and food.

'Issues such as climate change, water scarcity and fuel-dependency are now central. But as this new agenda emerges, we must not jettison the equally strong evidence about social inequalities or the case for injecting social justice into food policy.

'The real challenge for the coming period is for food businesses and consumers to act differently on many fronts: not just in farming, but throughout the food supply chain.

'The rich world has had a half century of abundant food, endless choice, everyday lower prices but that paradigm is coming to an end. A new framework is emerging. The question is whether business embraces and participates in this new agenda or denies it and adds to confusion.'

Sir Stuart Hampson, another panellist, said: 'Increasing affluence means that consumers have greater freedom to choose how they spend their income, and that's showing through in wider recognition that 'good food doesn't cost less' but paying a little bit more represents great value in terms of taste, quality, nutrition and environmental standards. But consumers often lack the time or access to information to help them make their choice.

'Government needs to support consumers by keeping this high on the public agenda and by creating a consistent framework for conveying information.'

Food Standards Agency Chair Dame Deirdre Hutton, who chaired the debate, said: 'Consumers are faced with an increasingly complex and inter-related set of judgements to make about their food.

'For instance, if you buy fair trade products, what impact might that have on other vulnerable producers in the market? Is buying "local" food always better for the environment? How much oily fish do you need to eat to balance the known benefits of omega-3s against any possible risks from dioxins or other persistent environmental contaminants?

'Faced with such a bewildering set of choices, what is the role of Government and the food regulator, and what should be left to market forces and the unfettered expression of ethical or other values by individual consumers?'

Other panelists were Prue Leith, recently appointed as Chair of the School Food Trust and Tim Smith, Chief Executive of milk and dairy product supplier Arla Foods UK plc.

The event has become a 'must attend' item in the food industry calendar and was launched in 2000 by City Livery Companies: the Bakers, Butchers, Cooks, Farmers, Fishmongers, Fruiterers and Poulters.

The panellists were:

Professor Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University	Prue Leith, recently appointed as Chair of the School Food Trust	Sir Stuart Hampson, Chair of the John Lewis Partnership	Tim Smith, Chief Executive of milk and dairy product supplier Arla Foods UK plc

Lord Peter Melchett
Peter Melchett is the Policy Director of the Soil Association, the UK's main organic food and farming organisation. He also runs an 890 acre organic farm in Norfolk.

Peter was a Labour Government Minister in the House of Lords from 1974 to 1979, at the Department for the Environment, the Department of Trade and Industry and at the Northern Ireland Office. He was a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund UK for seven years from 1977 and was President, Chair or Council Member of several of the UK's leading nature conservation and wildlife organisations before working full-time at Greenpeace UK from 1989.

Peter has had a long association with Greenpeace UK, as Chair between 1986 and 1988, and as Executive Director between 1989 and 2000. He was also a member of the International Board in 1988 and 2001 and Chair of the Board of Greenpeace Japan from 1995 to 2001. He was particularly active in campaigns against commercial whaling, the dumping of Shell's Brent Spar oil platform, and genetically modified crops and food.

Peter was a Special Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences, Nottingham University from 1984 to 2002. In 2005, he was a member of the Department for Education and Skills' School Meals Review Panel. He is currently a member of the BBC's Rural Affairs Committee, the Government's Organic Action Plan Group, and is on the Board of the European Union's 'Quality Low Input Food' Research Project at the University of Newcastle. He also works as an environmental consultant for companies such as IKEA and Thames Water.

Tim Lang
Tim Lang is Professor of Food Policy at City University, London. He specialises in how policy affects the shape of the food supply chain, what people eat and the societal, health, and environmental outcomes. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, and was chair of Sustain, the UK NGO alliance (1999-2005). Since 1999, he has been a Vice-President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. He is a frequent advisor and consultant to the World Health Organization and has been a special advisor to four Commons Select Committee inquiries, most recently in 2003-04, to the UK Parliamentary Health Committee Inquiry into Obesity. He is co-author, with Erik Millstone, of The Atlas of Food (Earthscan, 2003) and, with Michael Heasman of Food Wars (Earthscan, 2004). In June 2006, he was appointed a Commissioner on the Sustainable Development Commission.

Prue Leith
Prue Leith started her restaurant, catering and cookery school group in the 1960s and sold it in the 1990s, by which time it employed 500 people. Since then she has opened a catering college in South Africa and a charitable training restaurant, the Hoxton Apprentice, in Hackney. She's been a cookery columnist for four national daily newspapers and a TV presenter, and is currently a judge on the Great British Menu series.

Until December 2006, she chaired Focus on Food, the charity that teaches cooking in schools; the British Food Trust, which develops qualifications for professional cooks; 3es Enterprises, a company involved in turning around failing state schools; and the Board of Governors at Kings College, Guildford. She has also chaired the Restaurants Association, the RSA and Forum for the Future.

Prue has sat on the boards of British Rail, Safeway, Halifax, Whitbread and Woolworths. Today she is a director of Nations Healthcare, Omega plc and Orient-Express Hotels, and chairs Ashridge Management College. She has published three novels.

She took up post as Chair of the School Food Trust in January.

Sir Stuart Hampson
Sir Stuart Hampson joined the John Lewis Partnership in 1982 after a 12-year career in the Civil Service. He was Managing Director of Tyrrell & Green (now John Lewis Southampton) for nearly three years before being appointed to the Board with responsibility for department store development. Sir Stuart became Deputy Chair of the John Lewis Partnership in 1989 and the Partnership's fourth Chair in 1993.

Sir Stuart was a founding Deputy Chair of London First, a member of the RSA's Inquiry into Tomorrow's Company, and Chair of the Royal Society of Arts (1999-2001). He was President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England from 2005-06. Sir Stuart was made a Knight Bachelor for services to retailing in 1998.

Tim Smith
Tim Smith became Chief Executive of Arla Foods UK plc in June 2005. Arla Foods is the UK's leading dairy company, processing own-label milk to the major retailers and home to some of the UK's most popular dairy brands including Lurpak, Anchor and Cravendale.

Tim joined the business in November 1999 as Executive Director before becoming Head of Corporate Affairs on merger of Arla Foods Plc and Express Dairies plc in October 2003.

He began his career in the food industry with Unigate in 1978 and then held management positions in the dairy and convenience foods groups of Northern Foods for 15 years, before becoming President of Sara Lee Bakeries UK in 1995.