Ask yourself “why do you eat?”

The textbook answer would be … to supply your body with energy giving nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fibre. However, rarely do we think of food in these terms. It is more common to seek out food which tastes good.

Thousands of skilled and creative people are employed by the food manufacturing industry to invent cheap foods, which taste good. Grab and go crunchy snacks contain substances which stimulate the appetite centre so that consumers keep eating right to the bottom of the (once large, now supersized) bag. This sets up a pattern of hypersensitivity to food and eating becomes an event which is easily stimulated, but difficult to stop. A cycle of food temptation and dependence is then set up – and the cycle is hard to break.

Food manufacturers won’t help you, as their agenda is profit. The more stimulating and tasty they can design food, the more we will want to finish the whole packet – and come back for more. These types of foods are cheap and available, and hard to resist – especially if you are tired, bored, lonely, stressed or in need of a “treat” and use these foods to feed your emotions.

We also love a sweet taste, and so sugar is shovelled into many processed food. Sugar is a cheap ingredient, but the dreaded high fructose corn syrup is even cheaper. The use of this as a major ingredient in many processed foods (even baked beans and pasta sauces) adds to profit, increases shelf life, and feeds our love of sweet foods. However, the bolt of fructose which hits your liver is a real shock to your system. It is left to the liver to deal with this sudden input of fructose – which it does by converting it to fat. In contrast, unprocessed foods such as apples, pears and honey contain fructose but in the correct concentration, which nature has designed, for your body to deal with.

There are many causes of obesity but to point a finger at an over-fat person and claim that they are obviously greedy and lazy is too simplistic. Sure, some people eat a lot – but the ubiquitous use of high fructose corn syrup by the food manufacturing industry, which puts profit before health, is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic.

Why then does the Government not control the use of this ingredient? The answer, of course, boils down to money. Why would the Government restrict industries who share their profits with them in exchange for watering down legislation. There are plenty of rules to ensure that food is produced hygienically, to help minimise the risk of food poisoning. There are fewer controls to restrict the use of ingredients which slowly poison our livers, skin, brains and bones. Food politics can weave a tangled web, but the results are clear to see at the 2012 London Olympics. Here the UK Government is keen to promote a sense of health and well being through sport, and yet condones McDonalds, PepsiCo and Cadbury as the major sponsors of the event!

The good news is that it is possible to free you addiction to highly processed, addictive, foods, and to retrain your taste buds. Good quality, locally produced, and seasonal vegetables, fruits, cheese, artisan bread, meat and fish all come with their own natural flavours and pleasure forming chemicals. Regular exercise can also feed our emotions. It generates the same sort of chemical rewards as some junk foods. So, walk to the farmer’s market, feed your taste buds and emotions – and take control of your eating habits.

You can read more about these issues on Chris’ blog at www.chrisfenn.com or follow her on Twitter at @DrChrisFenn.

It’s not just Tesco this time though, it’s about all the big businesses involved in our food industry who don’t do enough to address supply chain issues or ensure that employment agencies aren’t exploiting workers.

At worse the conditions and experiences uncovered in this report amount to forced labour and exploitation, at best it’s more evidence of casually putting profit before people.

When big food businesses put their profits first it means someone, somewhere is paying the price

The report explains that “In food production, conditions are shaped by the competitive pressures that large suppliers and their customers (retailers) place on employers.”

That might be how it is, but we certainly think it’s a long way from how it Should be. It’s not defensible with that lazy excuse of “that’s just business” – nobody should have to suffer, be exploited or abused just so we can buy cheap supermarket ready meals and the like.

hiSbe thinks that the need for a Supermarket watchdog is long overdue. We strongly support the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill and hope an adjudicator will have the power to force retailers to be transparent about how they do business, and will hold them accountable for all their dodgy practices, not least the exploitation of supply chain workers.

Your money keeps businesses going and is an endorsement of their practices

In the meantime we are grateful for the work of Ethical Consumer, and recommend their free Ethical Buyer’s Guide to Supermarkets as a great source of information to help you make the choices that feel right for you.

At hiSbe we believe you can change what’s wrong in the food system by supporting what’s right, and that’s why Support Ethical is one of hiSbe’s 8 Everyday Choices

Love Food Hate Waste know the score and have lots of practical ideas to help.

People hate to waste food, but the problem is we do it without thinking. Somewhere along the line we stopped treating food like it’s precious and started thinking of it as disposable. Nowadays, throwing away food is a part of everyday life, despite the fact that it’s pushing up the price of food and has knock-on costs for the environment, producers and society.

In February DEFRA, the British government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, released new figures showing that 17% of all food bought by UK shoppers ends up in the bin. This report is part of a renewed focus on food waste and we’re seeing much more about it in the press and on TV. It seems that times are changing as food becomes more expensive and food poverty is increasing.

“Food poverty” is one of the most disturbing symptoms of our broken food system. In Britain, the 6th richest country in the world, millions of children go hungry because people do not have enough money to buy food. Richard Corrigan explains this problem in his documentary, “On Hunger,” where he meets British families affected by food poverty. This 30 second introduction to his programme is a bite-sized look at the facts.

In the programme, Richard highlights the work of the FareShare organisation, which is a very positive example of people coming together to implement practical solutions to the issues of food waste and food poverty. Like FoodCycle and Food AWARE, FareShare takes surplus food that supermarkets throw away and makes it into great meals for people in need.

At hiSbe we think it’s time for retailers to take responsibility for the part they play in food waste and food poverty. That’s why End Waste is one of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices. We think supermarkets are a key driver of our throwaway food culture and they need to step up and start being part of the solution, not the problem.

Disappointingly, the big four supermarkets just don’t seem to get it. This report from Channel 4 captures the problem… supermarkets seem to be saying, “it’s not our fault, it’s our customers’ fault.” At a time when we need positive, practical help for our food waste problem, are supermarkets just a waste of space?

Since the 1960′s our food system has been made ever-more industrialised, mass-produced and globalised by politics and powerful companies. There’s been a shift from farm-yards to factory-lines as the major supermarkets and big food companies have consistently pushed farmers to make more food, more cheaply and more quickly…

That’s why much of the food that we used to make here in Britain is now imported from huge suppliers abroad. As a result, many British farmers have gone out of business. Others have had to change the way they do business in order to survive and, even so, they get an average of only 9p in every £1 spent on food in the supermarket.

Nevertheless, British farming today remains a significant body and, nationally, there are more than 300,000 active farms in Britain, employing a workforce of more than 526,000 people, taking care of the countryside and still contributing 60% of the food that we eat.

At hiSbe, we champion British farmers because eating locally produced and seasonal fresh food is an important part of building a fairer and more sustainable food system… that’s why we love positive projects like Thanks To Farmers!

To cries of “Fuel Britannia!“, six students from Plymouth University are running this campaign to get recognition for Britain’s hardworking farmers, to show people what farmers do for us – and simply to say, “thanks.”

Team leader Rufus explains that, “What originally started as a project for an enterprise challenge has grown into a fully blown, funded and heartfelt campaign to get farmers and their invaluable work noticed. Farmers work incredibly long hours, sometimes for very little reward or thanks, but without them the country simply wouldn’t function. We want to reintroduce the importance of farming to the British community, encouraging the public to appreciate the hard work that goes into fuelling Britain.”

So why not leave your thanks on their website, www.thankstofarmers.org and spread the word? It only takes a few seconds and the more voices they have, the louder the impact they can make!

To borrow a phrase from folk at Flavrbox, it’s all about “shaking the hand that feeds you!”

For further ways to show your support for British farmers, see our Must Be British campaign. We launched this last year with our partner Growing Direct to spread support for British-grown food during the Olympics.

Photos used with permission from Thanks To Farmers.

It’s estimated that we’ll be serving 14 million meals to all the visitors attending the 2012 Olympics venues and, on top of that, millions more Brits will be out and about watching the Games over the Summer and eating in pubs, cafes and restaurants all over the country. What an amazing opportunity to showcase British food and farming and give a great big boost to the food that’s grown and reared here.

For advocates of “how it Should be” in food and farming, the 2012 Olympics is also a high profile platform to highlight the relationship between physical fitness and healthy food and show that ethical standards are important in food.

That’s why, in 2007, the New Economics Foundation, Sustain and the Soil Association published Feeding the Olympics to hold LOCOG to their promise to deliver the “greenest and healthiest Games” so far and “to ensure that the food served before, during and after the Games is local, seasonal and organic as was promised in London’s bid.”

So in December 2009, LOCOG set out a detailed Food Vision, saying “Our vision aims to seize the opportunity to use the transformational power of the Games to celebrate and promote the variety and quality of British regional food.”

It says that all dairy products, beef, lamb and poultry must be British and certified by the Red Tractor scheme.

Some people are asking “what about McDonalds?”

The hope was that McDonalds, THE official food sponsor of the 2012 Olympic Games, would step up and commit to these food standards and set the example for all the other food service businesses, big and small, that will be serving up British grown food to the public.

McDonalds may not be known for its healthy food, but such is the power of these global food companies, that it nevertheless sponsors events associated with world-class sporting health. In July 2010 the BBC reported that, “Global sponsors have exclusive Olympic worldwide marketing rights. The value of the contracts are not typically released, but are thought to sell for $100m (£64.5m) for four years’ worth of rights.”

McDonalds did make a well-publicised commitment to British farming in 2010, but now we’re seeing an emerging concern that they will not source British-grown food certified by Red Tractor. Carol Ford, our good friend from Growing Direct and lover of fresh produce, posted this article from Private Eye on the hiSbe Facebook wall. It states “The fast-food chain McDonalds will be officially exempt from “Red Tractor” food standards, thanks to its status as Olympic Partner Organisation.” Instead, it seems McDonalds will continue to rely on cheap meat from Thailand and South America.

With McDonalds expected to serve one on five of all meals to visitors at the 2012 Olympic Games it seems that corporate muscle and the drive to put profit before people may trump the British Food Vision…

At hiSbe we are showing our support for British food and farming with the Must Be British campaign, which aims to spread the word to cafes, pubs and restaurants everywhere to serve up British-grown food during the 2012 British Olympics… after all, isn’t that just how it Should be?

Food waste has become such a big problem that the European Parliament is taking steps to halve food waste by 2025. The 27 countries of the EU throw away up to 50% of their edible and healthy food. Of course, it gets wasted at all stages of the supply chain, by producers, processors, retailers, caterers and households.

However, we consumers are THE main reason that 87 million tons of perfectly good food gets thrown away every year!

Number One Wasters: You and Me !

Who are the biggest wasters, according to the EU figures?

- Households: 42% of the food waste (60% of which is avoidable)

- Manufacturers: 39%

- Catering sector: 14%

- Retailers: 5%

It’s not just our own shopping budget we’re throwing in the bin, because the waste itself is expensive for the authorities to deal with… so the public ends up paying for it twice.

What’s more, there’s an ethical problem here too: how can we throw all this food away while 16 million EU citizens don’t have enough to eat and depend on food aid from charities?

Even in the UK, the fifth richest country in the world, food poverty is a problem. Oxfam reports that 13 million people in Britain live in poverty, which means they have to choose between eating properly and heating their home.

Yet DEFRA, the British government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has just released new figures showing that 17% of all food bought by UK shoppers ends up in the bin. The average person throws out £26.68 worth of food every month: that’s equivalent to £346.84 a year!

So what can we do about it?

Well, whilst the EU Parliament is pushing for practical solutions to reduce food waste, through awareness campaigns and policy changes, we can all do our bit.

That’s why End Waste is one of the hiSbe 8 Everyday Choices. It’s about being aware and thinking through how we buy, store and cook food, so that we don’t bin so much.

A great first step is to visit the Love Food, Hate Waste website. They have lots of clear, practical tips for cutting down on food waste. In the end a little awareness will save a lot of food and money.

Many thanks to WRAP for the photos

It’s crucial to explore innovative ways to feed people healthily and protect the planet at the same time. However, to date, the genetic modification of plants and animals for food has not been approached in this way, because GM technology is in the hands of big chemical companies developing it purely for profit.

They are making and patenting new types of products, like GM corn, GM potatoes and GM wheat and pushing them out into the food supply chain all over the world with little understanding of the impact on people’s health, the land and the environment.

Colin Tudge, founder of the Campaign for Real Farming, puts it best in this article.

He says, “The point of GM is not to increase food security but to make a few rich companies richer and give them even more control. Governments like this because visible money is called GDP, which can be called “economic growth”….”

Yet all over Europe the general public and many businesses, environmental groups and charity organisations are firmly against GM! The question is, what can we do about it? Well, we like the approach of GM Freeze.

GM Freeze is an alliance of organisations like The Soil Association, Ethical Consumer and War on Want, that we support because they champion doing the right thing over just doing the profitable thing.

GM Freeze is demanding a Big Freeze on GMO going any further into our food system until there is an unbiased review of the benefits and risks. They pressurise Government and supermarkets with campaigns like this one, which focuses on a GM wheat trial planned in Hertfordshire for Spring 2012.

The new genetically modified wheat will emit a chemical intended to keep aphids (greenflies, black-flies and whiteflies) off the crop. There is no market for this product. There is no demand for this product. It has not been tested for human consumption and has no benefit for consumers. It does a job that can already be done with natural methods using aphid predators, like ladybirds. And yet, there’s a high risk that the GM wheat will cross-pollinate with nearby wheat crops and grasses, contaminate them and spread unchecked.

It’s easy to add your voice to this campaign. We can all help build a food system that feeds people healthily and sustainably in ways that care for the land, instead of harming it. That’s why Protect Nature is one of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices.

This is why Joanna is speaking up against the cruel practise of transporting UK animals live over hundreds or thousands of miles, to be fattened or slaughtered outside this country. This might sound like a bizarre practise, because common sense tells us that animals should be fattened and slaughtered as near as possible to home, but unfortunately it’s now common to transport live calves, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and horses around the world by road, rail, sea or air. In Europe, around six million farm animals are transported across different countries with some journeys taking three days or more.

Live animal transportation happens because supermarkets and big companies making meat products demand ever-cheaper meat in ever-bigger quantities. This puts enormous pressure on farmers and producers to find ways to raise and process the animals and still make a fair living out of it themselves. Transporting animals in large quantities to big slaughter houses or factory farms simply saves money… It’s part of a system that puts profit before quality and doing what’s right and there are many knock-on costs to people and the environment, but of course it’s the animals themselves that bear the biggest brunt of the hidden cost.

As Compassion in World Farming explains, ”Long distance transport causes enormous suffering” from overcrowding, exhaustion, dehydration, pain and stress. ”The greater the distance, the greater the suffering.”

Right now, British animals are being exported through the port of Ramsgate in Kent and Compassion in World Farming is helping to end this trade, with Joanna’s help.

Everyone who eats meat can make conditions better for farmed animals. As Joanna says, it starts with thinking for a minute about those little furry faces in the transport trucks. It’s about supporting the work of people like CIWF, paying a fair price for meat and eating better quality meat a bit less often. Our voices count and our choices count! - and that’s why Think Welfare is one of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices.

Many thanks to our friends at Compassion In World Farming for these photos 

The European Commission has just launched this “choose your fish” campaign to encourage people to “think sustainable” when they buy fish in shops and restaurants.

What’s the fuss about fish?

More than 70% of Europe’s fish stocks are overfished and some species are rapidly nearing extinction. This is because the fishing industry is taking more fish out of the oceans than can be replenished – and much of it ends up thrown back in.

Large volumes of undersized, over-quota or unwanted fish or other sea creatures are routinely caught in nets, and thrown back (“discarded”) into the sea, usually dead or dying. Very young fish and dolphins are just some of the victims of such practices. Meanwhile, despite throwing so much away, Europe still depends on imports for about two-thirds of its seafood! The whole system is incredibly inefficient and wasteful.

Why the waste?

Part of the problem is down to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which doesn’t regulate the industry enough and pours money into subsidies to encourage more fishing. In this video released in August, Greenpeace says that the CFP allows European fleets to take 2 to 3 times more from our threatened oceans than what is considered sustainable.

Another part of the problem is us shoppers: we don’t give enough thought to the fish we buy and the impact our choices have on the fishing industry. The fact is we have a lot of influence: every time we buy tuna, or shellfish, fresh fish or frozen fish that’s been caught and processed by irresponsible companies and brands, we are voting for more of the same.

What can we do?

By making small changes to our shopping habits we can force the industry to change its wasteful ways. That’s why Save Fish is one of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices.

Because of overfishing, there are fewer and fewer fish in the sea. The situation is serious, but it is not irreversible. If we all play our part and get fussy about fish we can help ensure there will be enough fish now and in the future!

The “choose your fish” campaign gives some great advice on how to make more sustainable choices when you buy fish.

Some people might wrongly assume that the point of this film is to “turn you vegetarian” by trying to put you off eating meat. But this isn’t just about animal welfare, although of course we should care about whether the animals reared for us to eat are treated humanely whilst they’re alive.

Pig Business in it’s broadest sense is about the subject very closest to hiSbe‘s heart – how a culture of profit before people in today’s food industry is harming our health and communities, animal welfare, producers here and abroad, and the environment.

The film does a great job of exposing the true costs of producing food on an industrial scale, as experienced by those involved in or affected by pork production.

Pig Business explains that the most serious impacts of factory farming fall into four main areas: threatening our health, polluting the environment, wrecking rural communities and abusing animals.

We recommend watching the film if you eat any kind of meat products or want to better understand how intensive farming practices are unsustainable and destructive.

Their website has detailed information about the issues, and the actions you can take to help affect change. As with so many of the problems in today’s food industry, your choices really make a big difference.

Choosing meat from animals that have been reared outdoors on British farms and fed an organic diet is best. There’s also advice on buying local, sustainable, high welfare pork in the Consumer Action section of the Pig Business website.

We are delighted to support and hero the efforts of Pig Business. Support Ethical and Think Welfare are two of hiSbe‘s 8 Everyday Choices, which are all about making simple decisions that move us towards a more sustainable food system – one that puts People BEFORE Profit.

Here’s a trailer for the film: