Gordon Brown - Waste of Food

[Gordon Brown]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/domest...68463520080707

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons can help bring food prices down by cutting the amount they waste every year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.



I want to make it very clear, that when headlines say Gordon Brown and waste of food, they are not talking about me personally.

[Cliphead]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/domest...68463520080707

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons can help bring food prices down by cutting the amount they waste every year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.



I want to make it very clear, that when headlines say Gordon Brown and waste of food, they are not talking about me personally.

Gordon Brown - Waste of Food

Space

[BoredBloke]

Gordon Brown - Waste of Food

Space

Sperm

[gingerjedi]

More claptrap from the 'Ministry of the Bleeding Obvious'.

I'm awaiting guidelines on how to cross the road or tie my shoe laces.

[ratewhore]

Sperm

- skin

[DaveB]

want to make it very clear, that when headlines say Gordon Brown and waste of food, they are not talking about me personally.

No, he was really talking about John Prescott

[zathras]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/domest...68463520080707

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons can help bring food prices down by cutting the amount they waste every year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.



I want to make it very clear, that when headlines say Gordon Brown and waste of food, they are not talking about me personally.

So the World Bank report (surpressed) is wrong;

see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...enewableenergy

President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases." .
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"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.
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production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.
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The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.
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"It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts on food prices," said Dr David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser, last night. "All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."

Or

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...hange.biofuels

A panel of government experts, chaired by Professor Ed Gallagher, head of the Renewable Fuels Agency, has said that far more research is needed into the indirect impact of biofuels on land use and food production before the government sets targets for their use in transport.
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"The review has thrown up the likelihood of significant impacts. UK and EU targets will have to be addressed."

The report says there is a place for biofuels, both as an alternative to fossil fuels and as a source of income for poor farmers with marginal lands. But it says a distinction must be drawn between "first-generation" biofuels, which use food crops such as corn, rapeseed, palm and soya, and experimental "second-generation" fuels based on fibrous non-food plants which could theoretically be grown without displacing other crops and raising food prices. Criteria to guide fuel policy would consequently have to be drawn up.
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An American claim that biofuels contributed less than 3% to food price rises was widely derided. The IMF estimates their impact as 20-30%, and other estimates are even higher. Over a third of US corn is used to produce ethanol, while about half of EU vegetable oils go towards the production of biodiesel.

After the Rome summit, a British government team involved in the Gallagher review visited the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to consult specialists who had drawn up UN recommendations on biofuel use. They emerged saying their views were "identical". The FAO recommendations advised against a moratorium on biofuel use or the continuation of "business as usual" under existing policies, calling instead for a set of international standards to ensure plant-derived ethanol and biodiesel did not harm the food supply. Keith Wiebe, a senior agricultural economist at the FAO, said: "There is a push towards the development of these liquid biofuels that is in advance of our understanding of their impact. We need to know more about those impacts, before pushing too hard."

It is of course a Gordon Brown policy to increase the use of bio-fuels and typical of the man that he has not thought out the details of such policy.

Nor has starting a war in the 2nd biggest oil producing country in the world anything to do with despite the rapid increase in oil prices since 1999 and that these increases feed not only into the transport of food, but in some cases it's actual production.

[Zippy]

Dear Gordon,

haven't I seen your avatar in Viz magazine's 'Up the Arse Corner'?

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

[gordonbrown]

This is the kind of cynical response I'd expect from a small minority of vociferous tories.

[HairyArsedBloke]

- skin

- Oxygen

I am also worried about the amount of Guardian readers on this site. It's not healthy to read that stuff. Damn P-VERTS