Last week we were spreading things thin as butter hit £9. As this weekend approaches, news that JD Wetherspoon is selling pints for £1.49 at 763 of its pubs has us partying like it’s 1992 (the last time beer averaged less than £1.50). Time Out described the move as “like a gift from Bacchus himself”. The Roman god of agriculture and wine was also associated (so we’ve been reading) with fertility, drama and revelry; but let’s not turn to news of Boris Johnson and the race to replace him as leader of the Conservatives’ parties just yet.
Inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.4% in June. Research by Meatless Farm showed 62% of Brits have cut back on fruit and veg because of the cost of living crisis. They are also cutting back on takeaways and eating out but the good news is that 32% are making better use of leftovers (though HelloFresh research shows 260 meals per person are still thrown away each year).
YouGov has also been quizzing UK adults about all this, finding that 30% are buying less meat and 24% are trading down to products with lower food safety and animal welfare standards. At least that’s the perception, said Red Tractor, which commissioned the poll for its latest trust index. If people “buy assured British food, the strict regulations on food safety, animal welfare and other aspects of food production, apply equally to value ranges as they do to premium products”, said Red Tractor chair Christine Tacon. “We must tackle this before the drop in trust becomes toxic.” (There was however no mention of the certification scheme’s own problems with perception – namely that it is thought to have higher animal welfare standards than it actually does).
Inflation in the foodservice sector topped 10% for the fourth successive month in May, the new edition of the CGA by NielsenIQ and Prestige Foodservice Price Index revealed (try saying that after a fiver’s worth of ale at a Wetherspoons). CGA’s James Ashurst said “we must expect challenges to get worse before they get better”.
Neil Manhas became the latest foodservice boss to use the phrase ‘perfect storm’ – the Pizza Hut MD told Sky Newsthe chain was facing “double digit cost inflation” across food and packaging, as well as staff shortages (Pizza Hut has 1,500 vacancies of which two thirds are for delivery drivers). He also admitted that some of these rising costs would inevitably make it back to customers. In June he told the BBC that increasing the price of pizzas was a “last resort”. In that interview, he also mentioned people are less keen to take risks on new types of pizza.
Caterers are facing the same storm. A survey of 47 public sector catering companies by the Soil Association showed 32% have reduced the number of options with meat, while 47% are worried they’ll fall short of the government’s school food standards if the current situation continues. Some 55% are worried they will soon have to use more processed foods in order to cut costs.
Research in the journal Nutrients this week showed 64% of the calories in meals provided by schools come from ultra-processed foods, which increase the risk of childhood obesity. Responding to the findings, Chefs in Schools, noted that school meals did come out as more nutritious than packed lunches in the study. “Over time school meals have improved significantly […] but in England, progress has stalled,” the charity said (and for more on school food look out for Footprint’s bulletins on Monday and Wednesday next week).
Some schools were closed this week as temperatures in the UK hit record highs. “This heatwave has eviscerated the idea that small changes can tackle extreme weather,” wrote George Monbiot for The Guardian. Some scientists said 40°C in the UK would be “virtually impossible” without climate change. Carbon Brief, in its roundup, noted that if current climate pledges to cut emissions were enacted, 40°C summers would still be rare but could occur every 15 years by 2100.
In more of a sweat than most though are Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – the two remaining candidates to become UK prime minister. Climate change hasn’t featured much in the live TV debates so far with rivals for Number 10 “running away” from the UK’s pledge to curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to Ed Miliband, shadow minister for climate change. (Some) Tories, meanwhile, spoke of the need to hit the 2050 net-zero target but that “legitimate debate” about how you get there was necessary.
News that the current net-zero strategy – fronted by outgoing PM Boris Johnson – is unlawful according to a ruling from the High Court this week, presents a further headache for whoever emerges victorious in September. The current strategy is too vague and the climate minister who signed it off, Greg Hands, didn’t have the legally required information on how carbon budgets would be met. A new net-zero strategy will need to be presented by Sunak or Truss come April 2023. And that means quantifying the emissions that individual policies will contribute to future carbon targets, reported New Scientist, which has made repeated attempts to get hold of a spreadsheet understood to detail the emissions savings of individual policies.
The ruling is thought to strengthen the role of the Climate Change Committee, which recently warned that the weakest of all the government’s net-zero policies are in agriculture and land use.
