Supermarket chains Asda, Safeway, Sainsbury and Tesco are behind in their commitment to welfare-friendly systems for laying hens, according to a survey of supermarkets released by the RSPCA.
The animal charity claims the supermarkets are among food companies so far unwilling to commit to buying only free-range or barn eggs in future.
The organisation is calling for a ban on all types of cages for egg-laying hens by 2007.
11 Dec 2002: Food manufacturers took a further battering this week when the UK Consumers' Association (CA) released new research, as part of its Honest Labelling campaign, that suggests the public continues to be misled by inadequate food and drink labelling - with actual ingredients sometimes bearing little relation to the name of the advertised product.
The issue of food labelling finds food manufacturers, on the one hand, defending the honesty and clarity of food labels, while on the other hand, consumer organisations maintain that labels are continually trying to hoodwink the vulnerable consumer.
Deputy director general of the Food and Drink Federation, Martin Paterson said this week: "Manufacturers agree that marketing claims and labelling should be truthful and not misleading.Manufacturers are bound by the 1990 Food Safety Act, which protects consumers from misleading or false claims. The FDF is already working with the Food Standards Agency to improve food labelling as part of the Agency's Food Labelling Action Plan."
For the UK consumers organisation, calling for much tougher legislation on food labelling, this is clearly not enough.
"Health Which? is calling for the food and drinks industry to label their products honestly and stop misleading consumers, said Kaye McIntosh, Health Which? editor.
The decline in neighbourhood shops and services is sounding the death knell for Britains local economies, according to a report from an independent think tank.
The New Economics Foundation report, entitled Ghost Town Britain, releases new projections that show the perilous state of local economies across the country.
Between 1995 and 2000, the UK lost 20% of some of its most vital institutions: corner shops, grocers, high street banks, post offices and pubs, amounting to a cumulative loss of over 30,000 local economic outlets.
A further 28,000 outlets stand to be lost by 2005.
Overall, on current trends, the number of local outlets will have dropped by nearly a third in the two decades to 2010.
The result is that communities and neighbourhoods in core urban as well as rural areas will be without easy access to such essential elements of both the economy and the social fabric of the country.
The report predicts that many communities in the UK of 3,000 or less will have no such local outlets by the year 2010. In some low-income neighbourhoods this is already the reality.
It further warns that Britain is now faced with the spectre of a "tipping point" where the number of outlets would crash dramatically rather than continue its current steady decline. The quantity of money circulating in the local economy would suddenly plummet, killing off what remains of local economic life and services.
The report states that current initiatives will fail to counteract the forces driving us toward a Ghost Town Britain unless government tackles the real reasons why many of Britains local areas are dying on their feet.
For example, the construction of out-of-town superstores creates a vacuum that sucks resources from the town centres, strangling the heart of the local economy, the foundation says. Local authorities should be given the right to veto any major retail development and be able to attach conditions to applications for planning permission by supermarkets, specifying that a significant percentage of what they sell should be sourced locally.
The power of retailers can affect producers, suppliers, retail workforces and consumers, a working group has determined. "Small farmers have their backs against the wall because of the terms the supermarkets dictate" said Ivan Monkton to delegates to the T&G Food and Agriculture conference in Eastbourne.
Brian Revell, food and agriculture national organiser, responded: "Certainly there are abuses of power by supermarkets. They must be made to understand that they are are part of a wider community, to which they have responsibility."
In other findings, the land reform group reported that just over 100,000 people own 80% of the UK's land, yet they get billions of pounds in subsidies. Edwin Rowlands, of the world trade and CAP reform working group, stated that "subsidies should be focused on poor indigenous farmers who employ people rather than capital-intensive multi-national corporations." The criterion should be good employment and not just high production.
Just 25% of shop-purchased bacon is home-produced, compared with 65% 18 months ago, said the Meat and Livestock Commission
Meat traders claim that the ongoing low value of the Euro has allowed a rising tide of pigmeat imports to flood in from the European union.
This is reflected by the difference between EU and UK prices, with Dutch and Danish producers receiving little more than 70p/kg - almost 20p/kg below most UK net returns.
London, 12 Dec 2002: Prime Minister Tony Blair and Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett launched a new strategy for farming and food in the UK. It sets out how industry, government and consumers can work together for a profitable and sustainable farming and food sector, while protecting the environment and promoting health.
The key points of the strategy, which will receive £500 million over the next three years, are:
raising productivity by investing more in marketing and regional food distribution, helping the food chain become more efficient;
rewards for farmers for protecting the environment - hedgerows, water supplies etc;
better training and business advice for farmers
demonstration farm pilots - where farmers can learn new techniques from other farmers;
extension of food assurance schemes like Red Tractor - telling consumers how their food is produced; and
continued focus on animal health and combating disease - following foot and mouth inquiries
A new Food and Health Action Plan will address food production, access to healthier food and information about healthy eating. It will also promote better links between health organisations and food growers and producers.
Agriculture minister Lord Whitty called on supermarkets to "use their market power to provide a stable environment" and sign contracts with farmers that would "provide a long-term future".
In welcoming the plan, British Retail Consortium's Director General Bill Moyes said: "The Government's strategy rightly emphasises the need to serve the customer. All the components of the food chain must work together to give customers what they want - the right products on the shelf at the right price."
However, environmental groups have said the strategy is a missed opportunity as it fails to set out enough firm targets for improvement. Patrick Holden, of the Soil Association, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there had been a "remorseless loss of small farms" during the past 50 years. And there was "nothing in this package that will directly result in the reversal of the decline".
"There seems to be nothing in this new strategy to guarantee us a decent price for our produce which would enable us to farm without subsidies." Organic hill farmer Steve Ramshaw said: "There is a growing demand for local produce. [People] are taking a more active interest in how their food is produced. Government has got to encourage that and I hope that the strategy will go some way towards achieving this."
