Date: Friday 14 March 2003 Venue: Stoneleigh Park, near Coventry.
Agriculture and food production debates on everything from subsidies to sustainable agriculture to food standards - this conference will be exploring these issues from the perspectives of UK farmers, farmers in developing countries, environmentalists and retailers. The conference will show how the same problems can affect farmers around the world.
Sheila Dillon of BBC Radio 4's Food Programme will be the keynote speaker and plenary speakers include Andy Welford, a UK dairy farmer; Phil Bloomer, Oxfam's Head of Advocacy and Vicki Hird, Policy Director at Sustain. Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael MP will join the afternoon plenary to hear the issues raised.
The conference is being organised by Oxfam, the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Midlands Co-op and Sustain and promises to be thought-provoking and engaging.
The Office of Fair Trading is to review the Supermarkets Code of Practice one year after it came into effect and follows the first official complaint from a supplier claiming a breach of the DTIs code.
The complaint, from Express Dairies, is the first lodged with the regulator since the code became legally binding in March 2002. Safeway confirmed Express Dairies had approached the OFT after losing a contract to supply 15% of Safeways liquid milk requirements when the retailer cut its milk suppliers from three to two. However, the complaint cannot be pursued as the contract was signed in April 2001 and the code only covers contracts from November 2001.
Suppliers contacting The Grocer this week said the code remained a "complete irrelevance" because of its reliance on "woolly phraseology" and phrases such as 'reasonable notice'. The OFT is to seek views on the code from a variety of suppliers' organisations and the supermarkets to assess how it has been working effectively in practice or whether it should be changed. Responses have been requested by March 28.
26 Feb 2003: The Pesticide Residue Committee's latest results show that pesticide levels in Spanish spinach bought at Asda exceeded the legal and safety limits. Levels of pesticides in spinach bought in Waitrose and Safeway stores also exceeded legal limits, but not safety limits, the data shows.
Most dried fruit, almost half of the bread tested and a quarter of chips from fish and chip shops also contained pesticide residues. Six samples of infant food contained residues at levels which would now be illegal, since the introduction of strict limits on processed infant foods.
