17 March 2003: The Farmers' Union of Wales today repeated its call for legislation to force Britain's major supermarkets to adopt a fair pricing policy after a Friends of the Earth survey revealed that the Supermarket Code of Practice has failed to give farmers a stronger voice.
FoE and farming groups have both criticised the voluntary code for being weak and ineffective.
FUW president Bob Parry said: "farmers strongly believe [that the code of practice] is heavily weighted in the supermarkets' favour. Legislation forcing them to adopt fair play and fair price policies with their suppliers and customers is the only way forward."
More than half of the dairy farmers surveyed said they only received the same as or less than the cost of production for their produce. Nearly a third of livestock farmers said they received the same as or less than the price of production.
farm, the new campaigning and membership group for working farmers and the public, has produced a set of stickers for people to use to express their concern at the gap between the prices paid to farmers for their produce and the prices paid by shoppers for food on supermarket shelves.
The campaign was launched to coincide with the first anniversary of the OFT's Supermarket Code of Practice.
Supermarkets have clashed with the Government over plans to encourage shoppers to eat more fruit and vegetables. The Department of Health is urging everyone to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, and today unveils a new logo designed to indicate how many portions a food product contains.
But Sainsbury's has said it will not put the five-a-day logo onto its fresh, tinned or frozen products and Tesco has said it is undecided about whether to use it on its brands.
Sainsbury's says it is preparing its own scheme but insiders say the Government's strict criteria has angered the supermarket giants, who want to use the five-a-day logo on ready-made meals and canned foods which contain not only fruit and vegetables, but also less healthy ingredients such as salt and sugar.
The Department of Health will only allow its logo to go on fresh, frozen and tinned products which have absolutely no added sugar, salt or fat.
A complaint has been filed with the Advertising Standards Agency claiming that Tesco was misleading customers into thinking that organic food was safer and healthier than conventional food.
Tesco published a leaflet entitled "Organic: your everyday choice," which stated: "Why choose organic? ...if you are concerned about the effect food production might have on you and the environment, then organic food is the natural choice for you."
A study from the University of Hohenheim in Germany, also used by Tesco to justify its statement, states that "no clear conclusions about the quality of organic food in general can be reached using the results of present literature and research results."
Tesco was told not to repeat the claim unless it could provide further substantial evidence to support it.
However the same study also concludes that, in comparison with conventional farming, organic farming benefits wildlife conservation and the landscape, causes less nitrate leaching, eliminates the risk that ground water would be contaminated with synthetic pesticides and consumes less artificial energy and produces less carbon dioxide than conventional methods.
