Top of the Food Chain ; Readers’ Views

DAVID Sexton is overly harsh about Whole Foods Market in declaring it is merely about “luxury food for the welloff ” (1 June).

It is a fact of life that new movements are led by educated middle-class consumers.

They may start off with selfish motives, worried about what is good for them and their children. But then once these are fulfilled, following psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, they become increasingly interested in wider issues about what is good for the planet.

We currently enjoy food at unsustainable prices

9.9 per cent of average household budgets are spent on food compared with nearly 30 per cent three decades ago. It’s inevitable this percentage will increase in 20 years, because of rising fossil fuel costs.

The debate around food’s ethical and environmental qualities is becoming increasingly refined. All levels of retailers are now aware of the appeal of local food, as Tesco’s annual report demonstrates.

People will take their own look at Whole Foods; if it fulfills the new consumer aspirations

and my impressions on first viewing yesterday of the integrity of people in its buying teams were extremely positive it will f lourish.

Patrick Holden, The Soil Association..

AS director of a London-based organicfood home-delivery company, I have been worried about “food miles” becoming such a buzz-word over the past year.

While businesses can do their best to minimise transportation, supermarkets still heavily over-package their goods. The biggest problem with food miles is that the miles vary so significantly from product to product with the amount of energy expended on different foods

in cooking, chilling, transporting and reheating prepared foods, for instance.

The energy used in delivering fresh produce to people’s doors each of our vans goes to 80 customers per day

is minimal compared with people driving miles to supermarkets, then buying ready meals. We feel the key to this debate is much more about what people eat.

Deal with the diet and the food miles inevitably decrease.

Carl Pizzie, Everybody Organic, everybodyorganic.com THE EU plans to allow animal remains to be reintroduced into farm feed following the avian flu outbreak, in which subjecting animals to unnatural conditions resulted in a potentially deadly disease emerging.

The meat industry is understandably keen to stay distant from the public gaze.

There is a myth meat is clean and slaughter is humane. Ninety- five per cent of UK food poisoning is caused by meat and animal products. Also in the news is the UN report stating animal agriculture is more environmentally damaging than all the world’s transport put together.

Consumers must be told the truth about meat-industry cost- cutting. The best way they can protect themselves and the planet is by going vegetarian.

Justin Kerswell, Campaigns Manager, Viva!

(c) 2007 Evening Standard; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.