Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Alex Cunningham
Main Page: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)Department Debates - View all Alex Cunningham's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(13 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Paice
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s words. This is a policy commitment that the Government have delivered on very clearly. We promised honest labelling and we now have a voluntary code in this country and mandatory country of origin labelling across a lot of products in Europe. I entirely agree with her point about quantities; Britain has its traditions and we want to stick to them.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
T6. Food prices have risen by 6% in the last year, costing a family with two young children an extra £350 a year. When will the Secretary of State do something positive to tackle speculation in food prices and its impact on families?
Mrs Spelman
The underlying cause of rising food prices is, of course, rising global prices of food commodities. The market fundamentals are the driver of that. Supply and demand is tight. We have to feed a hungry world, which will possibly have 9 billion people by 2050, as the Government’s own Foresight report says. That is why this Government and my Department have set a priority of producing more food sustainably.