The food and drink industry must dramatically improve its corporate social responsibility policies or risk a stand-off with the government, Lord Whitty, minister for farming, food and sustainable energy, Defra warned this week.
“We see CSR as a major vehicle to deliver our sustainable development agenda. I have to say that in general I don’t think the food and drink industry has done very well delivering CSR,” he said at the Westminster Diet and Health Forum on CSR and the Food Industry.
“There was almost a stand-off before the Public Health White Paper over how far we could go, in particular with traffic light labelling systems. I fear that we’re in danger of a similar stand-off on CSR.”
While the industry was happy to go along with parts of the sustainability agenda, it ignored other aspects, he said. He cited the government’s commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2010.
“This is the sort of target that industry ought to be signing up to. But it is pretty resistant and the situation is similar in relation to water,” he said.
He admitted he was partly to blame for the failure of the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy: “It is one of my failures not to have got further with the strategy than I have,” he said.
However, he added: “It’s also a failure of the industry to properly engage. If it engages constructively, I will be able to do a lot. If not, there won’t be a huge amount of regulation coming down the road, but the relationship between government and industry may take a turn for the worse.”
“We see CSR as a major vehicle to deliver our sustainable development agenda. I have to say that in general I don’t think the food and drink industry has done very well delivering CSR,” he said at the Westminster Diet and Health Forum on CSR and the Food Industry.
“There was almost a stand-off before the Public Health White Paper over how far we could go, in particular with traffic light labelling systems. I fear that we’re in danger of a similar stand-off on CSR.”
While the industry was happy to go along with parts of the sustainability agenda, it ignored other aspects, he said. He cited the government’s commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2010.
“This is the sort of target that industry ought to be signing up to. But it is pretty resistant and the situation is similar in relation to water,” he said.
He admitted he was partly to blame for the failure of the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy: “It is one of my failures not to have got further with the strategy than I have,” he said.
However, he added: “It’s also a failure of the industry to properly engage. If it engages constructively, I will be able to do a lot. If not, there won’t be a huge amount of regulation coming down the road, but the relationship between government and industry may take a turn for the worse.”
No comments yet