As supermarket prices spiral Brown tells families: 'Stop wasting food'

Nanny-State'ism 101...

"Gordon Brown called for prudence in the kitchen last night, telling us not to throw away so much food.

With prices soaring, he suggested we could save up to £8 a week by making our shopping go further.

Waste could be reduced by simple steps such as storing fruit and vegetables in the fridge to make them last longer.

While the Prime Minister was preoccupied with his household management tips, a joint report by the U.S. government and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was warning world food prices will rise by an average of 5 per cent this year - and keep climbing for another decade.

Mr Brown, meanwhile, wants us to rediscover the thriftiness that was once a watchword for British housewives.

A report commissioned for the Prime Minister will today warn that an astonishing 4.1million tons of produce that could be eaten is being wasted every year.

Households could save £420 a year by throwing away less food, it concludes. Mr Brown will use this week's G8 meeting of world leaders in Japan to push for international action to help halt increases in the cost of staple products, which have left many families struggling.

On his way to the G8 meeting, Mr Brown said: 'If we are to get food prices down we must also do more to deal with unnecessary demand such as all of us doing more to cut our food waste which is costing the average household in Britain about £8 per week.'

He hoped to agree a global plan to combat rising prices. 'That's why I am proposing we take action to both increase the global supply of food and reduce unnecessary demand.

'We will be discussing at the G8 how we can help Africa realise its great potential as a food producer and we would like to see production of key food stuffs in Africa double over the next five to ten years.'

In the last year, agricultural prices have increased by 40 per cent and oil prices doubled to $145 a barrel, with devastating effects for the economy.

Milk, eggs and bread have seen some of the biggest rises in recent months.

The U.S./OECD report says beef and pork will go up 20 per cent by 2018, sugar and rice 30 per cent, wheat and maize 40 to by throwing away less food, it concludes."

I haven't the foggiest of ideas what that last sentence means. Doesn't matter. Since I've been a kid they've been predicting one worldwide doom and gloom foodstuff scenario, but being a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist as well as a free man, I really don't like being told what to do with my food. And if the Brits generated as much of their own food as we do here at Fort Fits, there'd be a dead-even balance between tossing out wilty veggies and replacing them with home grown. That's how you maintain a certain degree of independence. Something the Euro's have a hard time comprehending. There will ALWAYS be a shortage of something. If they've not the personal acreage for beating the system then whose fault is that.

Psst...

Food DOES grow on trees, guys.