StockbridgeOnline

The Government recognise the important role of the Food Standards Agency in England, which will continue to be responsible for food safety. The Food Standards Agency will remain a non-ministerial department reporting to Parliament through Health Ministers. In England, nutrition policy will become a responsibility of the Secretary of State for Health. Food labelling and food composition policy, where not related to food safety, will become a responsibility of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Comment this basically confines FSA to health issues. The contentious issue of food labeling for consumers gets put back into Defra  policy rather than scrutiny

AN East Yorkshire vegetable business is thriving, thanks to a £250,000 grant from Yorkshire Forward. MH Poskitt, base at Kellington near Goole, has more than 50 years’ experience in growing, packing and distributing organic and conventionally grown carrots throughout the UK. The business can now stay ahead of the field after receiving support from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) delivered by Yorkshire Forward.

Fruit and vegetable farmers received more than 330 million euros (468 million dollars) in illegal subsidies from the French state between 1992 and 2002, according to the European Commission.

France, the biggest beneficiary of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), was rapped for granting farmers funds that were intended to help them cope with a crisis in the fruit and vegetable market.

This helped us face up to competition from Spain and Portugal,” said Lafitte, who warned the government would face a revolt if it tried to recover the funds.

www.bcpc.org/publications/newsreleases/20090721.htm

Responding to the report CPA has issued the below press release. As you can see we have welcomed the key findings of the report, particularly the need for UK leadership in doubling global food production over the next 40 years.  However, we have called on the EFRA Committee to carry out a follow up enquiry into the negative impact of EU Regulations in stifling technological innovation in agriculture.

We have focused on the concerns raised by the Government Chief Scientist (Professor John Beddington) on the impact of the hazard based cut of measures in the EC Pesticide Authorisation Regulation during the committee oral evidence sessions, to support the case for this further enquiry.

www.cropprotection.org.uk/content/