PUBLIC PROCUREMENT OF FOOD

That this House believes that the £2 billion public sector food budget could make a significant contribution to reducing food miles and boosting the rural economy; is astonished that only three per cent. of lamb fed to our armed forces is from British farms; notes the evidence in the Quality of Life Report which suggests that locally produced food need not be more expensive than imported food; urges public bodies to do everything they can within EU rules to source food for schools, hospitals and other public institutions locally; believes that it is wrong for taxpayers' money to be used to buy food which has been produced using methods that would be illegal in the UK; and calls on the Government to move towards a system where all publicly procured food meets British standards of production.