Daily Echo - 1 May 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley on Thu 1st May 2008

MPs are invited to a range of events from the worthy to the glamorous. As far as my male colleagues are concerned the two came together at Westminster this week when Joanna Lumley presented the "Good Egg" awards. Joanne has a long history of being involved in animal welfare issues and is clearly committed to the cause. I have supported a number of issues in the past but the Good Egg awards combine my twin interests of animal welfare and good quality food.

Despite that, my main motivation for attending was that Hampshire County Council had been nominated for a Good Egg award. All of the council's catering is free range and this combines schools, staff restaurants and their social services residential units. The County Council deservedly won an award and I was also pleased to meet the owner of Fluffetts Farm which is providing over 600,000 eggs a year.

Hampshire has built up a strong record of supporting local food and this has been a shared agenda of all the political parties. It is not always easy to source the local produce in large enough quantities to supply the demands of a large council but if the council can manage to locally source the food ingredients it uses then other councils should be able to do more too.

Supermarkets are beginning to sell local food but I was suspicious that this seemed to be at a premium price. I have queried this and been told that, because of economies of scale, it costs more to get the local produce into the right shops and that the profit margin is actually lower.

Some have queried whether this obsession with food quality and its origins is merely the latest obsession of the middle classes who can afford to indulge the latest food trend. I actually think it is more important than that. We really should know where our food comes from, the welfare standards of the animals and how our food is processed. The UK is second to none when it comes to animal welfare standards but we then import cheap meat from countries like Thailand.

I do have sympathy for those on low budgets but when I was on a tight budget with young children there were days of the week when we didn't eat meat but the food was still healthy and, although I say it myself, edible.

I bought Delia Smiths latest book. I was horrified. Fast food doesn't have to be junk and there is much to be said for good, local food simply prepared. So, come on Hampshire County Council - how about an "Anti Delia" Hampshire cook book?