Monday, February 16, 2009

Nick Herbert Launches 'Honest Food' Viral Video



This is a video from the Conservatives promoting a campaign called HONEST FOOD. It's exactly what they should be doing. It's an amusing video promoting a serious message, and will do far more good than any amount of boring speeches and press releases. I suspect if it is posted on every Conservative leaning blog, it would reach a six figure sum of people, something a press release on the party website never would.

On the issue itself, it's always been a mystery to me why we allow imported food to be labelled British. Just because it is processed here doesn't entitle it to appear British produced. As Nick Herbert says, it's time for some action by DEFRA...

For a decade Defra has promised to ‘clamp down’ on misleading information and leading supermarkets gave a commitment in a voluntary code that they would not sell imported meat processed in the UK under a British label. Yet poor labelling persists. People have a right to know where their food comes from. Meat labelled ‘British’ should be born and bred in Britain, raised to our high welfare standards. Conservatives are demanding honest labelling to restore trust and allow people to choose British food with confidence.

“’Honest Food’ is not about protectionism – consumers should be free to choose food from any country. Clear labelling will empower consumers, not restrict their options. Other EU countries fight for the interests of their consumers and their farming industry within the trading rules. It’s time for the British Government to show the same spine.

9 comments:

Plato said...

Agree with the principle but they'd be better off asking for video responses on youtube then this back bedroom effort - took me several seconds to work out what the foreign pie was saying *surreal moment*

And why is he wearing what looks like a chocolate biscuit and a bike chain?

Clearly I haven't dropped enough acid this morning.

Trend Shed said...

I thought that was very good.

After 11 years of guff and rhetoric from Labour it seems really weird (but refreshing) to see a straight forwards and practical campaign coming from politicians.

Sobers said...

Brilliant! As a farmer it is a point of much contention for me that much food labelled 'British' actually comes from abroad. The Red Tractor logo is especially misleading. I've lost count of the number of people I've met who didn't realise it didn't guarantee that the food was British. Tony Blair promised 'action' on this over 10 years ago. I know better now what that meant.....

ahs benton said...

I am going to pretend I didn't watch that.

Anonymous said...

plato,he was speaking double dutch,it adds to the mystery or where your food originates,dunnit?

paulocanning said...

Much as I like the embed code, it needs a link code as well.

Oh, and it's pretty good politiking.

Ryan Dean said...

As someone who has just set up a new business that makes viral videos (ona budget) for government agencies this is great news for me. Iain if you ever need a viral video for the blog give me a shout (I made 'I think I fancy you Boris' viral)

www.thebigrd.com

Gareth said...

The Tories are doing "British food" and the SNP are doing "Scottish food", who then is doing "English food"?

Nick Herbert may have the support of the RSPCA but I bet he didn't get the support of the SSPCA which covers Scotland.

Vindico said...

Er,....Food Labeling is the EU's jurisdiction. Internal market and all that. So what does Cam plan to do?