The Observer: "There's a price to be paid for our cheap food" (This was BEFORE horsemeatgate)

Link to The Observer

"The government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) is 13 years old this year, and has not impressed. 

"Its critics say that its expensive information campaigns under slogans such as 'Love Food Hate Waste' lack targets and convincingly audited results. Like so many toothless quangos, it can only cajole business, rather than bring it firmly to heel.

"More households may be portion-planning and recycling now, because of Wrap's adverts, but the slight reduction in the tonnage of food estimated to have been thrown away in British households (from 8.3m in 2006/07 to 7.2m in 2010) is probably accounted for by the price rises and stall in incomes that followed the global economic crash of 2008.

"Here we come to the uncomfortable core of the problem. Price is the key factor in our behaviour with food, and food may, simply, be too cheap. Certainly, in Britain it is cheaper than at any time in history: we spend less than 10% of household income on food and drink. In 1950, we spent around 25%."