Londoners vote for a new mayor on Thursday. In a new departure for the capital, the four front runners have all included healthy and sustainable food in their manifestos.
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“We welcome the recognition by London’s top mayoral candidates that food is essential to the health, wellbeing and enjoyment of Londoners as well as the security of the farmers, fishers and environment on which we all depend,” declared Ben Reynolds, director of the London Food Link network. The two previous London mayors have both recognised the importance of sustainable food in the capital.
According to London Food Board member Kath Dalmeny, “…millions of pounds of public spending on food in schools and other public institutions has shifted to more ethical options. This has also encouraged the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to adopt a healthy and sustainable food policy for its catering.”
London’s food has been helped up the political agenda by the increasingly wide active interest of Londoners in the provenance of the capital’s food. A measure of this can be seen in last year’s Menu for Change document, which challenged all mayoral candidates to support effective measures to improve the healthiness and sustainability of the capital’s food system.
