Honest Food Campaign

Like it or not, food is a political issue: Agri-business, food aid, farming subsidies, set-aside, fishing quotas, food miles, food labelling - the list is near endless.

There are a number of campaigners who work tirelessly for a great many causes: HFW and his Chicken Out Campaign, Jamie saving farmers’ bacon, Anthony Worrall Thompson and, well anything the mercenary squashed Bee Gee will get a pay-cheque for.

And now the Tories.

I received an email from none other than David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, this morning (can only assume I am on some sort of mailing list, he didn't email me personally - I'm not that powerful. Yet).

Yesterday they launched their Honest Food Campaign in order to raise awareness about the misleading and quite shoddy state of food labelling in this country.

In order to illustrate their point, they use the example of a 'British' pork pie made with meat from Dutch pigs. They even have a little viral video to go with it, see? Look, just here:



Whilst I applaud the sentiment, I can't help but think it smacks slightly of bandwagon jumping. This has been an issue for a number of years and countless chefs and food writers have been harping on about it for longer than I can remember. For Ramsay's sake: CATCH UP.

Also, there are some staggeringly good viral campaigns out there. I've been left open-mouthed in awe or laughing until I cry by some of the more successful ones.

This, on the other hand, is possibly the most cack-handed one I've seen for a long time. It appears to have been designed, written, directed and animated by a team of pygmy chimpanzees with special needs. The Internet is a wonderful tool but in the wrong hands it can go horribly wrong.

So, yes, good idea, poor execution and, sadly, another example of politics playing catch-up rather than leading the charge, which is really what government should be about.

Still, nice to know that even as the country's economy continues to melt quicker than an ice cream sundae next to a glassblower's lips, our political elite are thinking about pies. My confidence is restored.

Tweet me. Go on, you know you want to.