:01:32. > :01:41.In the south: riding food costs are not just for Christmas. They also
:01:42. > :01:42.
:01:42. > :37:22.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2140 seconds
:37:22. > :37:26.mean poorer households are cutting Welcome to Sunday Politics South.
:37:26. > :37:30.My name's Peter Henley. Coming up in the next 20 minutes: the cost of
:37:30. > :37:32.Christmas lunch is on the up, you can blame the sprouts for that -
:37:32. > :37:36.but are cash-strapped households cutting back on healthier foods as
:37:36. > :37:46.the prices rise? We need to talk about Brussels - not the capital of
:37:46. > :37:57.
:37:58. > :38:04.Belgium, that's up later - but And lots about Maria Miller in the
:38:04. > :38:12.papers this week. These are events from a few years back. Have the
:38:12. > :38:22.papers got it in for her? There is a lot of stuff about never send
:38:22. > :38:23.
:38:23. > :38:31.around at the moment. Mariette is a fantastic minister. She has an
:38:31. > :38:41.awful lot of respect in Parliament. It will take a while for all of
:38:41. > :38:43.
:38:43. > :38:50.this to come back but it is a tough It used to be called the Ministry
:38:50. > :38:55.of Fun. Equality has been added to it as well. It is important there
:38:55. > :39:01.is someone in the Cabinet performing that role as appropriate
:39:01. > :39:11.that person should be a woman. The Prime Minister has not performed
:39:11. > :39:24.
:39:24. > :39:30.that well in terms of promoting Hopefully Maria will get a clean
:39:30. > :39:35.bill of health and we will get to a position where we can look at how
:39:35. > :39:39.MPs' expenses are being handled because the cost of regulating the
:39:39. > :39:45.system is almost as much as the amount of expenses that MPs are
:39:45. > :39:55.entitled to claim. What she has been accused of is from a long time
:39:55. > :40:20.
:40:20. > :40:25.ago. Maria is doing a great job. That is the most important thing.
:40:25. > :40:28.Now we need to talk about Brussels. Not the capital of Belgium but
:40:28. > :40:32.sprouts. Tradionally hated by children everywhere on Christmas
:40:32. > :40:36.Day, but now well on their way to becoming a luxury food. In the last
:40:36. > :40:40.year the average price of a kilo of sprouts has gone up by 24%, and in
:40:40. > :40:44.the same 12 months potatoes are up by 40%, and even the Christmas pud
:40:44. > :40:50.is 15% more expensive. It's not just the cost of your Christmas
:40:50. > :40:53.fare that's a problem. According to the government's annual Family Food
:40:53. > :40:56.Survey out this week lower income families are buying a third less
:40:56. > :40:59.fruit and a fifth less veg than five years ago. Joining me now is
:40:59. > :41:08.Richard Tiffin, Director of the Centre for Food Security at Reading
:41:08. > :41:14.University. It is pretty rapid change some of these price rises.
:41:15. > :41:19.Is it making a big impact in the way people behave? Yes, people are
:41:19. > :41:23.making decisions about the kind of food they can consume and we are
:41:24. > :41:30.seeing a lot less fruit and vegetables being consumed and that
:41:30. > :41:36.is worrying. Those price changes significantly affecting the
:41:36. > :41:40.healthiness of people's diet. of it is a crop failure but there
:41:40. > :41:45.is a short-term thing but the long- term thing is it will be more
:41:45. > :41:49.expensive. There are a number of different factors causing that.
:41:49. > :41:54.They raised climate change of meaning that yields are more
:41:54. > :41:59.susceptible to extreme events, flooding, drought. There is
:41:59. > :42:04.increased demand in the developing countries globally which is meaning
:42:04. > :42:08.that people are consuming more food there, creating greater competition
:42:08. > :42:14.for food globally and driving prices up as a result and there is
:42:15. > :42:23.increased linkages between the food market and the energy market so
:42:23. > :42:33.energy it is a major component of food production. Also now we grow a
:42:33. > :42:39.
:42:39. > :42:43.lot of crops for energy production.. A certain amount of agricultural
:42:43. > :42:48.production has to go towards the production of a fuels. There is
:42:48. > :42:58.some arguing that some providing those fuel mandates provide
:42:58. > :43:12.
:43:12. > :43:16.insurance against... If they can be flexible. In Britain are the only
:43:16. > :43:20.having a small issue with this compared to developing countries.
:43:20. > :43:26.Absolutely. There is a great contention to worry about these
:43:26. > :43:32.small changes in price that are affecting us but we have to
:43:32. > :43:41.recognise that on average the UK average consumer spends 11 % of
:43:41. > :43:48.their income on food. Even the poorest Spence 70 % on their -- of
:43:48. > :43:58.their income. In the developing world, that is more than 60 %. The
:43:58. > :44:02.source of price rises have a severe impact on those sorts of countries.
:44:02. > :44:09.It is Christmas time, Christmas parties will be rocking to the
:44:09. > :44:15.sound of today know it is Christmas. 20 years since the Live Aid event
:44:15. > :44:20.we still have a building people undernourished and hungry and
:44:20. > :44:29.tragedies like the food crisis in the so hell are unfolding as we
:44:29. > :44:33.speak. Jim, with your DEFRA hat on here, this is a serious problem for
:44:33. > :44:42.the world in general but it is a serious issue for us as well. We
:44:42. > :44:46.are wasting so much food in this country. It is a massive issue.
:44:46. > :44:52.Prude affordability internationally is something that will destabilise