Mayor appoints Rosie Boycott as London's 'food champion'

Press Release

Mayor appoints Rosie Boycott as London's 'food champion'
5-8-2008 402

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson today appointed Rosie Boycott as Chair of London Food to help improve Londoners’ access to healthy, locally produced and affordable food.

Rosie Boycott, former editor of the Independent on Sunday, is the owner of a small organic farm and writes regularly about the importance of food in improving health and in reducing the carbon emissions which cause climate change.

Boris Johnson, said: ‘I am hugely excited that Rosie Boycott has agreed to chair the London Food Board and champion the provision of high-quality, nutritious food in the capital. Rosie is as passionate as I am about the importance of locally produced, affordable food to our health and well-being as well as the role food can play in protecting our environment. Rosie is bursting with great ideas on how we can boost the level of top-notch food grown locally and support London’s local, independent food industries and smaller shops.

‘With rising fuel and food prices, it is common sense that we look again at the role food can have in improving our quality of life and in protecting our environment now and for future generations.’

Rosie Boycott said: ‘I am absolutely thrilled to be taking up the cause of food in London on behalf of the Mayor. There are many aspects of our current food system which are damaging our environment through wasteful practices and producing poor quality food. It simply does not need to be the case that Londoners cannot have access to locally produced, top quality food, but we have to have a radical rethink to find ways to make this happen. It is my mission to now to help find and deliver these solutions for the capital’s homes and businesses.’

Rosie’s appointment as Chair of London Food will start on September 13 2008. London Food is co-ordinated by the London Development Agency.

Notes to Editors

Rosie Boycott founded Spare Rib, a feminist magazine, in her early 20s and was the UK’s first female editor of a British daily newspaper, the Independent on Sunday. Rosie was editor of the Daily Express. Rosie owns a smallholding in Somerset and has written a book about her experiences on this farm, ‘Spotted Pigs and Green Tomatoes – a year in the life of our farm’.
London Food works to develop activities and policies, which support a sustainable food system in the capital. This includes:
- Reducing the environmental impact of London's food chain
- Supporting a vibrant food economy, especially through education and skills development and enhancing the status of food workers
- Improving Londoners' health via the food they eat and reducing health inequalities
- Improving access to food (particularly through planning and regeneration) and celebrating London's culinary cultural and ethnic diversity
- Developing London's food security
London Food was set up in November 2003 to help improve the health of Londoners and look at ways of making London's food more sustainable.
For media enquiries please call Hilary Merrett at the Mayor’s Press Office on 020 7983 4755. Numbers not for publication.

For out of hours media enquiries please call 020 7983 4000.
For non-media enquiries please call the Public Liaison Unit on 020 7983 4100.