Margaret Ritchie MP, of the Food, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee

in this episode I’m speaking to Margaret Ritchie, Member of Parliament for South Down in Northern Ireland, and a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. In the previous episode I’d said I would be publishing a second SOS NI podcast, which shared the stories of the staff and volunteers, and the organisations they support, but it’s taking me longer to piece together than I’d hoped, and because I’ve been recording other interviews at the same time I didn’t want to delay getting them published any longer. So that’s why you’ll be listening to an interview with Margaret Ritchie instead of the SOS NI crew, and there might be one or two more published ahead of that episode, but I will hopefully have it sorted in a few weeks time. So the background to this interview - I contacted Margaret after reading her conversation on Twitter with the organisation Feedback – telling about a grocer who had been told by a local official that he couldn’t sell cosmetically imperfect produce. Margaret sits on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee which is currently investigating the issue of food waste, and will be reporting on it later in the year. I will put links in the show notes to the recordings of representatives of the supermarkets and others giving testimony to the committee. It’s a brief interview, which took place in a busy MP’s café in the heart of the Houses of Parliament, and explores the work of the committee as well as what lies ahead, and the potential for new legislation. Shownotes can be found here - http://foodis.org.uk/?p=1537 And check out the Food Is... website for more on food waste - http://foodis.org.uk