A HAMPSHIRE man with a vision for the future of the food industry is now in the hotseat at the National Farmers Union South East. A former combine harvester driver, William White, 40, has worked for the NFU since 1987 and is the new director of NFU South East. He aims to help return farms to profitability and restore confidence within the British food industry.A father of three, who lives at Bentworth in Hampshire, Mr White now heads up a team of eight full-time staff at the NFU South East headquarters in Hampshire - an office that looks after the interests of some 7,000 commercial farmers and growers in the region.
He said: "The NFU wishes to secure more supermarket shelf space for British produce. We want to see more local and speciality produce on menus in hospitals, schools, hotels and restaurants.
"The UK is almost 70 per cent self-sufficient in indigenous foods and our farmers and growers meet some of the most rigorous production standards in the world.
"However, institutional caterers serve a pitiful proportion of British food. The NFU is determined to rectify this by urging caterers to recognise the merits of buying sustainable home-grown produce."
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