Women 'a growing factor in workforce'

WOMEN are fast becoming a more dominant feature of the workforce, a leading economist declared yesterday.

Professor Lowell Catlett of New Mexico State University told a Teagasc-run international food conference in Dublin that women form the fastest growing group in starting businesses.

The number of female- owned businesses in the EU and US is growing at a staggering 4% annually for the past decade. And there are now more single-headed households in the USA and Europe than married households with children

Professor Catlett said dinner in 1930 took over two-and-a-half hours to prepare while today it takes less than 20 minutes in north America and the EU.

He said Irish and EU farmers will be the major players in human and ecological health. Complex systems will link producers and consumers in way never dreamed possible.

"Consumers are in the driver's seat for the first time in human history," he said.

The conference was also told the risk of cardiovascular disease in the 10 new EU states is just over half that of the original 15.

Professor Pieter van't Veer of Wageningen University in Holland said diet and lifestyle have a considerable influence on this risk difference.

Professor Albert Flynn of UCC called for more research regulation of functional foods. While these provide an additional health benefit to consumers it is imperative they have a scientific base for their claims.

"A regulatory framework for functional foods was introduced in Japan in 1991 and in the US in 1993. Unfortunately, regulation in the EU is not expected until 2005. When this is introduced it could have a major influence on the future development of functional foods in Europe," he said.