There are a number of interrelated campaigns coming from the food industry at the moment. Here are some which have my attention, and some of my thoughts.
Food Waste
I think any time you see an issue appearing as supposedly ‘real news’ as often as this, it should set off your fake news alarm. Of course food waste is an issue, and something every one should care about. It’s nice of course that free food is often made available from this waste.
I also hope the prospect of supermarkets removing the expiration dates on foods is enough to make everyone want to buy their food elsewhere. This is a plain violation of consumers rights.
While it’s true there’s a lot of waste in our food distribution systems, the real issue is how our food is produced. If you buy an organic apple from a local farmer at a farmers market, then throw it away, preferably on a compost pile, there’s very little waste. The only thing wasted is a little bit of the farmers time, and the energy used to transport it to the market and to your house. If the farmer has some crops he can’t sell, and disposes of them on his farm, then there’s almost no waste.
On the other hand if you buy an out of season apple, from the other side of the planet, there can be an enormous waste if you throw this away. This apple has probably been treated with resource intensive and environmentally destructive pesticides and fertilizer. It has to be transported a long distance. If you buy it in the supermarket, it will probably come with excessive packaging and shipping materials you never see. It probably won’t taste good, and will need a wax coating to keep it looking fresh.
Meat of course tops the list in terms of wastefulness, together with animal products in general. The amount of energy, water use and environmental destruction involved in producing the meat commonly sold today is astonishing. It’s not impossible to buy responsibly raised animal products, but these are in short supply and it’s not possible to meet world wide demand with these. Becoming vegetarian or vegan is the most important thing you can do to fight food waste.
The best food to buy is locally produced and distributed, grown without chemicals, from a farmer you know and trust, but not necessarily certified organic. Even if you throw some of what you buy away, there’s almost no environmental cost with this type of food.
What’s certain is demanding that supermarkets selling industrially produced food somehow become less wasteful is a silly thing to do. At best this is a short term solution until you can find a better source of food.
Glyphosate European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI)
I’ve written about this before. At best this ECI was poorly written, but the idea of banning a single pesticide by name is seriously flawed. There are a number of other problems which I talked about before.
The other thing to be concerned about is democracy in general. At the time I posted the article linked to above, there were about 350,000 signatures on the ECI. Now there are nearly 700,000. The article could be what some people call ‘click bait’. That is, it has a very provocative title, and is very visible to anyone searching Google on the ECI. If 350,000 people were actually interested in this ECI, logic suggests they would research it and follow developments on the Internet, and a large number of them would end up reading my article. This hasn’t really happened, and to date only a few hundred people have found the article via Google, and some may have read it more than once.
Somehow, the ECI is being signed by large numbers of people who don’t seem to care about the issue.
The good thing is a healthy discussion seems to be underway in Brussels.
I don’t think a complete ban of glyphosate is the solution, nor do I think trying to change the current industrial system by phasing out the chemicals they use is very practical either. I certainly think there are many useful ways to restrict the use of glyphosate and other pesticides, for example: only selling them to people licensed to use agriculture chemicals; requiring farmers be equipped with protective clothing, equipment and safe workplace practices; and prohibiting use in cities and other public spaces.
The reality is the current system of farming is the result of many billions of euros in investment over decades, and a similar investment is probably necessary in a replacement system based on agroecology. I think the European institutions need to come to grips with the idea that the current system needs to be phased out, and a long term, massive and sustained investment is needed to create a new system. This needs to address many issues like land grabbing, distribution systems, rural development and so on.
No Patents on Seeds
This issue is simple. It’s very important to end patents on seeds, but the people running the campaign on this issue are not doing what they say. They are only trying to end patents on conventionally bred seeds, leaving the door open to patents on GMOs. This is flawed, and would make the situation worse than it is now.
Monsanto Tribunal
Campaigns are all about the people behind them, and this is a classic example of the wrong people with the wrong ideas. This is not unlike the No Patents on Seeds above.
We would all like to see Monsanto tried and convicted of their crimes, but this idea almost seems lost by the organizers. The very unremarkable verdict in the trial came out the other day, and it seems unlikely they’ll be able to bring the matter forward in a useful way.
What was the Monsanto Tribunal all about?
Silencing Opposition and Controlling the Message: I was there, and I certainly felt my opinion wasn’t welcome. I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
Lobbying for Industrial Agriculture: Brussels based lobby group CEO (Corporate Europe Observatory) was prominently featured, as was the No Patents on Seeds and the Ban Glyphosate group.
Organic Consumers Association: I hope just the name of this organization rings alarm bells in most people. Think of it, an ‘activist’ organization that demands organic standards be improved? This is a bit like teaching us all to eat industrial organic food from the supermarket. This goes together with lobbying for industrial agriculture above.
Dutch Racist Groups: Only ethnic Dutch people were featured as speakers or relevant parts of the organization. At least one group well known for their racism was a prominent part of the organization. This is very typical of the food industry in the Netherlands, which is often family run going back generations, and often like to portray their products as ‘clean’ and ‘pure’. Not a single food movement from the immigrant community of the Hague was featured in the organization or speakers, a city rich in ethnic diversity and culture. In a comical way, seemingly to cover up this racism, the presence of a large number of people from Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries was imported by the organizers.
We just had elections here in the Netherlands, and I think the outcome is proof that most people here don’t like this sort of ethnic division and exclusion. I hope the organizers are listening.
