A Section Dedicated to Food

Written by SuenMike

Web Links on Food Issues

 Felicity Lawrence on the Costa Rican pineapple market:

A short movie on the subject

A follow-up from the movie

On Fishing:

Allegations of slavery in the industry

 

Taking the moral low-ground

Currently there is an advert on TV from ASDA (owned by Wal Mart) that claims that they will refund the difference if a shopper finds he/she can buy the same goods cheaper than they can, at any supermarket. What’s wrong with that? On the face of it, it looks like ASDA is doing the consumer a good turn.  However, there is an underlying problem, which I hope you may be able to see if you read on.

In last week’s Saturday Guardian Felicity Lawrence wrote an article slamming the world of pineapple production. If you have any interest whatsoever in fairness to others, you really need to look at the 20 minute film on the Guardian website that reinforces that article. I believe the basic point is that producers in Central America – even organic producers - are being utterly screwed by the food giants and the middle men. For each £1 worth of pineapple you buy the worker gets 4p. Furthermore, when you buy those two for one offers that supermarkets are famous for, including, sad to so, the Co-op, just remember that in almost all cases the cost of those offers is contractually born by the producers. In many instances that burden is passed on further down the chain to the people at the bottom of the pyramid – the workers.

All this is completely apart from another issue which should concern you. Rivers, water-tables and wells are being poisoned by chemical run-off, industrial accidents and careless management practices. Thousands of dead fish float in rivers that the local people rely on for drinking water. In some places for lengthy periods without apparent end, the government has had to supple fresh water by tanker to communities where the drinking water supply might kill and seriously disease half the population of London, if it was ingested every day. In this happened in the UK, would you stand for it?

Where do you come in? Firstly, I can fully appreciate that one of the prime instincts of every human is survival - of self, spouse and children. Therefore any cheap food, half-price or just much cheaper than organic, appeals to the basic instinct, particularly when money is scarce. I do believe what lifts mature, sensitive societies above that basic level is a concern for others. Which is why I think that, maybe at a deep level, many people have a conscience about the plight of the millions of poor people in places like Costa Rica and Kenya who are deeply immersed in the struggle to produce food at the lowest possible cost to us and the highest possible cost to themselves. In some countries the workers can barely afford to feed themselves whilst churning out ridiculous packets of symmetrically trimmed bobby-beans or pineapples that are being produced with proven cancer-inducing chemicals. In your case that very cheap pineapple or two-for-one packet of labour-saving sticks of French bean seems to make sense but, please, think before you encourage the immorality of big business which is abusing the human rights of the workers that prepared them for your table.

I am not a great Guardian reader no more than I am a lover of any particular political philosophy but by coincidence I was also struck by an article in the Guardian that compared various popular revolutions in recent history – citing the Polish Solidarity successes and black and white students in the deep South challenging the segregated canteens on campus, amongst other history changing movements. It made the point that no matter how hopeless a struggle may seem there is always a chance that when decent people join together to fight the system it can result in change.

So vote with your purse/wallet and stop supporting the blatantly determined efforts of the giants of the food industry to claim the moral low-ground.

Corn Porn

For all anybody knows, it could have been on the 15th day of the 6th lunar cycle of the year 11,231BCE that a hungry hunter-gatherer in Central America grabbed a few handfuls of a particular grass and stripped a mouthful of small seeds from the husks at the tips. Chewy, taste not bad, made him or her feel less hungry, so next day another visit to that spot and a dozen or so armfuls to take home to share with the family. In time one of the tribes would call that grass teosinte – the mother of corn. Then somebody must have asked why they had to go all the way to the teosinte patch to gather the grass when they could grow it where they lived. Early man, the great experimenter, must have taken some time to get it right but eventually the grass was growing true to type outside the front gate and after fiddling around with the best and biggest grasses, maize was developed.

Over the next ten thousand years or so the idea of cross pollination of special plants was so well developed that hundreds of varieties of the grass we now call corn or maize – Zea mays – became the staple diet of the population of the area we now call Mexico and by 1000CE spread north as far as present day New England. Such is the vigour and adaptability of this plant that it filled a wide range of ecological niches from the Nevada desert to the cool moist green mountains of Vermont.

To read about the rise of corn, its sex life and history, I recommend The Story of Corn by Betty Fussell.

Why am I banging on about corn? Settle down with a can of cola – but don’t open it. By the time I have finished you will probably throw the unopened can away and make yourself a cup of tea.

The Americans call it corn but since us crusty old-worlders had never heard of corn until Mr C Columbus who ‘sailed the blue in 1492’ drew our attention to it, we would probably call it maize or sweet-corn. That’s because we called all grains, including wheat, barley and salt – corn; so we had to call the descendant of teosinte, ‘maize’ otherwise we might get confused. In the US they are not so easily confused.

All was well in the world of corn until some bright spark with an accounts book under his arm persuaded Mr Greedy, the progenitor of the Tribe of Supermarket CEOs, to maximise the potential of this highly adaptable grass.

To the world’s obese people may I just say that if you want to blame somebody Z.Mays, Esq., might be the top of your list.

Michael Pollan in his gripping book ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ lists dozens of applications in food production which include and depend of corn and its derivatives. The bad news is that many of these bits and pieces of corn are very, very, not good for you. Glance, if you will, at that can of cola and read the list of ingredients. Amongst them is water (that’s okay; though in India, for example, extraction of water for cola has had very serious effects on the farming economy,) and the next main ingredient is high-fructose corn syrup – or HFCS. It doesn’t stop there, read on. Starch – modified or un-modified, maltose, fructose, ascorbic acid, lactic acid, monosodium glutamate, most of the E-Number thingys, colourings, flavourings, poly-oils, lecithin, dextrose, all have one thing in common – they are all CORN. Enough to drive you to drink, isn’t it? What about the 12 to 14 spoonfulls of sugar in each can? Forget that can of American beer, it’s probably just cola with alcohol (from corn) and a different load of flavourings.

So what about diet cola? One thing you may not know about diet/sugar free drinks is that instead of coca leaves (think cocaine) which naturally is banned, they hook you with another highly addictive additive called Aspartamine. That is a proven fact.

The World Health Organisation reported that junk food (including that can of cola) is heavily responsible for the huge rise in obesity in the developed world. Dubya’s gang did their best to rubbish that statement but being in the pockets of big business is what politics is all about.

Corn is a dominating ingredient in most of the junk food that a high proportion of our population is steadily allowing the food industry to make us addicted to. In any supermarket at any time most processed food – ready meals particularly - is riddled with corn derivatives. Why? Because it’s cheap. Cheap and convenient food is essential for some sections of the community; those on shrinking pensions and savings, the hidden army of unemployed, part-timers or extra-low waged that are weeded from the statistics before publication and, worse of all, the lazy but well heeled. But not only them; even worse, their clinically obese children. I didn’t think of this expression myself but we could be the first generation that regularly outlives its children.

Is that readi-meal so bad? Yes, I am afraid it is. Pumping oneself full of that stuff is self-induced health failure; a heart attack waiting in the wings or at the very least, tiredness, lack of energy and quite possibly diabetes.

So what should you do after you have poured away the witch’s brew inside and consigned that cola can to the recycling bin? Make yourself a nice cup of tea without sugar and I will tell you how I see it.

Don’t blame poor old Z.Mays; in fact there is nothing nicer than a freshly plucked cob of ripe sweet-corn or the joy of stripping off the kernels and making corn muffins. If you can grow your own heritage crop, even better. Avoid F1 hybrids unless you want to be held to ransom every year and be forced to buy fresh seed. If you have to buy sweet-corn, go to the farmers market or the organic green-grocer and buy it on the cob. The real problem is the Food Industry.

Okay, now let’s sort out you carnivores. Ever had chicken nuggets? Meat chickens are fed on all sorts of crap including – corn. The supermarkets make a big deal of telling you ‘corn-fed’ is great for taste. Not so good for the chickens for whom it is not a natural part of their diet; chickens (jungle fowl) come from SE Asia, where there is no maize; corn comes from Central America where there ain’t no chickens. Okay, you can live with that, I guess. Now let’s look at what you actually get for your money. Chicken skin and the scrapings off the slaughterhouse floor; glued together with emulsifiers (corn), colourings (corn), coatings and flavourings (corn), and cooked in corn oil. You see where I am going with this? Fancy a steak? If you were in the US the chances are that almost every steak you eat comes from lot-fed cattle (the bovine version of battery hens.) The cattle are fed on a mixture of things including a huge amount of – corn. Corn is not the natural diet of cows. Do you actually know anything about that juicy steak you are salivating over in its clear plastic wrapper and tray? I could go into a lot of other food issues overwhelmed by corn but I think I have made my point.

Is corn bad for you? In moderation, like most things, it is not bad for you but if your shopping-list is heavily infected with corn at every turn, who can say?

Now there is another problem. Corn prices are rising dramatically because so much is being used to produce bio-fuels that there is a shortfall in food destined capacity. The farmer is not getting any more for his hard work; in fact he is probably getting less if you take into account inflation and price rises across the board. The middlemen are getting richer and the supermarkets are cashing in.

I am not suggesting we give up everything that contains corn but please put the suppliers (supermarkets, fast food outlets etc) to the trouble of answering your questions about the contents of that readi-meal with the misleading label, ask about the fat in which the fries have been cooked and for goodness sake grow up and give up chicken nuggets – that’s comfort food for hyperactive kids.

Issues with Organic

In the UK, the certification process for organic producers is expensive and exacting but how much can you rely on an Organic label on another country’s produce?

There is a creeping disease, especially amongst large supermarkets, called customer satisfaction which actually means “cash-in on the gullibility of the shoppers who are daft enough to believe our adverts”. The thinking is as follows. The morally-challenged senior executive and the chief bean-counter wander briefly through a branch and one says to the other, “Tarquin, that ‘Organic’ sign seems bigger to me than last time I saw one?” Adolphus, “Yes, old bean, we can get more money for the stuff and pay the farmers the same old price.” “Great! Let’s do more of this. Hey, let’s get the Chinese on to this; we can get it even cheaper!”

Call me cynical (most people do, unless it’s my turn to buy a round) but I have a slight doubt as to the average probity of those Chinese officials that might be in charge of Organic certification. I may be wrong but I doubt whether our Soil Association has a branch in downtown Beijing and they are about the only crowd I trust.

In the US the big boys in the food scam industry are cashing in on the Organic craze in their unusual rule-bending way by keeping their huge herds of lot-fed cattle in exactly the same dodgy conditions BUT letting them out on grass for a few minutes in their sad lifetime. Some free-range chickens are blessed by a short exposure to daylight in the same way. For the chickens this is not a blessed relief from the overcrowded, noisy, stink of the crap-filled barn. Being slightly challenged on the thinking front they get very confused and stressed by that strange yellow thing in the sky nor can they find their way back inside.

Even where there is a legitimate Organic spinach farm in California (where one single valley produces 85% of the nation’s spinach) there is a clear and present danger of contamination by Mondanto’s GM seed a few fields away.

If you happen to live on the East Coast of the US your fresh looking organic spinach (they mist it on the shelf a few dozen times a day) has almost certainly been shipped on a truck that does five miles to the gallon the mere couple of thousand miles from California.

In Vermont about 90% of all food is brought in from outside the State. It is also estimated that at any given time Vermont has barely three or four days reserves of food.

Why should we in the UK care about the Green Mountain State?

Do you really think things are any different in the UK? Bulk distribution ensures than around 80% of all trucks on the Motorway system at any moment are filled with food. Your local supermarket no longer has a stockroom; it has to be drip-fed like a patient on life-support.  Could there possibly be a tanker drivers’ strike again?

Hey, good news, Organic fruit and vegetables are increasingly found on the supermarket shelves – okay so far. Lesson One:- Supermarkets manipulate the situation to their own benefit, never yours.  If they tell you there is a demand for perfectly shaped apples it is because they have done your thinking for you. This gives them yet another opportunity to keep the producer further under their thumb. Organic produce is now going the same way with all the terrible wastage involved.

We have been lulled into thinking there is nothing wrong with strawberries at Christmas but now I am going to let you in on a secret. Strawberries are not growing under that layer of seasonal snow covering the fields of Kent. Yes, we all know and ignore the fact that they have been parachuted in from air-miles away Egypt. But did you also know that they will have been kept in a refrigerated store for months on end, picked just below full ripeness? Lesson Two:- Strawberries taste like insipid polystyrene unless they are fully ripe and long term storage does not ripen them nor does it preserve 90% of the nutrients.

If you want to buy Organic avoid the supermarket – with the possible exception of the Co-op.  Buy fruit and vegetables that are in season so that you know they are fresh.

In fact why buy Organic at all? A recent survey (not sure who funded it) baldly stated that Organic is no better for you than non-organic.  (Reminds me of the Bush Administration rubbishing the World Health Organisation’s report that junk food makes people obese.)  Lesson Three:- It ain’t what’s in Organic that makes it better for you; it’s what’s in non-Organic that is messing with your insides.

GM seeds could be the most outrageous miracle since the invention of religion. The World of the Seed is dominated by three multi-national giants who have actually pulled off the scam of patenting life itself. They have interfered with Nature so that their seeds cannot reproduce themselves naturally, forcing poverty stricken and factory farmers alike to buy new seed FROM THEM each season. The frightening thing is that there seems no way to reverse this Fascism.

Is it all doom and gloom? This is where you come in. Vote with your purse. Only buy food from a shop/market where they answer searching questions about the origins. Become a Localvore and buy food that has travelled less than 100 or 50 or 120 miles (you choose.) Stop being told what’s best for you and start asking, why?  In my next article I will share some thoughts on why we are getting sicker and sicker.

Finally a tale of frustration. I would love to be able to buy fresh milk locally. The dilemma is that most organic milk available near my home comes from North Somerset. I searched the web; nothing nearer than 30 miles. Okay that’s not too bad except there is no local outlet AND they sell most of their milk to a company in.......SOMERSET! I can’t drive 30 miles for a pint or two of milk every three days, so it’s into Budgen’s for the Organic from North Somerset – or become a Vegan.

Where have all the dairies gone? The lowing herd of contented cows slowly blocking Shire Lane, Keston (at the time I was living a 15 minute walk away) was frustrating when you wanted to drive past but oh how I wish they had not disappeared five or six years ago.

 

A Book that Rocked our World

It all started with Kate Knowler.  I start a lot of my conversations like that these days.

She gave a lecture on nutrition at our last SLUG talk of the year.   (SLUG stands for South London Urban Gardeners, a non-profit horticultural organisation).

At the very end, someone asked what books she recommended and she responded with two books on nutrition and a book called "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence. 

Don't you love finding a book that completely transforms your life?  Well, this one did it for us.  We were completely floored.

Basically, Lawrence's book is an expose on Britain's food industry, and lays bear for all to see how much our various foods are being manipulated to last longer, look better, ship easier and seem tastier.  It goes through different categories: chicken, bread, salad, coffee, etc. and talks about how the industries are manipulating each product and also the labour involved, i.e. the human cost associated with each of these foods.

Ms Lawrence, a food journalist from the Guardian, also talks about the advent of the modern-day supermarket in Britain and how powerful they've become.  They are making it impossible for farmers in this country to survive.  Be suspicious of any sales (particularly of vegetables) - it's the farmers who feel the pain when anything goes on sale.

She also highlights petrol costs and talks about how close the country become to being hungry when a petrol crisis hit in 2002.  Because big food lorries are transporting the nation's food supply, we become vulnerable to the ups and downs of the petrol market. 

This is a must-read book.