While the financial crisis hits the headlines everyday, another crisis is quietly taking place: one of food. Actually the word ‘crisis’ is misleading. This is not a temporary situation, to be solved through emergency aid. We have reached rock bottom of a rotten system, one that produces both hunger and surpluses. But there is a silver lining to this cloud: we can no longer look the other way. From 9–12 October farmers, consumers and scientists from 11 European countries met in the Italian city of Castel San Pietro, near Bologna, to address the problems concerning food. The outcome of this conference, an initiative of Initiatives of Change Italy, Pace Adesso (an Italian peace organization) and CEFA (European Committee for Training and Agriculture), was hopeful: we are all part of the solution. Irene de Pous reports:
‘When we eat, we don’t realize the many things that lie behind that act,’ says Christina Bignardi, initiator of the conference. In our conference at the foot of the Apennines, where Parmaham, Parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar have been traditionally produced over centuries, this soon changes. Genetic engineering, fair trade, pesticides and health, environment and hunger: behind our plate is a hidden world to think about.
‘It’s not just about food,’ says co-organizer Piero Parenti, chairman of Pace Adesso. ‘It is about lifestyle, about which values we choose.’ The conference was marked by a constant interplay between problems on a global level, the daily personal life and an abundant Italian cuisine.
A complex issue has no simple answer. As we saw during these days, many different parties have a role to play: farmers, consumers, industry, politicians and scientists.
As a consumer you have a mighty weapon: Choice. But, in the words of Ingrid Franzon, a nutritionist from Sweden, it is not just a matter of personal choice because the consequences of our choices affect others. In this context Vicenzo Zacchiroli, the mayor of Castel San Pietro (the main sponsor of the conference) talks about the ‘globalization of problems.... We have to feel that we are citizens of this world.’
Lavinia Sommaruga Bodeo from Alliance Sud (a Swiss network of development organisations) gives a practical example. To create a feeling of solidarity she took a delegation of Swiss politicians to Niger. ‘By seeing and experiencing the problems of hunger in that country, we managed to put food security and food sovereignty high on the agenda of our development policy.’ Another important way to express a feeling of solidarity is our shopping basket. Sommaruga: ‘As a consumer we can make sure that farmers in developing countries get a fair price for their products.’
Food additives 'untested'
Our choices also have consequences for the next generations, affecting their health and the environment. Different contributions during the conference, among others those of Ingrid Franzon, and of Fiorella Belpoggi from the European research centre Ramazzini in Bologna, concerned the strong relationship between food and health. Although not everybody applies it, it is common knowledge that a good diet is important. But both speakers gave alarming presentations. According to Belpoggi there are many chemical substances in our food that have not been adequately tested. For example, aspartame which, according to their research, is a threat to health and causes cancer. Franzon shows that the use of pesticides the last fifty years has not only degraded the nutritional value of food, but also has increasingly damaging effects on health. Diseases as ME, MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) and allergies can be seen as the ‘yellow canaries’ of our world. (In the mines canaries were used to give an early warning of oxygen depletion.)
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Preparation team for the conference in the office of CEFA with Mr Bersani. Left to right: Hennie de Pous, Frieda Thaler, Johannes de Pous, Cristina Bignardi, Claude Bourdin, Giovanni Bersani, Piero Parenti.
GM foods - good or bad?
Some problems are beyond consumers, like genetic engineering. To our disappointment even the scientists are unable to give a clear answer. Two scientists give opposite points of view. According to Prof. Silviero Sansavini of the University of Bologna, the debate about genetically modified (GM) foods is more political then scientific. Sansavini calls the threats to health and environment ‘a remote possibility’, and underlines the difference between multinationals abusing the technology, like the biotech firm Monsanto, and the technology itself.
Prof. Giorgio Celli, from the same faculty, is a fiery opponent of the technology. ‘The consequences are unclear. It is an experiment that can not be reversed.’ Celli also claims that the scientific debate over genetic engineering is unreliable. ‘The research is being financed by the industry.’
Harmful or not, consumers have a right to know whether their food is genetically modified. This right to choose, and to know what you are choosing, becomes more and more important as the complexity of food production and the food chain increases. David Cuming from Canada campaigned for years for the labelling of genetically modified food. The resistance he met from countries like the US, Canada and Argentina, and companies like Monsanto, raises doubts. Why are consumers not allowed to know that their food is genetically modified?
The role of farmers
From the consumer to the role of farmers. With the slogan ‘no more war, no more hunger’ after World War II, a joint agricultural policy became an important pillar of European integration. Can agriculture once again be a basis for integration and ending hunger, this time on a global level?
A new concept of food and agriculture seems necessary for this. ‘Food is not the same as trade. An agricultural policy should not be a matter of economics, but of morals,’ says Claude Bourdin of the IofC programme International Farmers Dialogue.
In the 80s a lot of developing countries were forced to change from food production to the growing of export products like coffee and cacao. In his speech, former Senator Giovanni Bersani from Italy explains how this policy badly impacted the agricultural regions in poor countries. ‘A new international policy is needed to feed six billion mouths. This policy should include and start with farmers, who play a key role,’ says Bersani, who has worked his whole political life on these matters.
The contributions of the Farmers Dialogue comprising farmers from England, France, Switzerland and Poland, helpfully underline a basic point: the main task of farmers everywhere in the world is to produce the food that is needed. Subsidy systems, unequal trade and food speculation have cast a cloud over this. It is time for farmers again to produce for their own local markets. In poor countries farmers can be an engine for development. But also in western countries, farmers continue to play a key role. Besides producing food, agriculture is deeply interwoven with the culture and identity of a region.
A meeting with local representatives in Sasso Marconi in the Apennines, showed us that more awareness is needed. They told how the number of farmers has decreased significantly in this agricultural area. So, through different initiatives, they try to give a distinct identity to their products giving more value to the farmers. In addition they are promoting a new consumer lifestyle. One local representative called it a total package: food, health, culture and (international) justice.
We face a great challenge: how to feed all the mouths in the world, and at the same time create a healthy environment, leaving something behind for future generations?
Meetings such as this conference are vital in thinking about this challenge. After all, we are all part of the solution, but can not do it alone. The dialogue between farmers, consumers, environmental activists and scientists is fundamental to building up a realistic picture and taking first steps towards a solution.
See also: conference supplementary reports:
Environmental toxins: time to heed the canary's warning
Food Conference: Bringing Farmers to the Table