This week I finished up Food Politics and am now beginning The Industrial Diet. Whether it be what I read weekly or just when I finish the text, I’m going to post a summary and some key points to not only show my work but what I have learned in relation to my studies.
Food Politics – Intro, Ch. 11, 12 & 15
The chapters I chose to read basically dug into how the food industry has turned into a political game and its impact on consumers. Food politics is described as, “Rural food producers and urban food consumers have divergent short-term interests, so they naturally will compete to use the far-reaching powers of the state (collecting taxes, providing subsidies, managing exchange rates, regulating markets) to pursue self-serving advantage. We describe such struggles over how the risks and gains from state action are allocated within the food and farming sector as “food politics” (p. 2).
Chapter 11 discussed agribusiness and how it has reached beyond first world countries. Many diets in “rich” countries, as the author described, have become abundantly unhealthy as we have stepped away from local farmers and turned to industry to supply our food. The “industry” includes about 4 companies importing and exporting out food to us, increasing food miles and processed food-like products. All of this is very familiar to me but some key points I took away were:
- In 2002, restaurants delivered $600 billion worth of meals and services, more than total US farm sales. Suggesting US produces more money serving food than growing it (p. 155)
- According to a study done in 2012, 3 decades from now low to middle income countries will be consuming as much unhealthy food as rich countries. Where will rich countries end up? (p. 163)
- Marketing: fast food in opposing countries cater to traditions there. Mcdonalds china with tea houses, 95% of food is sources food from china, Mcdonalds makes money catering to them rather than keeping it american. Also dietary preferences in fast food sells better, KFC sells more in china because chicken, subway offers kosher food in israel (p. 164)
Chapter 12 discussed organic foods vs industrial foods. The author touched on how agribusiness and industrialization has created a distrust towards what we are eating so we turn to the comforts of local or organic food. The only issue is that organic food has become very similar to agribusiness in terms of commercial expansion and that policies for non-chemical forms of growing food has weakened as more industrial, powerful leaders have a say in it. As organic food is grown more similar to industrial food, the fact that it is twice as expensive belittles its value. And while local food can be a better alternative, food safety is called into question due to less strict regulations.
- Organic products cost 10 to 40 cents more than conventional products (p. 168)
- Studies done on organic vs conventional show little to no nutrient value increase (p. 172)
- The local food movement has brought significant expansion, increasing farmers markets from 1755 to 7864 between 2001 and 2010 (p. 177)
- USDA defines local as in-state or within 400 miles. Whole foods defines their local food as within 7 hours (p. 177)
- Alaska has a procurement law that the state must require food to be bought instate so long as the cost is no more than 7% above the out of state price, Interesting (p. 189)
Chapter 15 simply rounded out all of his topics and reiterated his main point. My issue with the book was rather than providing solutions or alternatives to these issues, the author was very heavy in tearing down every aspect. It was negatives stacked on negatives. As a reader, it not only per se “kills your vibe” but leaves you with little to work with.