Food politics

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Food politics

Answer 1

King Corn (film)

King Corn (film)

King Corn is a documentary film released in October 2007 that follows college friends Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis (directed by Aaron Woolf) as they move from Boston to Greene, Iowa to grow and farm an acre of corn. Coincidentally, the trip also takes them back to where both of their families have roots. In the process, Cheney and Ellis examine the trend of increased corn production and its effects on American society, highlighting the role of government subsidies in encouraging the huge amount of corn grown. Furthermore, by studying the food economy through the history of corn in America, the two realize most foods contain corn in some form.

The film shows how industrialization in corn has all but eliminated the image of the family farm, which is being replaced by larger industrial farms. Cheney and Ellis suggest that this trend reflects a larger industrialization of the North American food system. As outlined in the film, decisions relating to which crops are grown and how they are grown are based on government manipulated economic considerations rather than their true economic, environmental, or social ramifications. This trend is demonstrated in the film by the production of high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient found in many cheap food products, including fast food. A study conducted at Princeton University found that the same amount of high fructose corn syrup consumed caused more of a weight gain in rats than regular table sugar. In fact, Cheney and Ellis realize that this production is what makes their generation the first with a diminished life expectancy compared to their predecessors. They identify that there is a correlation between the increasing obesity rate and the increasing production of corn syrup. With the new advancement and demand for corn, the traditional farming industry is being replaced by larger corporate farms. By creating the film, the two college friends hope to increase awareness about the consequences of excessive corn production.

Cheney and Ellis were inspired to create the film out of embarrassment—they were college graduates with no knowledge of where their food came from or how it was made. For Woolf, the film presented a new opportunity, one where he could "get [his] hands dirty." One of the biggest challenges the trio faced was raising money for the independent film. They found that people were largely bored with the concept of the film and did not understand their intent. Another obstacle was the stop-animations, which were very time-consuming. A particular issue for Woolf during filming was the shyness of his co-stars, both of whom did not want to be on camera for the first six months of filming.

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Answer 2

Magen Tzedek

Magen Tzedek, originally known as Hekhsher Tzedek, (Hebrew: מגן צדק‎‎ English translation Shield of Justice or Justice Certification, with variant English spellings) is a complementary certification for kosher food produced in the United States in a way that meets Jewish Halakhic (legal) standards for workers, consumers, animals, and the environment, as understood by Conservative Judaism. Magen Tzedek certification is not a kashrut certification which certifies that food is kosher in that it meets certain requirements regarding ingredients of food and technical methods of animal slaughter, but an ethical certification complementary to conventional kosher certification.

Magen Tzedek was initiated by Conservative rabbi Morris Allen and was launched in 2011. It is sponsored by the Rabbinical Assembly, the American association of Conservative rabbis, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Central Conference of Reform Rabbis, and the Union for Reform Judaism. Magen Tzedek has met with harsh criticism from Orthodox Jewish rabbis and organizations. As of May 2013, no product bears the Magen Tzedek seal.

Magen Tzedek certification was initiated by Conservative rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minnesota in 2007 following investigative reporting by Nathaniel Popper in The Jewish Daily Forward regarding working conditions at Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa. After a five-member rabbinic and lay commission visited the plant over two days and spoke with owners, senior managers and about 60 current or former workers and had reviewed reports from the State Department of Labor, Allen stated: “We weren’t able to verify everything Popper wrote, but what we did find was equally painful and filled with indignities”. In 2008, a commission was formed to develop and apply “a set of standards that would certify that kosher food manufacturers in the US operate according to Jewish ethics and social values”. On January 31, 2011, the Magen Tzedek Commission was founded as an Illinois not-for-profit corporation with seed funding from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which reportedly has given grants totaling at least $245,000 to Magen Tzedek since 2008.

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Answer 3

Local food

"Local food", "local food movement" or "locavores" are a movement which aims to connect food producers and food consumers in the same geographic region, in order to develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks; improve local economies; or to have an impact on the health, environment, community, or society of a particular place. The term has also been extended to include not only the geographic location of supplier and consumer but can also be "defined in terms of social and supply chain characteristics." For example, local food initiatives often promote sustainable and organic farming practices, although these are not explicitly related to the geographic proximity of producer and consumer.

Local food represents an alternative to the global food model, a model which often sees food travelling long distances before it reaches the consumer. A local food network involves relationships between food producers, distributors, retailers, and consumers in a particular place, where they work together to increase food security and ensure economic, ecological and social sustainability of a community.

The contemporary American movement associated with the term can be traced back to proposed resolutions to the Society for Nutrition Education's 1981 guidelines. These largely unsuccessful resolutions encouraged increased local production to slow farmland loss. The program described "sustainable diets" - a term then new to the American public. At the time, the resolutions were met with strong criticism from pro-business institutions, but have had a strong resurgence of backing since 2000.

In 2008, revisions were made to the United States Farm Bill which put an emphasis on nutrition: "it provides low-income seniors with vouchers for use at local produce markets, and it added more than $1 billion to the fresh fruit and vegetable program, which serves healthy snacks to 3 million low-income children in schools".

No single definition of "local" or "local food systems" exists. The geographic distances between production and consumption varies within the movement. However, the general public recognizes that "local" describes the marketing arrangement (e.g. farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers' markets or to schools). There are "a number of different definitions for local [that] have been used or recorded by researchers assessing local food systems [and] most [are] informed by political or geographic boundaries. Among the more widely circulated and popular defining parameters is the concept of food miles, which has been suggested for policy recommendations." In 2008 Congress passed H.R.2419, which amended the "Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act". In the amendment "locally" and "regionally" are grouped together and are defined as

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Answer 4

Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health

Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health is the title of a global policy consultation and international conference to be held in New Delhi, India from 10–12 February 2011, which will examine the linkages between work undertaken in the agriculture, nutrition and health sectors. The conference is organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with support from the Asian Development Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the Indian Economic Association,IDRC, PepsiCo, UK Department for International Development (DFID), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Feed the Future Initiative, and The World Bank.

Agricultural products are not only sources of energy and nutrients, but also sources of fuel, medicine, fiber, and lumber. Agriculture as an activity is also the source of livelihood and income for much of the world’s population, especially those living in rural areas. For this reason, agriculture has a considerable, positive impact on health and nutrition.

On the downside, agriculture has many negative effects on health. Agricultural production, trade, and distribution can negatively affect the environment through pesticide and fertilizer runoff polluting the soil and ground water. According to WHO, around 1.1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water.

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Answer 5

Mission Mercal

Mission Mercal (officially launched on 24 April 2003) is a Bolivarian Mission established in Venezuela under the government of Hugo Chávez. The Mission involves a state-run company called Mercados de Alimentos, C.A. (MERCAL), which provides subsidised food and basic goods through a nationwide chain of stores. In 2010 Mercal was reported as having 16,600 outlets, "ranging from street-corner shops to huge warehouse stores," in addition to 6000 soup kitchens. Mercal employs 85,000 workers.

Mission Mercal stores and cooperatives are mostly located in impoverished areas and sell generic-branded foods at discounts as great as 50%. While the company is heavily funded by the government, the goal is to become self-sufficient by replacing food imports with products from local farmers, small businesses, and cooperatives (many of whom have received microcredits from Mercal). This endogenous development is central to Chávez's stated goal of non-capitalistic development from the bottom up.

Recently, customers say that there are a lack of products in Mercal stores and that items available at these stores change constantly. Some customers complained about rationing being enforced at Mercal stores due to the lack of products.

The antecedent operations to Mission Mercal began operations following the economic hardships following the strike/lockout of 2002. Up until that period, Venezuela's food production and distribution systems were primarily managed by large national corporations, a situation homologous to the present reality in Western nations such as the United States or Europe. As most corporations supported the strike/lockout, which was aimed at politically damaging Chávez, most of the food-related corporations joined the protests and ceased their operations. On the 25 April 2003 broadcast of the television show Aló Presidente, Chávez expressed his outrage at Venezuela's lack of food sovereignty and the resultant vulnerability to the agenda of major food corporations, which was manifest in closed supermarkets, growing malnutrition, and food shortages. “This offensive served us a lot because we learned from the imperialism’s attack, from the Venezuelan oligarchy, and from those who were supporting the aggression against Venezuela and who would liked to have defeated us with hunger. [We learned] that we did not have a gram or a grain of anything, of food reserves. Before any natural, political or social disaster, Venezuela did not have then food reserves," Chávez stated.

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Answer 6

Norwegian butter crisis

The Norwegian butter crisis began in late 2011 with an acute shortage of butter and inflation of its price across markets in Norway. The shortage caused soaring prices and stores' stocks of butter ran out within minutes of deliveries. According to the Danish tabloid B.T., Norway was gripped by smør-panik ("butter panic") as a result of the butter shortage.

Heavy rains during the summer affected the grazing of cows and reduced milk production during the summer months by about 20,000,000 litres (5,300,000 US gal), which led to increased butter prices. At the same time, demand increased rapidly – a 20 percent increase in sales in October 2011 with a further 30 percent rise in November. An acute shortage resulted in prices soaring. A single 250 g (8.8 oz) pack of imported Lurpak butter cost NOK 300 (€39; £32; $50) by mid-December 2011. For Norwegians, butter forms a staple part of the Christmas diet, and is particularly popular as part of a low-carbohydrate, fat-rich diet.

Shortages persisted as a result of high import tariffs on butter to protect the domestic dairy industry against foreign competition, which meant that 90 percent of the butter on sale in Norway was produced domestically. The dairy industry estimated a deficit of 500 to 1000 tonnes, while the demand for butter had increased by 30 percent since 2010.Tine, which produced 90 percent of Norwegian butter at the time and was both the largest dairy cooperative in the country and the market regulator, was blamed by dairy farmers for not informing them about higher demand quotas and exporting too much butter despite a looming domestic shortage.

In response to growing criticism, Tine asked the government to reduce tariffs to allow demand to be met with cheaper imports from neighbouring countries. The government responded by cutting the import duty by 80 percent. to NOK 4 (€0.51; £0.43; $0.66) per kilogram, from NOK 25 (€3.22; £2.69; $4.18). However, according to a Tine spokesman, the move was unlikely to result in supplies of butter becoming available in large quantities until January 2012. There were calls for the Norwegian state monopoly to be reformed as a result of the butter crisis. The dairy industry's structure was created after the Second World War to keep prices high to protect small farms, but according to critics it is a de facto monopoly that failed to meet consumers' needs.

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Answer 7

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA (/ˈpiːtə/); stylized PeTA) is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A nonprofit corporation with 300 employees, it claims that it has 3 million members and supporters (5 million in total) and is the largest animal rights group in the world. Its slogan is "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way."

Founded in March 1980, by Newkirk and fellow animal rights activist Alex Pacheco, the organization first caught the public's attention in the summer of 1981 during what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys case, a widely publicized dispute about experiments conducted on 17 macaque monkeys inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. The case lasted ten years, involved the only police raid on an animal laboratory in the United States, triggered an amendment in 1985, to that country's Animal Welfare Act, and established PETA as an internationally known organization. Today it focuses on four core issues—opposition to factory farming, fur farming, animal testing, and animals in entertainment. It also campaigns against eating meat, fishing, the killing of animals regarded as pests, the keeping of chained backyard dogs, cock fighting, dog fighting, and bullfighting.

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Answer 8

Prajateerpu

Prajateerpu was a participatory action research (PAR) initiative on the future of food and farming in Andhra Pradesh that took place on 25 June – 1 July 2001 at the Government of India's Farmer Liaison Centre (KVK) in Algole Village, Zaheerabad Taluk, Medak District, Andhra Pradesh, India. Initiated by a coalition of local community groups, it involved the participation of marginal-livelihood citizens from Andhra Pradesh and drew on approaches such as the citizens' jury and scenario workshops.

At a meeting held at the UK Houses of Parliament on 18 March 2002, a smallholder from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh stood up to launch a report in which she gave a personal account of a controversial participation process called Prajateerpu (Telegu for 'people's verdict'). Anjamma and her fellow jurors concluded that genetically modified crops would have little foreseeable impact on reducing malnutrition in Andhra Pradesh, and also expressed concern over the impact that reliance on artificial fertilizers and pesticides would have on smallholders in the region. They called for local self-sufficiency and endogenous development in farming and food, thereby joining a growing global movement for food sovereignty.

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Answer 9

Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation

The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation (PPNF) is a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established "to teach the public and professionals about foods, lifestyle habits, healing modalities, and environmental practices that can help people attain vibrant health." Founded in 1952, it was first known as the Weston A. Price Memorial Foundation after the 20th century researcher Weston Price who emphasized the importance of nutrition for health and dentistry. The other half of the foundation's current namesake is Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. whose study of nutrition in cats sparked interest in a diet high in raw animal products including uncooked meats and unpasteurized dairy. In 1969, after Price's death, the organization became the Price Pottenger Foundation, and then the Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, which it bears today.

PPNF primarily advocates: 1) that consumption of animal fats is not dangerous to human health, and 2) that mainstream agricultural methods which emphasize the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides as well as factory farming and significant processing of whole foods, reduces overall nutritional quality of food and human health. The first set of claims go against the mainstream scientific consensus among researchers, doctors, and nutritionists, that a diet high in saturated fat presents serious risks to cardiovascular health and longevity. The second set of claims is aligned with the increasingly popular organic food movement, although major food growers and producers consistently affirm the taste and nutritional quality of their food as identical or better than organics.

PPNF now houses over 10,000 books and publications, including the works of Dr. Royal Lee, Dr. Melvin Page, Dr. Emanuel Cheraskin, Dr. William Albrecht, and others. The foundation today owns and protects the original copyrighted material of Weston A. Price, DDS, and Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD. They continue to republish Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, and Pottenger's Pottenger’s Cats – A Study in Nutrition.

Price was a dentist from Cleveland, Ohio, whose 1939 book, Nutritional and Physical Degeneration, describes the fieldwork he did in the 1920s and 1930s among various world cultures, with the original goal of recording and studying the dental health and development of pre-industrial populations including tribal Africans and Pacific islanders, Inuit, North and South American natives, and Australian aborigines. The book contains numerous photographs of the people he studied, and includes comparison photographs of the teeth and facial structure of people who lived on their traditional diet and people who had adopted or grown up on industrialized food. In certain instances it was possible for Price to examine and photograph traditional and industrialized eaters from the same family.

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Answer 10

Prodrazvyorstka

Prodrazvyorstka (also Prodrazverstka; Russian: Продразвёрстка, продовольственная развёрстка) was a Bolshevik policy and campaign of confiscation of grain and other agricultural produce from the peasants for a nominal fixed price according to specified quotas (the noun razvyorstka, and the verb razverstat' refer to the partition of the requested total amount as obligations from the suppliers).

The term is commonly associated with war communism during the Russian Civil War when it was introduced by the Bolshevik government. However Bolsheviks borrowed the idea from the grain razvyorstka introduced in the Russian Empire during World War I, in 1916.

1916 saw a food crisis in the Russian Empire. While the harvest was good in Lower Volga Region and Western Siberia, its transportation by railroads collapsed. In addition, the food market was in disarray. Fixed prices for government purchases were unattractive. A decree of November 29, 1916 (signed by Aleksandr Rittich (), of the Ministry of Agriculture) introduced razvyorstka as the collection of grain for defense purposes. The Russian Provisional Government established after the February Revolution of 1917 could not propose any incentives for peasants, and their state monopoly on grain sales failed to achieve its goal.

In 1918 the center of Soviet Russia found itself cut off from the most important agricultural regions of the country. The reserves of grain ran low, causing hunger among the urban population, where support for the Bolshevik government was strongest. In order to satisfy minimal food needs, the Soviet government introduced strict control over the food surpluses of the prosperous rural households. Since many peasants were extremely unhappy with this policy and tried to resist it, they were branded as "saboteurs" of the bread monopoly of the state and advocates of free "predatory", "speculative" trade.Vladimir Lenin believed that prodrazvyorstka was the only possible way to procure sufficient amounts of grain and other agricultural products for the population of the cities during the civil war.

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