Thursday 17 October 2013

Sorry but state direction of the food system won't reduce waste...

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On the face of it seeking to reduce the amount of food we throw away unused is a good thing. It certainly makes sense and I'd be up for encouraging people to try and reduce the amount of grub we trash.

However, the food fascists don't quite see it this way:

For starters, food loss and wastage needs to be seen as a cross-cutting policy issue, rather than a lifestyle choice to be left in the hands of individual consumers and their consciences.

You are not to be allowed. Throwing stuff away will be banned. Action will be taken.

Now, if the article from which that quote came was from George Monbiot or some other slightly batty green obsessive then we could shove it to one side, smile and move on. But the authors are the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Program. These are big panjandrums of the international boondoggle circuit, blokes whose words are hung upon by lesser mortals, people who can effect change.

And the change they want is to say to those managing bits of the food system - farmers, truckers, supermarket managers, market stall holders and, of course, us consumers - that the government knows better. Taxes will be raised and "invested" in preventing waste (as if those producers and distributors aren't already pretty bothered about reducing waste as it represents lost income or extra cost), conferences will be held and grand food strategies replete with ideas of 'security', 'climate change' and 'fairness' that corrupt the very idea of liberty and choice.

In the end, if I want to chuck half the food I buy away that's my loss. And frankly nothing at all to do with the UN or indeed any bit of government beyond the part that runs the bin wagons. State direction of the food system won't reduce waste, will almost certainly make food more expensive and will problem make matters worse - more starvation, more tonnes of food heading for landfill and a new army of fussbuckets sticking their unwanted fingers into a system that works pretty well.
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For starters, food loss and wastage needs to be seen as a cross-cutting policy issue, rather than a lifestyle choice to be left in the hands of individual consumers and their consciences.
Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/on-the-massive-costs-of-food-wastage-and-loss-by-jose-graziano-da-silva-and-achim-steiner#DKFRGYPi5AwpPVUj.99

1 comment:

Junican said...

Haven't you noticed something, Mr Cooke? The UN used to be about the 'big picture' - famines and water supplies in Africa, epidemics in Asia, wars all over the world. Now, it is sticking its oar in at a nitty-gritty level, especially in the healthy, wealthy West.
You can date the change quite exactly, if you look. It began with the millennium goals.
The millennium goals appeared to have the worthy objective of abolishing disease and poverty throughout the world. The training organisation known as Common Purpose was set up in 1989, and NGOs quickly followed.
As we have seen, the millennium goals have turned out to be far from what people thought. They have turned out to be tobacco control, climate control and, in the offing, is alcohol control.
We are truly back to Prohibition in a big way.