Back to index of Nerve 8 - Spring 2006

Thought for Food

By Ritchie Hunter

What do the horrific deaths of five European migrant workers in a pre-dawn road accident have to do with the quality of the food we eat?

These workers were on their way to one of the vast factory food farms which litter the countryside; part of the massive food network spanning Britain. Groups of workers controlled by gang-masters are ‘bussed’ into these farms and processing plants where they work in appalling conditions for low pay. If the gang-masters, the food manufacturers who pay them, and ultimately the supermarkets who buy the produce can’t look after the welfare of their workers, then how can we trust the food produced by them? Much is of poor quality – or, I would argue, debased.

“The act of debasing a commercial product with the object of imitating or counterfeiting a pure or genuine commodity or of substituting an inferior article for a superior one in order to gain an illegitimate profit...” The Food Safety Act 1990.

A spate of recent reports - the latest being benzene in soft drinks - confirms that we should be worried about the quality of food, as the drive for ever greater profits from the giant food chains is pushing this poor food (literally) down our throats.

Robin Maynard of the Soil Association argued in ‘Healthy soil means a healthy diet’ (Guardian, 14th February 2006) that: “Food is seen as something entirely separate from its means and source of production - so long as people follow a "balanced diet" reflecting a nutritionist's chart of proteins, carbohydrates and their daily fruit and veg, official thinking is that all will be well. Little consideration is given to whether the nutritional quality of our food is affected by the manner the crops and animals from which it is derived are raised; and virtually no thought is given to the vitality of the soil.”

We have been here before. Over a hundred and sixty years ago the wide scale adulteration of food led to the building of the Co-operative retail movement. The success of the co-ops was built on their provision of cheap, wholesome and nutritious food, which they made readily available to most of the population.

In 1844 the first shop was opened in Rochdale. In 1860 the first Food Adulteration Act was passed, showing that it’s pressure from below that brings about progressive change and not some benevolent ‘suits’ on their cushioned seats.

Today our food is debased, but now this is legal. The pioneers for unadulterated food will be writhing in their graves. Their response was to take matters into their own hands. We need a similar mass response now.
As for migrant workers: on April 6, the Gangmasters' Licensing Authority comes into force. But the legislation has already been watered down. It will exclude the largest gangmaster employers, who between them employ more than 100,000 workers in the food, drink and agriculture industries.

This was the second of two articles on health in the home.
Click here to get the full set of ‘Hazards in the Home’ factsheets or email: hazardscentre@merseymail.com

References:
BBC (01/02/06) ‘Cancer chemical found in drinks’
Paul Routledge (17/02/06) ‘A hard days work? No, it’s slave labour’, Daily Mirror
Felicity Lawrence (02/02/06) ‘Mineral levels in meat and milk plummet over 60 years’, The Guardian
Ethical Consumer Magazine, www.ethicalconsumer.org
Karen Christensen (2000) ‘Eco Living - A Handbook for the 21st Century’, Piatkus, London
Greenpeace ‘The True Cost of Food’, www.truefood.org
Pesticide Action Network, www.pan-uk.org
Felicity Lawrence (2004) ‘Not on the Label’, Penguin Books, London
Joanna Blythman (2004) ‘Shopped’, Fourth Estate, London

Additives
According to the Food Commission there are about 4,000 additives permitted in foods in the UK, but only about 350 are ever specified on the label.
All refined foods contain additives. They are put in to replace lost flavour and to extend the shelf life of a product.

Soft Drinks
Advertising campaigns of the big two - Coca-cola and Pepsi – run into 100s of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the health risks regarding some of the commonly-used ingredients of soft drinks give cause for concern.
- The soft drinks industry has known for 15 years that the preservative sodium benzoate can produce the cancer causing agent benzene if mixed with ascorbic acid (vitaminC).
- Aspartame (E591), the artificial sweetener, has been linked to brain damage.

Facts about meat and fish
- The use of antibiotics in chickens has increased 1500% in the last 30 years.
- Virtually all factory farmed chickens are fed antibiotics every day of their lives as growth promoters and to counter disease caused by the unhealthy, cramped conditions in which they live.
- There is a clear link between disease and factory farming – BSE is the obvious example. Transporting animals long distances to slaughter has made it almost impossible to contain outbreaks of serious diseases such as foot and mouth.
- Salmonella was virtually unknown in the 1940s.
- Food poisoning has increased 400% in the last ten years, and is now estimated to cost somewhere between £1 billion and £3 billion every year.
- There is widespread usage of antibiotics in fish farming, even though it is recognised that fish absorb very little of the dose, and that most escapes into the environment.

Going Organic
Organic ways of farming are just as productive as those using pesticides, and pesticide residue in food is a serious health problem.
The rise of the pesticide industry has helped transform agriculture into ‘agribusiness’ - to the detriment of small farmers who farm more ecologically but are not subsidised like “factory farms”. Therefore organic fruit and vegetables are more expensive and it is hard to find locally produced crops.
Much of the organic food available has been flown great distances, which causes environmental problems, and makes it harder for local farmers to survive.
There is obviously a dilemma here between buying local and buying organic, which can only be altered by people getting together and demanding change.