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Technorati10 Things We Didn’t Know About Food
How the authors of the new Rough Guide to Food lost their appetites for the food industry.
A surprise consequence of writing a book about food was that we lost our appetite. A month in, we realized we had underestimated just how devastating the effects of our industrial food systems are on our health, animal welfare, climate change and the earth's resources.
![[]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/food-2_3.jpg "food-2.jpg")
Thankfully, a few trips to some farmers markets with their good news story of
artisan baking, handmade cheeses and fresh-from-the-ground veg offered the
escapism we needed and helped provide a sense of perspective.
Food, lies and red tape
Overwhelmingly we found that most of us simply don't know much about food, having grown up knowing only supermarkets. In our confusion we are at the mercy of food manufacturers' aggressive marketing campaigns, especially for highly profitable "healthy" foods.
The Food Standards Agency and the EU are now challenging manufacturers' health claims. Yakult, we discovered, is essentially overpriced sweetened water with added bacteria marketed as a probiotic health drink (check the label: we naively assumed it was diluted live yogurt!). Why spend your money on foods that are not all they're cracked up to be? Become a label checker and edit your shopping list: a good rule of thumb is the fewer and simpler the ingredients the better.
Ducks
We knew animals had a pretty bad time in order to provide us with ever cheaper meat; but we were shocked that their lives were literally not worth living. Despite our national attachment to Jemima Puddleduck, 98 per cent of the duck we eat comes from mass-produced, often mutilated animals which are packed into vast sheds and only see the light of day on their way to the slaughterhouse. Ducks have nowhere to swim.
Beware of misleading labels implying "freedom"; only the Soil Association accreditation offers any real guarantee of a decent standard of animal care. Top supermarkets for animal welfare are Waitrose and M&S - see Compassion in World Farming's annual welfare league tables.
Food giants
We set out believing supermarkets were where power was concentrated in the food system, so it was a surprise to learn about the handful of mega-powerful transnational corporations which control most of the links in the food chain. Giant among giants is Cargill, whose $120bn turnover in 2008 was bigger than the GDP of two-thirds of the world's nations. Cargill controls almost half of all the world's grain trade and has, in the words of one commentator, "its tentacles in every aspect of the global food system" from meat and sugar to animal feed and fertilizer. This is worrying because it gives them incredible power over what we eat and our future food supplies.
Bitter chocolate
The extent of child labor in the cocoa industry came as a shock. It's especially prevalent in the world's leading producers in West Africa. Côte d'Ivoire, the biggest grower, has more than 100,000 child workers often enduring slave labor conditions involving the use of dangerous pesticides and machetes. There's also cross-border child trafficking. The multi-billion-pound "Big Chocolate" industry hasn't shown much interest in cleaning up its supply chain. Another good reason to choose Fairtrade.
Industry insiders
Reading The Grocer magazine regularly has been a bit like eavesdropping on the food industry's private conversation. It was eye-opening to witness its determination to flog us syrupy drinks and salty snacks backed by seven-figure marketing campaigns. A cynic might quickly form the view that the industry's ideal consumer never cooks, never reads the back of a packet and instead relies on it big processors' corn, soya and sugar alchemy to cater for all their "meal and snack occasion" needs.
Our daily bread
As a nation we munch our way through 11 billion sandwiches a year (that's 200 each). But popularity is no guarantee of quality. Glance at most bread wrappers and you'll find a gruesome list of emulsifiers, preservatives, sweeteners and fats. These ingredients make for depressing spongy loaves with long shelf lives, even if they've got fancy French or Italian labels. One of the greatest pleasures of writing the book was discovering artisanal bakers who achieve miracles with nothing more mysterious than good flour, water and yeast - plus skill.
Fairtrade
Before writing this book our engagement with Fairtrade food was pretty half-hearted: a tendency to Divine chocolate and easily available bananas. Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation changed all that. She encouraged us to avoid out-of-season, air freighted green beans arguing that in comparison with the Kenyan bean farmer, who creates about 0.9 tons CO2 emissions per annum, our carbon footprint (at an average of 9.8 tons p.a.) was through the roof and that the free healthcare and education we take for granted has to be paid for in Kenya. Soberingly, it is the developed world's predilection for meat and dairy products which accounts for half the carbon emissions associated with food.
Plenty more fish in the sea?
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that half of the world's fish stocks are already being exploited to the hilt and a further quarter are now fished beyond maximum sustainable levels. But fish are tricky to monitor. Sustainability can depend on where and how a fish was caught as well as its species. Enough to induce paralysis at the fish counter. Fortunately, the Marine Stewardship Council's certification scheme takes into account the full environmental impact of fishing. Look for their "tick-mark" logo on the fish, or even better, ask your fishmonger if you are lucky enough to still have one.
Fat futures
The UK has the highest obesity levels in Europe with more than 60 per cent of us now officially overweight or obese. But obesity is rather euphemistic, isn't it? What we're really talking about is people consuming far too much overprocessed foods and soft drinks: we can't find the "off" switch. Thirty years of artificial sweeteners have not helped; in fact they're part of the problem, creating ever-sweeter foods and encouraging cravings. It's not just airline seats and hospital beds that are feeling the strain; health service budgets are threatened by the costs of a heavier and sicker nation as a result of obesity.
The upside of the credit crunch
The food landscape changed dramatically while writing this book: organic purchasing levelled out after high year-on-year increases; many are finding Farmers' Markets and vegetable box schemes such as Riverford's are cheaper ways of shopping and less stressful too; growing your own and cooking from scratch increasingly look like good ways to save money and rediscover the pleasures of food.
Click here to buy The Rough Guide to Food
45 Comments so far
Show AllSmartest thing I ever did was to take a couple human nutrition classes in college. Man, did THAT ever improve my food choices and convince me that cooking my own food, plus gardening and preserving was the way to go. Went meatless for a bunch of years but missed the flavors. Added meat back in, but in limited amounts, always organic, always humanely raised. Learned to cook--another great teacher. Trial and error is fine, just keep trying--keep a backup meal around for those inevitable cooking failures--you get better. Organics are key. It may be more expensive but you'll save on medical bills down the road. Read Laurel's Kitchen for basic nutrition info (though only some of the recipes are truly delicioso); Joy of Cooking is a great resource (though the older editions have far fewer typos than the new one); read The Niman Ranch Cookbook for superb meat recipes and any of the many Moosewood cookbooks for everything else. Then branch out into ethnic cookery. Personnel at food co-operatives are also great resources. It's a wonderful life-long hobby and great for friendships. Add an exercise program and you can eat to your heart's content and stay healthy, with any luck.
The trick to doing just about anything is to think some while you are doing it, looking for better techniques. Then it gets easier, and often faster, with practice.
I don't bake bread much anymore, but most days I make quick flatbread for breakfast. I mix up enough dry ingredients -- whole wheat flour, flax seed, gluten, a bit of salt and baking soda (which also levens just from heat, without acid, and you also get steam rising) -- to last a few days. I heat up an iron pan with a little oil while I mix some of it, with whatever herbs or spices I'm in the mood for (thyme, sage, pepper, anise or poppy seed are good with this), with just enough water for a non-sticky dough and make a flat patty. By then the pan is hot and it takes just a few minutes to fresh pan bread (it's like roti or tortillas). While it cooks I finish up whatever dishes are in the sink from the night before.
The bread is tender, crisp, amazingly tasty, and healthy. Just one piece is breakfast. Top with a piece of cheese or sauce if you want (or both, and have pizza). No recipes, and no big deal once one is familiar with how to do it. Look up 'flat bread' on wikipedia and other web sites and you see how easy and versatile (all sorts of grains can be used) it is. People all over the world have made bread like this, using yeast or not -- even on hot rocks or on coals in the middle of nowhere, for thousands of years. No -- you don't butter and syrup and all Sunday morning, and all that to eat 'pan cakes'. Simple works just fine -- often better.
Start *simple* and let your cooking evolve as you experiemtn and try variations. A lot of the stuff that's in store-bought is for mass production, and you don't need it. Taste what you make for what it is without trying to compare it to commercial food as an artificial standard. If a store sold this simple bread they would charge twice the price as a gourmet "speciality food'.
I recently began making my own corn masa tortillas by hand, getting tired of expensive store bought tortillas with preservatives that fall apart when I try to take a bite...
It takes the SAME amount of time to make them as it does to toast them, and I save money...
Ugh that sounds good. But rolling up a scrambled egg in it sounds even better :-)
Heck yeah, grow yer own! We do!
Our little farm family is excited about the upcoming growing season, which is beginning now for many folks in temperate climates. We're having another blast of winter here in NW Montana, but going through our seeds, researching plants and going through seed catalogs.
Meanwhile we're enjoying good, simple home cooked meals from foods we grew last year and have preserved in our root cellar and deep chest freezer, as well as canned jars of preserves.
Many people say, "Isn't growing your own food and preparing your own meals a lot of work?" Yeah, but it's joyful activity. What else are you going to do with your time? Sit on your obese ass eating garbage from a box while watching soap operas? Get a life!
We don't change things by going along with the fattis quo. Tear up that Chemlawn and plant a food forest. Google "food forest" and get studying. And then start planting. You'll reap benefits beyond flavorful tomatoes.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model which makes the existing model obsolete"
-R. Buckminster Fuller
After dropping factory meat and soda from my diet, I dropped 10 lbs in two weeks. I'm stuck, but I think it has to do with beer.
Time for people to start growing as much of their own food as possible, thus not making it possible to be exposed to blackmail. Yes, food could be used as a weapon too.
U cant be further from the truth.if we dont have a deep interest in what we eat then not only can it be used as a weapon,rigthly so for even more sinister motives. Get on and grow uur food,cos especialy for we young farmers in the developing world we gat the onus.
It's not too late to get summer gardens going in the warmer climes and to start seedlings indoors in the areas that are still getting snow. School teachers and community activists have started yard farm programs this year in the city where I live. One little group already has a dozen new yard farms going on one city block in a poor section. Some apartment complexes are even involved.
I know a family of five in Japan that feeds themselves with a yard garden that is less than one fifth of an acre...much smaller than most yards in suburban USA.
I think our discussions about food need to begin to talk about the human cost of the systems which put food into our grocery stores and onto our tables. Around 80-85% of our fresh produce is still picked by hand by farm workers. Farm workers are exploited in the majority of cases, treated with no respect, receiving extremely low wages for an extremely dangerous and difficult job. They are in many cases people with no voice. They are intimidated if they try to stand up for their rights and forget it if they try to organize. As we discuss ways to eat healthier and consume foods that are less harmful to the environment in terms of carbon-footprint etc., we need to also include a human focus and the impact huge agribusiness has on human beings.
Yes Cargill is a scary monster...it reminds me of Monsato.
An article regarding Cargill and Chavez:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/04/venezuela.cargill/index.html
(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday he had ordered the nationalization of at least some of the operations of the U.S.-based food giant Cargill and threatened to do the same with the Caracas-based food maker Polar.
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez accused Cargill of growing specialized rice to evade price controls.
"Begin the expropriation process with Cargill," he said in a nationally televised speech in which he accused the company of growing specialized forms of rice in an attempt to evade price controls.
The leftist president called the company's practices "a flagrant violation of everything that we have been doing."
A spokesman for Cargill, which is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Cargill, which is privately owned, has been doing business since 1986 in Venezuela, where its operations include oilseed processing, grain and oilseeds trading, animal feed, salt, and financial and risk management.
It has 2,000 employees in 22 locations in Venezuela, according to its Web site.
About Polar, which is led by Lorenzo Mendoza, Chavez said, "We can expropriate all the plants of Polar. Mr. Mendoza, be alert. Because then you will go out and order your pricey lawyers and I don't know what to say that this is a violation of the constitution. Well, fine. If you want to fight with the government, brother, there you go. It's not with the government, it's with the law!"
In August, Chavez also ordered the nationalization of the Banco de Venezuela "to put it at the service of Venezuela
Venezuelans can take over Cargull's oilseed processing with small locally owned mechanical presses. This is an important piece of production for the people to acquire. And Cargull's "financial management" can simply be shut down.
The idea that a majority of the entire world food supply depends on a single Corporation, Cargill, is pretty alarming.
Wish we had the free healthcare they mentioned...
---USAn---
Isn't Bush Sr. a major player with Cargill?
Actually Carlyle; they're even worse!
Oops. Too many to keep track of :-(
Food, water, media, communications, government, we're losing the battle to Big Brother.
How do we stop them? They'll be the downfall of us all. The scenarios are numerous,global warming causing drought and flooding all over the planet.
A scarcity of food and water causing rioting and societal breakdown. The worldwide depression caused by a illusional monetary system. Increased conflict brought on by the scarcity of resources. Last but not least, nuclear holocaust. I'm sure many of you can add to this list. I am hopeful despite this seemingly insurmountable mountain we will have to climb. I believe if we can find what unites us, we can prevail. I am just a speck in the world, one of all the specks that make up humanity. We deserve a better world. This mess has been perpetuated by the controllers. Those who take advantage of the labor of others for their selfish gain. They will not stop until there is nothing left. WE specks if united can stem this tide and make a world fit for all. WE are all powerful when working for the common good!
Industrialization and commodification of everything is the elites' ultimate goal, to enslave the people for elite benefit. Food was one of the easiest ones because it's a basic necessity. The people are able to see the generalization if the writers would acknowledge it. This allows the people to predict, recognize and avoid all of the elites' rackets. Ultimately the idea is to ostracize from the society the elites, those who practice the enslavement of the people. Ostracization has been the crucial tool used throughout human history enabling villages, tribes and societies to suppress misfit behavior of their members.
Mono and diglycerides are in everything to make them soft and spongey like bread or just to "cut" food like drugs as in candy bars and soup. Mono and diglycerides are simply fat, usually animal fat. They wont call it lard anymore because people stopped buying that. Sick.
There is nothing wrong with fat. It is the naive and simplistic attitude that fat is evil that is partially responsible for people ending up so confused about what is healthy to eat.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with fats, including lard (oils are generally better, but if we don't eat any cholesterol our bodies make it because we need it), and we need to eat some -- but the operative word is "some". Sitting down in front of the TV with a spoon and bucket of lard won't do at all -- and some of the prepared foods is close to that. We need to look at how our bodies evolved to handle the foods which were naturally available. Some meat is good for you (some), but if people want to avoid meat then vegetables and grains can be substituted if done wisely. At the same time, we should be treating all animals with respect, and not cruelly -- and that's a major result of the corporatization of food (the same thing which gave us our present economy).
We should also be putting some money into more reseach on nutrition, about which too little is known. In the meantime, moderation, diversity, and some 'common sense', and getting enough fiber, are decent guides, as is not gorging oneself, and eating at a leisurly pace and more often rather than huge meals, so your sensation of hunger is more reliable. We should also remember, however, that 'natural' is not the same as 'good': nature is filled with toxins, the result of plants and animals which did not want to be eaten, and with evolutionary 'design' dedicated to replicating genes rather than a long and healthy life. We have to 'fool mother nature' sometimes as well as struggling against greedy companies.
"We need to look at how our bodies evolved"
Yes, in an enlightened society, the prime biology lesson in the K-12 curriculum teaches the kids to look at the cause and effect, our evolution/environment being the cause, and ourselves being the effect. When the kids graduate, this lesson should be prominent in their minds. Why should getting a job be more important than understanding one's existence? Sacrifice yourself for empire, and don't ask questions.
"Glance at most bread wrappers and you'll find a gruesome list of emulsifiers, preservatives, sweeteners and fats. These ingredients make for depressing spongy loaves with long shelf lives, even if they've got fancy French or Italian labels. One of the greatest pleasures of writing the book was discovering artisanal bakers who achieve miracles with nothing more mysterious than good flour, water and yeast - plus skill."
This paragraph discreditted the article for me. I've been cooking from scratch and baking bread for decades, and these ingredients are just types of food. I've put fats in bread: butter, oil -- and I've used sweeteners: sugar, molasses, honey, fruits. Other ordinary ingredients act as emulsifiers and preservatives (although you don;t need much in preservatives if you aren't shipping or storing bread). Getting good flour at a supermarket is a challenge: there are hundreds of different types, and anything a bit odd is generally overpriced, but making "artisan" bread is no simple task -- there is a lot of chemistry and technique involved.
Yes, the ordinary bread at the store tastes bad and is not all that nutritional (same as the stuff you make yourself if you use common store-bought ingredients), but it's not poisonous -- it's just cheaply made. As for cooking from scratch, if you do it badly you also can poison yourself.
It's good to learn about food and the rotten corporate food factories and industry, but sweeping articles, with just a little knowledge, of the "isn't it all horrible" sort don't help. One needs to work at learning the science and art behind food, and that takes years. You have the Internet -- look stuff up.
It was enlightening when I discovered that so many of the numbers were actually things like sugars, fats and starches but the problems lay in their ambiguity and the search for cheap ingredients, but half the time there are coal tar dyes, artificial additives that are just no good. Education is always the key and that is a process of time and energy that people so rarely think worth it, to their detriment. I mean a preservative could be as simple as sugar, salt, oil, honey or even sunlight(though never listed in the ingredients) and starch (thickener) is also another regular mention in the ingredients list which at home you can get from potatoes or rice/pasta water. Grow your own and get smart and save yourself some trouble.
Yes, I agree. While generally on target, the author tended toward exaggeration and fear to make his points. I rather have the facts without emotional appeals.
we've known about these things for a long time now..............no excuse. too little too late isn't going to get us out of this mess.
"...we can't find the "off" switch."
Here, lemme help - see that switch that says "self-control?" Try flipping it to the 'on' position...
And 'Nietzsche,' above, is way right - did a commercial at a corporate "chicken processing facility" a few years back... more than a mile out, you could smell it... inside was like - holy shit! Sure, they're 'just chickens,' and, sure, they're all gonna die anyway, but it was still nightmare-inducingly horrifying...
Absolutely--and egg-producing facilities are just as bad, as well as pig farms, dairy farms and of course slaughterhouses. Just say no to animal products if you care about living beings, the environment or your own health.
I defy anybody to visit ANY animal processing plant (if they will let you in) and still eat meat. It's just too mean and filthy for words.
See the process in "Supersize Me."
Add visits to the "farms" (factories) where these mass-produced animals and poultry are created to that. I grew up on a farm, and have been sickened by the rare glimpses of these places that have been shown on TV. There's no way I'd eat any of it now.
>>>Nietzsche wrote: I defy anybody to visit ANY animal processing plant (if they will let you in) and still eat meat.
I was once commenting to someone, as to how come they NEVER take students - whether they are in elementary school, high school or university - on field trips to a slaughterhouse, whereas it's common practice to take them on trips to the aquarium, planetarium, factories, workshops, farms, parks, heck, even recycling plants and sewage treatment plants - but NEVER to the slaughterhouse. Wonder why?
When I was in junior high a few decades ago, we took a field trip to Hormel's in Austin, MN. We toured the kill-line which was sobering, but the constant stench was truly atrocious. Sadly I had brought along a ham sandwich for lunch.
Greg R, wow, I imagine that must have been before the meat and dairy industries woke up to the power of controlling the information flow. You must have had a real down-to-earth teacher. I can't believe it's already almost 22 years since "Diet For A New America" came out - in 1987. John Robbins talks about the 'kill-line' in this book. Of course, it's 103 years since Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" - hopefully things have "improved" since then.
Even as a vegan I am buying less processed food and eating more raw.
When everything seems to have genetically modified ingredients there is little choice.
Talk about pushing your beliefs on others. Bio technology scientists think they are smarter than nature and they want to push that belief on everyone else.
There are great choices and variety for raw or live, plant based foods. Unlike cooked foods, live foods don't have all of their enzymes and much of their vitamin nutrients destroyed by heat. Even most vegetarians and vegans seem unaware of the awesome rejuvenating power and sustainability of an uncooked diet. Live food is the healthiest choice you can make. In fact it is a proven cure for quite a few food based diseases including depression and diabetes. With a basic understanding of nutrition, anyone who eats a live food diet for a month will never be a candidate again for the garbage that is touted as healthy.
As another vegan and one who is moving more towards a fully-raw diet, I applaud both of your posts.
I still like to cook my vegan meals, but I am incorporating more raw food into my meals. Going vegan had enormous benefits to my body . . . I can only imagine what going totally raw is like!
Well, still cook some things, different nutrients and vitamins are made accessible by heat and fat..but sprouted food might solve that, I don't know too much about sprouted foods.
There are some good books and article that do address sprouts. In his book, Spiritual Nutrition, Dr. Gabriel Cousens writes about sprouts as a biogenic food capable of transferring the life force to human consumers, aiding in healing and promoting regeneration, as compared to bioactive foods (fresh, raw, unprocessed fruits, nuts and vegetables) that sustain and enhance an already healthy life force. He cites referenced studies for increased enzymes, vitamin and mineral content, activated plant hormones, predigested proteins, etc.. as part of the benefits of ingesting sprouts.
There is also an online critique by him of Dr. Andrew Weil's fear of legume sprouts.
http://www.sproutman.com/pdf/Andrew_Weil_%20Opposes_Sprouts.pdf
Thank you for the link and the book. I do my own sprouting too. Love it! I was unaware of Dr. Weil's stance on legume sprouts.
To all of you i reccomend the book "Ferment and Human Nutrition" by Bill Mollison co-founder of the permaculture movement. It's like a world tour of the history of fermented foods and how to make them. It may be the next bible.
Before there can be a general improvement in the American diet, more young US citizens need to learn how to cook.
The ability to turn basic - and relatively inexpensive - foodstuffs into tasty and nutritious meals can save folks tons of money AND improve their health by eliminating much of the chemical crap and foodborne illnesses that have infested our processed food supply.
q
Not to rain on your parade, but it isn't just the young who are overweight and obese.
And the problem isn't just a matter of learning how to cook. The problem is that due to conflicting and wrong "expert advice" from the doctors and nutritionists, many people end up being extremely confused about what is a healthy diet.
Totally.
Being comfortable with cooking regularly--not fretting over some overly expensive and ridiculous recipe touted by a celebrity chef--has more benefits than just those from healthier eating.
It's anti-couch, anti-sloth. For staying on one's feet for the chopping, stirring, straining and cleaning a person gets a huge reward. You get a clean kitchen (a sense of refreshment), joyful anticipation of the meal, and the sense of accomplishment when you actually get to eat it.
When you're a good cook and you know it, cooking is fun.
Unfortunately one of the mainstream things targeted to those who might cook--moms--is "Time-saving." Like cooking is a hated activity. Your kids can't be in the kitchen...oh no! Buy this boxed food, keep your children from learning anything in the kitchen...and let them eat Twinkies.
Or if you do want to cook, go to a store where they help you prepare meals for...your kitchen!
We seem to forget that baking cookies with mom and burning chicken on the grill with dad was fun.
Don't grill that chicken! Grilling chicken produces enormous amounts of HCA's - a potent carcinogen.
http://www.cancerproject.org/media/news/release_grill.php.
---USAn---