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posted by on Friday April 21 2017, @05:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the snowpiercer-protein-bars dept.

Among scientists, there is a remarkable consensus that the current [food] policy direction cannot continue. These contradictions are unbearable – literally so, because if the world continues the trend to eat like the West, the burdens on ecosystems, healthcare systems and finance will be unsupportable. That, at least, is the uncomfortable conclusion one must draw, when one looks at the evidence.

But since when has the politics of consumption been about evidence? The few studies conducted into consumers' response to this big picture about unsustainable diets show that consumers become a little indignant when they find out. A careful study by Which? found consumers asking: why weren't we told about this? They want to know more. Rightly so, but how, and from whom?

Hard-pressed teachers turn to commerce for fact sheets. Parents are too often in the dark, if truth be told. Nor could any food label convey the depth and scale of what consumers really need to know. Giant food companies have replaced schools and parents as sources of public "education". They are the Nanny Corporations, replacing the fictitious Nanny State. They filter what people are to know. Coca-Cola's annual marketing budget is US$4billion (£3.18 billion), twice the entire World Health Organisation annual budget in 2014-15, and much more than its budget for non-communicable diseases ($0.32 billion) or for promoting health through the life-course ($0.39 billion).

How can this by unlocked? Consumers buying food too often without knowing the consequences. Politicians distancing themselves from this unfolding disaster. Workers and companies vying with each other to produce more for less. This is crazy ecological economics – self-defeating food culture. It piles up burdens on public health.

It's obvious really – a new politics of food has to unfold in which academics treat consumers with dignity and tell them the truth. Politics follows the public, not the other way round. So it's the public which must be helped. The neoliberal rhetoric is of consumer sovereignty, yet everywhere they are kept in the dark.

That must be why authorities are encouraging entomophagy: "Let them eat bugs!"


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday April 21 2017, @08:37PM (4 children)

    by edIII (791) on Friday April 21 2017, @08:37PM (#497578)

    You think overpopulation is a greater problem than sustainable diets?

    You have a quite interesting point there, but how does that relate to the 1930's? How are we on track to address the population issue?

    Lastly, why is it inappropriate to address both issues at the same time?

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday April 21 2017, @09:29PM (3 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday April 21 2017, @09:29PM (#497605)

    Remember what happened as the 30's drew to a close? It started with a giant economic crisis, some convenient scapegoats, and countries electing unpleasant leaders and getting angry.
    Add nukes to it, and you take care of overpopulation. Whoever is left can experience the food rationing of the mid-to-late 40s, making the whole "sustainable diet" moot.

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday April 21 2017, @11:33PM (1 child)

      by edIII (791) on Friday April 21 2017, @11:33PM (#497657)

      You just proved yourself wrong. They don't need to pay attention the 1st part at all. Efforts are apparently well under way.

      Just give it a few days. I predict Trump and Kimmmy are going to get into a screaming penis measurement contest and both will fire the nukes and blame everybody else in the world for it.

      For about the last hour of it.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @04:21PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @04:21PM (#497955)

        I am going to have to disagree with you.

        It is more likely that if NK launches a live nuke, it will fall back onto their country and not detonate its payload, despite having blown up due to other more conventional means (mistakes, hacking, interception, slow news day, etc).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @12:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @12:05AM (#497681)

      what happened was very different in different places, in the US it was the new deal, that since the drought was over by then meant many people had lots and lots to eat, in Europe it was still catastrophic on all sides and with little farm land there where problems, in the 40's rationing was due to war not really comparable, in the post war period production had not been sorted yet and money to import the HUGE amounts of food that was being produced in north America was limited.

      Post nuclear apocalypse won't be 40's style rationing it would be the wholesale destruction and contamination of the entire world food supply