Street roots., June 22, 2018, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • June 22-28, 2018
Conversation
Page 5
FOOD, from page 4
R.P.: Yes, we have been ever since the
15th century. I don’t use the term
“corpocracy” although people say, “we are
governed by Monsanto,” “We are governed
by Bayer and Nestlé,” and I don’t know if it’s
strictly true. However, before colonial
adventurers began to govern (and
administrate) parts of the world, there had
already been links between governments
chosen by financiers; making fusions,
supporting wars and colonial adventurers.
There were also corporations and financial
institutions which were already buying and
transforming nature as we knew it. There
were always three parts: financial
institutions, governments and corporations
- all of whom were buying and selling
commodities. They needed each other. To
think that today we buy and sell genetic
material and, through agreements and laws,
snatch away the seeds and knowledge of
producers and farmers!
M.F.: What role does gender play in the food
system?
ultra-processed products so that children are
hooked as soon as possible and so that
businesses can count on their loyalty as
consumers?
P H O T O BY JA N S T U R M A N N
tourism industry because the receptiveness
of the economy can bring about the end of
food sovereignty. The Detroit Black
Community Food Security Network was an
interesting experience. I’ve also had the
privilege of working with the Soils, Food and
Healthy Communities group in Malawi, an
incredible organization, which even teaches
men to cook.
fascism,” “enlarging the nation again.”
Therefore, consumer power is dangerous
because it’s also collective power. It can all
be dangerous. If we don’t try to imagine our
communities in a different way, we’ll stay
stuck within capitalism until the end of the
world.
R.P.: Absolutely. The marketing and
advertising aimed at children is designed to
get them hooked onto certain ways of
thinking about and wanting food. Just look at
the McDonalds’ Happy Meal as an example.
With regard to addiction, cereal and food
companies are fully aware that sugar is
addictive. The billions of dollars that are
spent each year on shaping the minds of
children and their perceptions speaks of the
urgency with which companies want to
control this new market. It has become
increasingly clear that sugar is addictive and
that the recommended daily allowance must
be reduced to 2 or 3 percent because of its
impact on oral health, for example.
However, the industry is pushing for the
recommended daily allowance to be 20
percent.
M.F.: Do you have any advice for readers?
R.P.: Organize, organize, organize! We all
have felt like there is nothing we can do.
R.P.: A study published by the Quarterly
This feeling, this claim, is a self-fulfilling
Journal of Economics about women and
prophecy. If you think that you are just one
harvesting revealed different countries’
M.F.: What comes next, in terms o f trade
person, then yes, there is only little you can
policies and intellectual property rights, after
opinions on whether men should have
do. Yes, you can buy organic products at the
M.F.: How strong is consumer power?
priority access to food during shortages of
Trump withdrew the USA from the Trans­
market, but if you get stuck thinking like
pacific Partnership (TPP)?
work. In Iceland, 3.5 percent said yes,
this, then you are heading straight for
R.P.: For me, the idea of “consumer
compared to 99 percent in Egypt. This could
failure. This is why I promote organization.
power” is very dangerous.
R.P.: One of the biggest worries
be due to religion or the availability of
If, for example, the global epidemics of
If we believe that all we have to do is to
surrounding the TPP
resources. However, what seems to be
obesity and diabetes in children motivate
buy certified things -
was the dispute
constant is the presence or absence of
you, start working towards a ban on
settlement mechanism.
which still counts as
h a rv e stin g . In w h a t way d o e s th is c o n trib u te
advertising aimed at children. It doesn’t
participative certification
This is a little technical,
"Consumer power Is
to shaping the attitudes of society towards
always have to be negative: it can also be
- because we believe
but it’s important that
dang
areas
because
it's
women?
positive, such as involving yourself in the
we understand it: When
that liberation will come
When you introduce harvesting to a
quest to bring healthy foods to schools. This
also collective power«
two countries enter a
from the shopping bag,
society (and the same can be said for
is the first step.
dispute over business
we are limited to our
It can a ll be dangerous«
modern, industrial agriculture), you modify
While researchers state that it is
practices, there are
own choices and we
If
we
dcw/t
try
to
imagine
household roles and property rights due to
beneficial to have healthy foods in schools, it
lawyers who are
allow capitalist violence
oar
communities
in
a
harvesting working on a large-scale and you
is during the night, at weekends and during
generally within a
to continue. I buy fair
different
way,
w
e
'll
stay
change the rhythms of who does and who
the holidays that relationships with food are
revolving door with the
trade and I’m interested
doesn’t pay. Men are the ones who pay, and
stack w itb in capitalism
crucial. If the child’s parents are poor,
corporations involved in
in participative
the women are confined to their homes so
u n til the end of the w o rld /' these disputes. The TPP there’s not much they can do, so we should
certification schemes,
that they can dedicate themselves to
was there to create a
fight to increase workers’ salaries, for
but this isn’t the only
reproduction and cooking.
way that the food system
new layer of these
example.
It’s interesting to observe how industrial,
controls us. The issue
lawyers in the shadows.
The Landless Workers’ Movement of
capitalist, modern agriculture and their
isn’t just to do with the
However, we still have
Brazil fights on every front, which means
technologies are intertwined by their
supply chain; it’s also about the creation of
these lawyers in the World Trade
that there are a lot of people involved who
relations to power within the home. This is
individuals - of people obsessed with their
Organization (WTO), which is happy to
are fighting the government, corporations
something which social movements keep
weight and worried about brands and the
make a decision in a dispute; for example, to and bankers. The principle is to discover
very much at the forefront of their minds.
nutrients in their food. The food system has
discern whether something is considered
where the path leads within your town and
La Via Campesina says that food sovereignty
changed us into navel-gazers and we believe
“knowledge” or “property” or not.
to discover people who think like you do.
is a means of eradicating all forms of
that the source of our well-being comes
Everything seems to indicate that things
Where do we start? There is an excellent
violence against women. Why do they say
from our wallet.
will continue as they are. As for Trump, I
group in Detroit called Cook, Eat, Talk.
this? It’s not just domestic violence, but
However, if we start to believe that a
believe that he will be pressured by more
They meet every week to make a favorite
structural violence and exploitation that is
society is transformed by its market forces,
bilateral agreements. This is nothing new.
meal of one of those around the table, and
built into capitalism across its history.
its corporations, its states and its financial
After the failure of the Free Trade Area of
friends and strangers eat together and talk
institutions, then we can work in the most
the Americas (FTAA), there was an
about the problems that they want to solve.
M.F.: What do you want to highlight about
intelligent and comprehensive way. In this
explosion of bilateral negotiations,
Another thing that the food industry does is
your experiences o f food sovereignty?
era, people are fed up with being dominated
particularly on the part of the USA and the
transform us into individual consumers of
by corporations and have embraced
European Union, who reached out to
R.P.: Capitalism is just a temporary fix.
pleasure. However, if you consider the fact
nationalism. However, this is not the way
various countries. If you go to Bilaterals.org,
The big agricultural reforms by the state -
that the best food you’ve ever had was
forward: collective character is what really
you’ll see these agreements. The rewards
like those that took place in Korea and
always shared with other people, then you
matters. If we think of collectiveness as a
that are foreseen are much more direct in
Japan after the Second World War - were
realize that food is a collective experience.
term relating to place, we are damned
terms of the exercise of power and do not
extraordinary for creating equality and
As long as we understand that we are not
because I don’t believe that the concept of
dissimulate, they don’t even seek lawyers
making it possible to imagine different ways
agents of misery, but of happiness and
“nation” is big enough to enrich our ideas of who want resolutions in favor of their
of making use of the land for the majority.
justice, we will recognize that this pleasure
the potential of collectiveness. The idea of
bilateral agreements, where a state says, “I
Some examples of agricultural reform and
must be democratized.
food sovereignty, along with the equality of
am more powerful than you, therefore this
collectivization in China in the 1980s are
women as a key component, combined with
is what is going to happen.”
very interesting because they allow farmers
Marcos Filardi is a lawyer who is an expert
indigenous
towns
and
diverse
communities
to have the access to, and control over, their
in food sovereignty. Translated from Spanish
M.F.: Do you believe that ultraprocessed
is very different to the idea of “I do not
land. I like what’s happening in Cuba with
by A m y Merson. Courtesy o f Hecho en
products are designed to be addictive? Does
urban agriculture: the agroecologic crops for agree with your liberalism,” and,
Buenos Aires / IN SP ngo
m ilk formula contain the same ingredients as
consequently, “we are heading towards
the people of La Habana now feed the