There is a human price to pay for the cheap food we demand on our plates
IT’S 20 years since Naomi Klein’s bestseller No Logo brought the idea of sweatshops and branding to the masses. It highlighted how on the one hand brands and celebrities are used to sell factory ‘lifestyles’ through mass products that are for the most part manufactured in second and third world countries.
On the other, large corporations used their dominance to dictate what we buy through curtailing what is on our supermarket shelves and dictating to those who want to get on their shelves how much they will be paid for it.
And while manufacturing jobs moved to cheaper production regions, all helping achieve economies of scale, jobs in the western world were turning into the ‘McJob’.
Perhaps the most sinister part of her book revealed that the exodus of manufacturing jobs led to an influx of jobs in the service sector with minimum wage and little benefits for workers.
Meanwhile, the lifestyle we consumers are all buying up, through fast fashion and fast food, are all showcased on Instagram.
But, the chances are that top you’re boasting about on Insta only costing €3 was probably made by in a country with no labour laws… by a child.
But consumers don’t want to know. Fast fashion is not just acceptable; it’s a post on Instagram so be proud of it!
The target market for fast-fashion companies is young women looking for cheap clothing and the reality of how these clothes are produced at low cost is not something most consumers want to be made aware of – there are far more fashionable causes to champion. The same has been happening in the food sector for years as the price of food is driven down by retailers, manufacturers and consumers and it’s only been highlighted through clusters of Covid in meat plants as we see and hear there is a price to be paid.
Cheap-food policies are economically unsustainable for a first world society and do little but cheapen the value we put on our food.
Celebrity restaurateur Nick Munier was charging €25 for a burger in his Dublin restaurant venture a few years ago, but even that Instagrammable novelty couldn’t last.
But why is a burger not worth €25 if it’s made with prime steak mince? A steak, with no chips, will cost upwards of €25 in a Dublin restaurant. But that’s OK, a steak is a steak, hand massaged in Wagu fashion no doubt, fed organic feed, no doubt, all detailed on the menu to convince us we’re buying into the lifestyle we want and deserve.
Nowhere does it mention the steak was cut from a carcass on a factory line, in near-freezing conditions by a migrant worker who has trained for two years to be skilled enough not to remove a finger in the process?
At ground level, many of today’s farmers are struggling to make a viable living from the sector when around them the food industry has become dominated by roughly 10 companies, which own the majority of foods we consume and decide what we eat and who provides it.
Fundamentally, farmers produce food, but global food companies who make huge profits, determine the price farmers and others along the food chain pay and receive. Farming is the start of the food chain, but farmers have the least influence.
Is it any surprise? When we as consumers are driven by special offers in supermarkets and loss leaders on food?
All the research points to our Instagram lives – we say we want to buy Irish and support local farmers, but once we step inside the shop door we’re straight to the special offers and don’t think twice about how a piece of meat or top can cost so little.
And those special offers on spring lamb and beef serve no one but the retailers and processors. Farmers are producing at below cost, so processors and retailers can ensure consumers feel they are getting great value. But at what cost further back the food chain?
A leg of lamb may seem expensive to the consumer at €30 in the supermarket, but the farmer probably received less than €90 for the entire lamb. Those Christmas deals
Farming is start of food chain but farmers have least influence
that see vegetables selling for a few cents are loss leaders for supermarkets, but more importantly it removes any value in the eyes of the consumers.
It’s a race to the bottom and those who will bear the brunt of it are the farmers and sectoral workers.
The power and decision to buy sustainable food lies in the hands of the consumer. But if we keep expecting the price of our food to be as low as possible all we’re doing is driving down the price farmers and workers are receiving, for it’s not the profits of the processors and retailers that will be impacted.
The less we appreciate the value of food the less our farmers and workers continue to earn.
Well done us.