On Food Politics: The Difference between What we SHOULD know and What we're Failing to do...
As part of the discussion of Food Law and Policy, one book review is required. The aim? To read, gain knowledge and then review the presentation of a Food Law and Policy related book. Simple enough? In theory. Yet, it seems that following a read of Robert Paarlberg’s Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know of all the information that Paarlberg gives a flurry of acronyms slowly begin to show up and whirl around in one’s subconscious. Moreover, mounting evidence suggesting that the cause of many “food crises” have roots not just in afflicted country’s agricultural and governmental environments, but also in an ever increasing lackluster attempt of empowered nations removing their own biases to address threats to embodying what I deem “agro-humanitarianism”.
Before proceeding, however, it is important to address a major point that may have “popped” up in one’s mind: The review of this work is not intended as a “jab” at Robert Paarlberg’s research, writing or approach to educating an inquiring public on Food Politics. The review of this work, however, is an expression of independent opinions and reactions to the agriculturally founded political climate of both our time and years past. This book review is also not aimed at “solving” problems dealing with world hunger or to present a solution to how to “fix” faulty international exercises of power when it comes to food politics. Instead, this book, as stated before, “is an expression of [my] independent opinions and [feelings concerning] the agriculturally founded political climate [of today]”. With that said, it seems that I am able to begin.
It was once said “Conscience and cowardice are really the same things....Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all...Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter....The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul”. Sound familiar? They should-or at least might-since these words were spoken not by an internationally reknown humanitarian, saint or surprisingly well-spoken “pop star”. Instead, they were spoken by Oscar Wilde through the his characters Lord Henry and the artist Basil Hallward in his book The Picture of Dorian Gray.
But, what does this have to do with Food Politics? Well, everything! (Or, possibly nothing depending on how one is feeling at the time). It may be easier to understand this quote if certain word substitutions allowed for some connections to be readily available in the forefront of one’s mind as follows:
“Conscience and cowardice [in the world] are really the same things....Conscience is the trade-name of [some world organizations]. That is all...Every [food policy] that is [presented] with feeling is a [policy] of the [NGO], not of the [dominant government]...The reason [we/world governments] will not exhibit [true life-changing policies] is that [we have become complacent with]...[dominant governments] that have shown in [ineffective summits] the secret of [their] own soul[s]”. Too extreme? Too much of a “far stretch”? Reminiscent of the beginnings of “slippery slope”claims by someone who is benefitting from living in a country where food is rich and the burden of concern about those starving thousands miles away in developing countries is poor? Maybe. Yet, if these possibilities were true, would there be any need to review Paarlberg’s work at all? (If you’re answer is no, I invite you to continue reading. If you’re answer is yes, then, -by all means- let this section stand as a “‘D.C.’ al Fine” as I invite you to read Paarlberg’s work and then begin this review again to continue to it’s end).
AAA...AGRA...BMI...CGIAR...CIMMYT...DSB...LMO...GMO...IMF...FAO...WFP...WTO...WIC... Do any of these acronyms sound familiar? Are any of them easily associated with food both at home and abroad? No? Well, what if they were expanded?
AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933
AGRA:Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
BMI: Body Mass Index
CGIAR: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
CIMMYT: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
DSB: Dispute Settlement Body
LMO: Living Modified Organism
GMO: Genetically Modified Organism
IMF: International Monetary Fund
FAO: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
WFP: UN World Food Programme
WTO: World Trade Organization
WIC: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
Not any better? Understandable. For many of us, Paarlberg introduces organizations, legislation and history that is unheard of. Literally. The things that Paarlberg presents are not so extreme that it is difficult to imagine the ideas behind these entities coming to fruition. It is that Paarlberg leads us through what could easily be an unexpected assault on one’s psyche by an assortment of 3+ alphabetic symbol arrangements that are small on paper, but have a big impact in the 3-D world. And, in this regard, Paarlberg is a Plato-like narrator who helps to shed light on the topic of food politics in a non-confrontational way as we lift our blindfolds and are lead out of our Cave-like existence in the realm of unintentional ignorance.
How? Well, to begin, Paarlberg creates an atmosphere of familiarity between his reader and himself. A well-respected academic with a genuine passion for law and food, Paarlberg is not a distant, jargon expelling voice. Instead, he is informed, in step with the current issues at hand and-of greatest importance-integrated into the debate on agriculture. Simply put, he comes from a family that was both invested in education and in the land.In this way, a tone is set in Food Politics: What Everyone needs to Know that is carried throughout the book. A tone of Q&A introductions and direction through each chapter that does not overshadow one’s own voice in reacting to the information;not the narrator.
Next, there is a removal of guilt from this book that is replaced with something like passion. No, this book has not caused me to change my academic pursuits or abandon my career goals. It has, however, started a fire to understand food politics from the price of produce in the local supermarket to the price of living in a country of commodity-driven food consumption in place of one that is poverty-stricken. Paarlberg opens the door for consumers to “sit-in” on the debates that lobbyists and tomorrow’s agricultural NGO leaders are engaged in.
“I am my brother’s keeper”. These words, taken from Cain, brother of Abel, son of Eve and Adam who was created by God and the first steward of the Earth, have been quoted and changed around to fit scenarios of everything from movies about HLA-matched ‘saviour siblings’ to organization philosophies reminding kids to look/help each other. In relation to Food Politics, these words represent how humanitarian desires, government ambitions, private donors, transnational businesses and foundations and slow to change mentalities about the world’s food environment have reigned true and false for in less that two decades will be one century. (AAA is a 1933 act related to the history of Food Politics. If taking this into consideration as being indicative of how long Food Politics has been a member of the international political baseball team, then it has been at bat, struck out, responsible for a home-run and traded for “flashier” players for far too long.
Food Politics shows itself as a relevant contribution to one’s coffee table and mental library of sources to draw from at the next evening dress required event one attends. Or, it at leasts provides information that can be useful in analyzing the next CNN or BBC presentation of starving people in countries that may or may not be concerned with their nutritional well-being. Food Politics also shows itself to be relevant to how we should see the United States as a player in the international FP Olympics. Thus far, we’ve won gold medals in the Negotiation, Successfully Ignoring others’ needs and Pay the Fines categories. Likewise, we’ve placed high in the Addressing the Needs of the Malnourished, Highlighting Issues in International Agricultural Policy and Still Working on our Own Subsidies divisions as well. What does this mean? It means that Paarlberg’s work successfully addresses the challenges and successes of not only the United States, but also the developed world’s interests in providing for those who need help not only putting food on their tables, but also making sure that everyone makes it to the table for dinner tonight as well.
Food Politics examines the causes behind world hunger and shows, then, to us as being both domestic and international in policy, responsibility and engagement of how to stop it wherever it rears it’s ugly head. The fact that continental approaches to solving hunger in the past for Asia is not the same as solving hunger in the present for Africa is done in an eloquent and enraging manner. How is it that we are not able to help one region when we were able to help another? How did the Green Revolution fail and succeed simultaneously? How can a ‘back to the basics’ approach to food legislation hold the key to going ‘beyond the basics’ of meeting others’ minimal nutritional intakes? The answers to these questions are multifaceted, transnational, multi-climactic and just as agricultural as they are domestic and foreign policy related. And, Paarlberg’s work carefully teases out answers to each one without being too obvious or sugar coating a very real problem: dreamy realities and nutritional distress are affecting everyone.
Finally, Paarlberg’s,, Food Policy exposes the fact that amid the assortment of international and multi-government organizations some have their hands the the food policy cookie jar. Some have their heads in the sands of the developed world. Some have been effective. Some have been all bark and no bite. And, the remaining soldiers standing have been ‘born out of frustration’ with the way their older counterparts failed to rise to the occasion and make sure that a cornucopia became a real feast and not just an insurmountable mountain of ideas for having enough food in every corner of the globe.
In closing, Paarlberg’s book meets the aims of Food Law and Policy literature: it provides information that, though previously not encountered, is as necessary Policy is to Eating as Nitrogen and Oxygen are to breathing. One is able to ‘wade in the water[s]’ of letters and facts and step onto the shores of the informed. Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know really does tell us what everyone needs to know. It also 1) Point out what we don’t want to admit when it comes to international hunger [it only applies when some people’s bellies are not full], 2) addresses why “food crises” and “food false calls” occur and 3) shows us why international food regulating bodies are not able to fulfill their legislative destinies (‘Strong governments and Weak international organization standing, private donors, foreign based and issues focused “international” NGOs, etc.). Moreover, Paarlberg’s work shows why “agro-humanitarianism” has yet to diminish and eliminate world hunger and FPPs (Food Policy Problems). Because of the imposition of “First World Problems” on “Third World People” (though they are global citizens), “First World” capital steers “common” international decisions about food. As we continue to eat whatever we are given, in knowledge and nutrition, we will only continue to become nutritionally polluted, internationally concerned malnourished and ideologically obese in upholding our ideas and beliefs about how to help “them” while drowning ourselves in societies of “economic privilege”.
