Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for August 26, 2005

Organic Food Crisis – Problems with Paper Trail

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According to the Britian’s Observer newspaper:

Britain’s organic food revolution was facing its first serious test last night after an Observer investigation revealed disturbing levels of fraud within the industry.

Farmers, retailers and food inspectors have disclosed a catalogue of malpractice, including producers falsely passing off food as organic and retailers failing to gain accreditation from independent inspectors. The findings raise concerns that consumers paying high premiums for organic food are being ripped off.

… Figures from market research agency Mintel suggest three out of four households now buy some organic food and environmental groups said fraudulent activity within the industry must be stamped out for the sake of customers and legitimate farmers.

“It is not right consumers are paying over the odds because of fraudsters,” said Vicki Hird, Friends of the Earth’s food campaigner.

“These people are causing economic damage to other businesses who are playing by the rules,” said Jenny Morris of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

There are fears an increasing amount of ‘organic’ food is coming in from overseas making it difficult to establish its provenance.

“There are no tests for proving food is organic,” Morris said. “So it comes down to traceability, you have to follow a paper trail.”

So it all comes down to a paper trail?

Food Taboos – Harris’ View

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There has been a bit of discussion at this web-log about GM versus organic food. My position is well known including that I consider the aversion to GM irrational. I have written in the IPA Review (March 2004, Vol 56, No. 1) that GM is the new ‘taboo food’ and suggested that organic food might be the equivalent to the Jewish kosher and Moslem halal.

Rog sent me some links this morning to information about a fellow called Marvian Harris. Harris (now deceased) wrote about ‘cultural materialism’ which is apparently “…based on the simple premise that human social life is a response to the practical problems of earthly existence”.

Harris had some interesting ideas about food as culture including:

The Hindu ban on killing cows? Absolutely necessary as a strategy of human existence, Dr. Harris contended: they are much more valuable for plowing fields and providing milk than as a one-time steak dinner.

“Westerners think that Indians would rather starve than eat their cows,” he told Psychology Today. “What they don’t understand is that they will starve if they do eat their cows.”

In Dr. Harris’s view, then, a manufactured “divine intervention” was needed to encourage people simply to do the practical thing.

The Jewish and Muslim bans on eating pork? Pigs eat the same foods as humans, he reasoned, and are expensive to keep. Sheep, goats and cattle, by contrast, thrive on grass, and provide wool, milk and labor.

So in Harris’ view, what would the state government bans on GM food crops be about?

The links:

http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Harris/Index.htm#Web

http://www.users.voicenet.com/~nancymc/marvinharris.html