News | July '07 | Be prepared to be persuasive
Just over 3,500 respondents were asked which of 21 possible food issues they were concerned about. Ranked in order from the greatest number of people indicating they had concerns (1) to the least number indicating concerns (21), the food issues were:
- The amount of salt in food ... (54%)
- The amount of fat in food
- The amount of saturated fat
- The amount of sugar in food
- Food poisoning
- Foods aimed at children
- The use of additives in food
- The use of pesticides to grow food
- Conditions in which food animals are raised
- Hormones and steroids in meat
- Antibiotics in meat
- GM foods ... (25%)
- The feed given to livestock
- The way animals are slaughtered
- Food miles
- Nutritional content of school meals
- Bird/avian flu
- Trans fats
- BSE
- Food allergies and intolerance
- The addition of folic acid to flour .... (7%)
Two things are striking about this survey.
The first four issues (regarding salt, fats and sugar) have been the subject of much high-profile work on the part of the FSA. The Agency has also been very active in tackling the fifth-ranking concern, food poisoning. These are very important food safety issues and the FSA is clearly doing a good job in raising public awareness.
GM foods are not currently in our shops and so are not yet an issue the Agency is likely to spend time on. However, when the time comes that a real public danger arrives in GM form, remember that the FSA is well able to get messages across when it wants to. Be prepared to be persuasive.
The second interesting thing about this list of food concerns is how many of them, over and above 'GM foods' themselves, are actually being actively supported by the growing of GM crops.
Soya, maize, cotton and oilseed rape continue to be the only major GM developments. These commodities are economically important because they provide the vital raw materials for the food processing industry and for intensive meat production. This means that the salt (1), fats (2,3) sugar (4) and additives (7), which are all largely concerns attached to processed foods, and the poor animal welfare (9,14), dodgy feed (13), hormones and steroids (10) and antibiotics (11) attached to modern meat are all thriving on GM crops. Since GM crops are specifically designed for intensive agriculture, they go hand in hand with pesticide use (8) and globalisation of food supplies (15). In other words, of the top 15 concerns, 13 are directly promoted by GM agriculture.
While the FSA is busy demonising processed food to protect our health, perhaps it should pay heed to the roots of many of our food safety problems, which lie our global, GM-based farming infrastructure. The Agency might serve us better, and remove many of the above areas of concern, if it worked as hard at encouraging local, small-scale farming.
The FSA has been very persuasive in drawing the public attention to the immediate problems in our food supply. Now, ask it to think long-term and replace our concern-laden foods with a fresh, local, non-GM supply.
SOURCE
- FSA News, March 2007