Food politics

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Food politics

Answer 1

Farina bona

Farina bòna or farina sec'a is a traditional product from Valle Onsernone in Switzerland. It is a type of corn flour, obtained by fine-milling the toasted grain. Historically, it was part of the daily meal of the inhabitants of the Valle Onsernone, combined with milk, water, or wine.

Due to changes in eating habits following World War II, the importance of farina bòna decreased. Its production was completely discontinued in the 1960s after the closing down of the last mill of Valle Onsernone.

The initiatives and researches developed after the renovation of the Loco water mill, and realised by the Museum of Onsernone in 1986, managed to reawaken the memory of this ancient product, and to restart production. The "Slow Food" movement, originated by Meret Bissegger, the care of the teacher Ilario Garbani Marcantini, and the involvement of the scholastic institute of Vallera have encouraged researchers to delve into the historical knowledge of farina bòna. Based on the testimonies obtained in Vergeletto about production and improvement of the product, farina bòna is becoming better known outside the borders of Valle Onsernone.

The origins of farina bòna are unknown. The oldest information to date is written in the notes of Serafino Schira, a Loco inhabitant (1826–1914). The author lists some products containing farina bòna, and gives a brief description about the method of producing it.

The written and verbal testimonies certify the production of farina bòna in Vergeletto. Here, the toasted and milled grain was and still is called "farina sec'a." This name distinguishes the product from "farina verda," a flour that is milled but not toasted. The older people of Vergeletto still remember the "farina sec'a" produced by Annunziata Terribilini, the so-called Nunzia (1883–1958).

Different kinds of corn were used to make farina bòna, most coming from the plateau regions (Locarno or Ticino in general). There are some testimonies about small amounts of corn cultivated in the valley. The inhabitants used to toast the grain in the mills, in a special frying pan placed over the fire. The toasting process was different in each region. In Vergeletto, Nunzia would toast the corn until about a third of the grain had popped, and got a “crest” (thus it takes the name ghèl – galli in Italian, "chickens" in English). On the other hand, the last miller of Loco, Remigio Meletta, used to discard carefully every popped grain. It's possible that this selection was due to the difficulty in milling this kind of grain with a too heterogeneous consistency. During the milling, which was the final part of the process, the miller had to grind the grain very finely to be able to obtain, as Schira says, a flour with consistency comparable to a silk thread. That was possible only with the use of smooth, regular, ungrooved millstones, as it is possible to see in the crumbling mills of Vergeletto or among the millstones in the Museum of Onsernone.

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Answer 2

FAO GM Foods Platform

The FAO GM Foods Platform is a web platform where participating countries can share information on their assessments of the safety of genetically modified (recombinant-DNA) foods and feeds based on the Codex Alimentarius. It also allows for sharing of assessments of low-level GMO contamination (LLP, low-level presence).

The platform was set up by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and was launched at the FAO headquarters in Rome on 1 July 2013. The information uploaded to the platform is freely available to be read.

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Answer 3

Food and Agriculture Organization

Food and Agriculture Organization

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO; French: Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture, Italian: Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura) is an agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy.

FAO is also a source of knowledge and information, and helps developing countries and countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices, ensuring good nutrition and food security for all. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates as "let there be bread". As of 6 January 2017^[update], FAO has 194 member states, along with the European Union (a "member organization"), and the Faroe Islands and Tokelau, which are associate members.

The idea of an international organization for food and agriculture emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century, advanced primarily by the US agriculturalist and activist David Lubin. In May–June 1905, an international conference was held in Rome, Italy, which led to the creation of the International Institute of Agriculture.

Later in 1943, the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture. Representatives from forty four governments gathered at The Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia from 18 May to 3 June. They committed themselves to founding a permanent organization for food and agriculture, which happened in Quebec City, Canada on 16 October 1945 with the conclusion of the Constitution of the Food and Agriculture Organization. The First Session of the FAO Conference was held in the Chateau frontenac at Quebec, Canada, from 16 October to 1 November 1945.

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Answer 4

Food Assistance Convention

Food Assistance Convention

The Food Assistance Convention is an international treaty relating to food assistance. It was adopted on 25 April 2012 in London. The treaty aims at "addressing the food and nutritional needs of the most vulnerable populations" and includes mechanisms for information sharing and registration of commitments made towards such assistance. The treaty entered into force on 1 January 2013.

The convention is a renegotiated version of the Food Aid Convention, as of 2012 the only legally binding international treaty on food aid. The Food Aid Convention is however only focused on a limited number of food items (expressed in wheat equivalent tons), whereas the Food Assistance Convention is focused on "nutritious food" in general and leaves it up to parties to the convention to state commitments in wheat equivalents or in monetary terms.

The negotiations have taken place in the framework of the present participants of the food aid convention, and there has been criticism that recipient countries and civil society have been left out.

The convention was opened for signature on 11 June until 31 December 2012 for 34 states as well as the European Union. From 2013, it was opened to accession to all states and "customs territories" that did not sign the convention. The convention entered into force on 1 January 2013, as it had been ratified by at least five signatories at that time. As of December 2014, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States have become parties to the treaty. The states which have signed but not ratified are Bulgaria, France, Germany, and Portugal.

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Answer 5

Food Balance Sheet

Food balance sheet shows the a brief picture of the pattern of the food supply of a country. For each food item, it sketches the primary commodity availability for human consumption i.e. the sources of supply and its utilization in terms of nutrient value.

A food balance sheet is a comprehensive compilation of a selected country's food supply during a specific time period. The food balance sheet shows the food items for human consumption, along with how it is produced, used, imported/exported, and how it benefits the society (per capita supply). The total quantity produced in a country added to the total quantity imported and adjusted to any change in stocks that may have occurred since the beginning of the reference period gives the supply available during that period. On the utilization side a distinction is made between the quantities exported, fed to livestock + used for seed, losses during storage and transportation, and food supplies available for human consumption. The per capita supply of each such food item available for human consumption is then obtained by dividing the respective quantity by the related data on the population actually partaking in it. Data on per capita food supplies are expressed in terms of quantity and by applying appropriate food composition factors for all primary and processed products also in terms of dietary energy value, protein and fat content.

The food balance sheet covers production, trade, feed and seed, waste, other utilization, availability, quantities, calories, proteins, and fats. By combining these elements, one is able to detect the food security of a country, how reliant it is on imported crops/foodstuffs, and how it attributes to world exports.

According to Margaret Buchanan-Smith of the tatti Overseas Development Institute, London, the food balance sheet is the most traditional and widely used method of translating "early warning data into food aid requirements."

The EAC Regional Food Balance has been developed by the EAC Secretariat in collaboration with EAC Partner States (relevant public and private sector organizations). It is developed further to the provisions of the EAC Food Security Action Plan.

The background behind its development is recognition of it being an important tool towards the regions efforts of managing the food security situation. In principle, the Regional Food Balance Sheet is expected to give accurate and reliable information about food availability in the current period. It is a departure from the known traditional food balance sheet which gave historical information.

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Answer 6

Food for Peace

In different administrative and organizational forms, the Food for Peace program of the United States has provided food assistance around the world for more than 50 years. Approximately 3 billion people in 150 countries have benefited directly from U.S. food assistance. The Office of Food for Peace within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the U.S. Government’s largest provider of overseas food assistance. The food assistance programming is funded primarily through the Food for Peace Act. The Office of Food for Peace also receives International Disaster Assistance Funds through the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) that can be used in emergency settings (more information below).

While U.S. food aid started out in the 1950s as a means to donate surplus U.S. commodities, the U.S. government moved away from this decades ago, and now purchases food from American farmers through a competitive process. The Office of Food for Peace donates food based on an identified need, in close consultation with the host government requesting the assistance.

During the 2010s the program underwent revisions offered by in the Administrations Fiscal Year 2014 budget. These revisions would change the program to provide cash donations rather than American grown and delivered food. On April 24, 2013, USA Maritime Chairman James L. Henry wrote a statement which discussed the efficacy of the program and specifically the importance of the U.S. Merchant Marine in delivering the U.S. food aid to people who are undernourished around the world. Henry cited the fact that USAID's own data actually revealed that the traditional efforts to deliver food as opposed to cash transfers for countries to buy their own food is actually 78 percent cheaper per ton of food. Henry offers that this is a significant fact in the effort to address global hunger.

America's food assistance programs began in 1812 when James Madison sent emergency aid to earthquake victims in Venezuela. As director of the American Relief Administration, Herbert Hoover led a $20 million feeding program in Russia during the 1920s under the Russian Famine Relief Act. In 1949, the United States launched the Marshall Plan, which provided large quantities of food aid commodities to the people of Western Europe. The Marshall Plan helped rejuvenate and unite Europe while laying the foundations for a permanent U.S. food assistance program. Many of the European countries the U.S. Government helped at that time have since become major food exporters and important international donors.

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Answer 7

Food in occupied Germany

American food policy in occupied Germany refers to the food supply policies enacted by the U.S., and to some extent its dependent Allies, in the western occupation zones of Germany in the first two years of the ten-year occupation of Western Germany following World War II.

Food relief shipments to Germany had been prohibited by the U.S. until December 1945, since "they might tend to negate the policy of restricting the German standard of living to the average of the surrounding European nations".

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II the German government instituted rationing which resulted in the restricted availability of food. Occasional shortages of food occurred during the war, and a black market developed. However, supplies were generally adequate, especially in comparison to the situation in some other European countries. In part, this was due to the ruthless exploitation of occupied countries by the German government. These policies included the "Hunger Plan", which resulted in the deaths of millions of people in German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union when food supplies were redirected to Germany and the German military units operating in the USSR. Inadequate food rations also formed part of The Holocaust, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths in Warsaw alone, and around two million Soviet prisoners of war were starved to death by German forces over the winter of 1941/42.

Widespread food shortages first began to occur in Germany following the end of the war in May 1945. The production of food was disrupted by the effects of the war, including the destruction of farmland, livestock, and machinery. In addition, labour shortages developed when the slave labourers who had been forced to work on German farms returned to their homes. The situation was worsened by a period of poor weather. As a result, the output of German farms was sufficient to provide city residents with only 1,000 calories of nutrition per day. At this time, food supplies were limited across much of Europe, including the United Kingdom and France, resulting in continued rationing.

After the German surrender the U.S. chose to designate large numbers of German prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF) instead of using the Prisoner of War status under which the captives would have been under the protection of the Geneva convention and, therefore, would have been entitled to the same quantities of food as U.S. troops.

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Answer 8

Food policy

Food policy is the area of public policy concerning how food is produced, processed, distributed, and purchased. Food policies are designed to influence the operation of the food and agriculture system. This often includes decision-making around production and processing techniques, marketing, availability, utilization and consumption of food, in the interest of meeting or furthering social objectives. Food policy can be promulgated on any level, from local to global, and by a government agency, business, or organization. Food policymakers engage in activities such as regulation of food-related industries, establishing eligibility standards for food assistance programs for the poor, ensuring safety of the food supply, food labeling, and even the qualifications of a product to be considered organic.

Most food policy is initiated at the domestic level for purposes of ensuring a safe and adequate food supply for the citizenry. In a developing nation, there are three main objectives for food policy: to protect the poor from crises, to develop long-run markets that enhance efficient resource use, and to increase food production that will in turn promote an increase in income.

Food policy comprises the mechanisms by which food-related matters are addressed or administered by governments, including international bodies or networks, and by public institutions or private organizations. Agricultural producers often bear the burden of governments' desire to keep food prices sufficiently low for growing urban populations. Low prices for consumers can be a disincentive for farmers to produce more food, often resulting in hunger, poor trade prospects, and an increased need for food imports.

In a more developed country such as the United States, food and nutrition policy must be viewed in context with regional and national economic concerns, environmental pressures, maintenance of a social safety net, encouragement of private enterprise and innovation, and an agrarian landscape dominated by fewer, larger mechanized farms. Industrialized countries strive to ensure that farmers earn relatively stable incomes despite price and supply fluctuations and adverse weather events. The cost of subsidizing farm incomes is passed along to consumers in the form of higher food prices.

The history of food policy in the United States started in the 1880s with policies being carried out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1883, Harvey W. Wiley, M.D., was appointed chief chemist at USDA. Wiley devoted his career to raising public awareness of problems with adulterated food; developing standards for food processing; and campaigning for the Pure Food and Drug Act, also known as the "Wiley Act". For much of the 1880s, policymakers discussed how to deal with diseased being imported into or exported out of the United States. In 1884, the USDA Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) was created with the purpose of ensuring that diseased livestock could not be used as food. In 1890, the BAI was charged also with testing meats being exported from the U.S. and ensuring these were disease-free. In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) were both signed into law. Both prevent production and sale of adulterated or misbranded foods, the Pure Food and Drug Act focusing on general foods, and FMIA focusing on meats.

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Answer 9

Food power

In international politics, food power is the use of agriculture as a means of political control whereby one nation or group of nations offers or withholds commodities from another nation or group of nations in order to manipulate behavior. Its potential use as a weapon was recognised after OPEC’s earlier use of oil as a political weapon. Food has a major influence on political actions of a nation. In response to acts of food power, a nation usually acts in the interest of its citizens to provide food.

Food power is an integral part of the politics of food. The idea of food power is used in embargoes, employment, and food politics. In order for a nation to utilize food power effectively, the nation must effectively apply and display scarcity, supply concentration, demand dispersion, and action independence. The four main nations that export enough agriculture to be able to exert food power are the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. On the smaller scale, particularly in some African countries, food power has been used as a weapon by opposing sides in internal wars and conflicts against their own people.

There are four nations in the world that export enough agriculture to exert this hypothetical food power: the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Forced to rely on these nations in times of shortage, food-importing countries may face food crises if needed supplies are withheld. But while political leaders in food-importing countries have expressed misgivings over their dependence, food-exporting nations generally do not withhold food, as agricultural producers in these nations press their governments to continue to export.

Food politics are the political aspects of the production, control, regulation, inspection and distribution of food. The politics can be affected by the ethical, cultural, medical and environmental disputes concerning proper farming, agricultural and retailing methods and regulations. Food power is an integral part of the politics of food.

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Answer 10

Food speculation

Food speculation is betting on food prices in financial markets. Food speculation by global players like banks, hedge funds or pension funds is alleged to cause price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and soy. This theory was argued against by Adam Smith in 1776. He reasoned that the only way to make money from commodities trading is by buying low and selling high, which has the effect of smoothing out price swings and mitigating shortages.

The 2007–08 world food price crisis is thought by some to have been be partially caused by speculation.

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