tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/food-processing-14235/articlesFood processing – The Conversation2023-04-12T13:41:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2023642023-04-12T13:41:03Z2023-04-12T13:41:03ZSouth Africans have starkly unequal access to a healthy diet - the solution requires tackling deep-seated historical injustice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518726/original/file-20230331-26-f4s645.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa has a food crisis. The <a href="https://www.futureoffood.ox.ac.uk/what-food-system">food system</a> - made up of all of the activities and actors involved in the production, processing, transportation, selling, consumption and disposal of food - produces starkly unequal access to nutritious foods.</p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/15528014.2023.2175483?needAccess=true&role=button#page=5">many households in the country cannot afford</a> a healthy diet, <a href="https://dhsprogram.com/publications/publication-fr337-dhs-final-reports.cfm">27% of children under five are stunted</a>, and the <a href="https://dhsprogram.com/publications/publication-fr337-dhs-final-reports.cfm">prevalence of diet-related diseases is rising</a> rapidly. </p>
<p>The food system contributes to <a href="https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc0071en">pollution and climate change</a> through the use of agro-chemicals, fossil fuels for transport, processing and refrigeration, as well as unsustainable packaging. On top of this, over one-third of the <a href="https://www.csir.co.za/food-supply-south-africa-wasted-shows-new-csir-study">food is wasted</a>. These harms <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=1854&PPN=03-00-14">disproportionately affect</a> poor people and women. Black-headed households are seven times more likely than white-headed households to have <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=1854&PPN=03-00-14">inadequate access to food</a>.</p>
<p>This inequitable distribution of the benefits and harms of the food system is called <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262518666/food-justice/">food injustice</a>. It is also a violation of the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights">constitutional right to food</a>.</p>
<p>To date, attempts to address the food crisis have had limited success. Measures such as emergency food parcels, soup kitchens and food garden projects do help to meet immediate needs, but they <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/an-empty-plate-why-we-are-losing-the-battle-for-our-food-system-why-it-matters-and-how-we-can-win-it-back/">do not address the underlying causes</a> of food injustice. The same is true of social grants, which are <a href="https://foodsecurity.ac.za/news/why-south-africas-social-grants-arent-eradicating-malnutrition/">insufficient</a> to tackle food insecurity.</p>
<p>I argue in my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15528014.2023.2175483">ongoing research</a> that these structural challenges are rooted in colonialism and capitalism. I use the term <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09502380601162548?casa_token=TJ1LY3kEDFIAAAAA%3A2VIBhIVSTJU5oG9_eYCOrhuy05gmGVS3y7Qi54NBparBm4Jinqf10Wq26pwYw0fDtw9OQm1QvWTE2g">“coloniality”</a> to refer to the persistence of patterns of capitalist, racial and patriarchal power that continue to inform who controls the food system, and who has access to good food.</p>
<p>My research seeks to expand our knowledge of those colonial origins. Historical texts and archival materials, despite their Eurocentric bias, give clues about precolonial, indigenous food systems and how these were violently disrupted by colonialism. By speaking to elders who still know about traditional foodways, we can learn more about indigenous ingredients as well as traditional ways of gathering, producing, preparing and eating food. Most importantly, elders can help us reconnect with the worldview and values that underpinned indigenous food systems.</p>
<h2>Colonialism, violence and dispossession</h2>
<p>Food has been central to the colonial project in South Africa since the 1500s, when <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=mkkKAQAAIAAJ&dq=Before%20van%20Riebeeck%3A%20Callers%20at%20South%20Africa&source=gbs_book_other_versions">European ships</a> carrying spices from Asia to Europe stopped at the Cape to replenish food and water. Once <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jan-van-riebeeck">Jan van Riebeeck</a> established the first European settlement on behalf of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape in 1652 and <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/The_Old_Company_s_Garden_at_the_Cape_and/Di8MygEACAAJ?hl=en">started a garden</a> to provision the ships, the process of colonial conquest, forcible removal of indigenous people from their land and exploitation of their labour began.</p>
<p>Both the Dutch and the British seized vast swathes of land, often <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/The_Record_Or_A_Series_of_Official_Paper/vpRRAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">granting it to European farmers</a> and then charging them with defending it against the erstwhile owners.</p>
<p>Seizure of land from the indigenous Khoi and San people was justified on the basis that they failed to “properly use” the land <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=mkkKAQAAIAAJ&dq=Before%20van%20Riebeeck%3A%20Callers%20at%20South%20Africa&source=gbs_book_other_versions">by cultivating it</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519089/original/file-20230403-1329-a3rhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519089/original/file-20230403-1329-a3rhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519089/original/file-20230403-1329-a3rhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519089/original/file-20230403-1329-a3rhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519089/original/file-20230403-1329-a3rhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519089/original/file-20230403-1329-a3rhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519089/original/file-20230403-1329-a3rhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A display of seeds saved by small-scale farmers in Limpopo, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brittany Kesselman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Colonialism brought with it large-scale, labour-intensive <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533958308458332?journalCode=rsdy20">agriculture for domestic markets and export</a> to Europe and its other colonies. Colonists coerced locals into working on European farms. In the Eastern Cape, the British waged <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/The_Struggle_for_the_Eastern_Cape_1800_1.html?id=KImhZwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">outright war</a> against the Xhosa people, destroying their crops in a scorched earth policy designed to convert them into landless labourers. </p>
<p>Later, authorities imposed <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02590123.1986.11964243?casa_token=TsTmT_jtCnAAAAAA:a1y4xY-9bqT4lXndTTllxRubQ7_uJ5UNl0GJ0Zm_itqRhqYAuZTb1-LsL6mFpmBqbX4_kXn1zAhcvg">the hut or poll tax</a> to force self-sufficient African farmers into the wage economy. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533958308458332?journalCode=rsdy20">Forced labour</a> in the form of enslaved Africans and Asians, indentured labourers or captured indigenous people, <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Travels_in_the_Interior_of_South_Africa/7l42MwAACAAJ?hl=en">including children</a>, became common.</p>
<p>The spread of white-owned farms <a href="https://www.academia.edu/14430020/THE_COMPANY_S_GARDEN_AND_THE_EX_CHANGE_OF_NATURE_AND_KNOWLEDGE_AT_CAPE_OF_GOOD_HOPE_1652_1700_">transformed the landscape</a>, replacing indigenous plants to cultivate wheat, barley, maize, fruits, wine grapes, sugar and other commodities. Indigenous people lost access to areas where they had previously gathered wild foods, hunted, farmed and herded cattle. They also lost access to water.</p>
<p>There was a strong cultural component to colonialism’s disruption of traditional foodways. Europeans expressed contempt for indigenous foods and eating habits. The missionaries perpetuated this in their churches and schools, imposing European crops, farming styles and ways of eating as part of their <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/za/academic/subjects/religion/church-history/missionary-labours-and-scenes-southern-africa?format=PB&isbn=9781108007948">“civilizing”</a> work. This disdain for indigenous foods has carried on into the present, with traditional foods seen as backwards or <a href="https://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10566/4302">poverty foods</a>.</p>
<h2>Decolonising food systems</h2>
<p>More than 25 years into democracy, South Africa’s food system continues to reflect the highly unequal patterns of power and exploitation from the colonial era, in terms of both domestic inequalities and the country’s place in the global food system. </p>
<p>The skewed <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/land-matters-south-africa%E2%80%99s-failed-land-reforms-and-road-ahead/9781776095964">distribution of agricultural land</a> reflects colonial and apartheid patterns of white ownership. Much of the best produce, including <a href="https://www.namc.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/NAMC-DAFF-TradeProbe-69-May-Issue.pdf">most of the fruit</a>, is exported to Europe, while most South Africans <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7254-7">cannot afford</a> to meet their nutritional requirements. The food system is highly <a href="https://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10566/4597">concentrated</a>, with a few large national and international corporations dominating food processing and retail. </p>
<p>The call to decolonise food systems is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21683565.2018.1468380">growing globally</a>. Indigenous peoples around the world want to shift the fundamental worldview that informs what foods are eaten, and how they are obtained and distributed. </p>
<p>This requires moving from a capitalist, profit-driven food system in which food is simply a commodity, to one <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/pgdt/17/1-2/article-p173_173.xml">based on values</a> such as collectivity, reciprocity, kinship with the natural world, spirituality, and respect for the land. </p>
<p>In indigenous food systems, people often worked collectively – for example, in collective work parties known as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44126995">ilima</a> in isiZulu and isiXhosa or <a href="https://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/14451">letsema</a> in Setswana. They held rituals such as the first fruits ceremony to express their gratitude for the harvest. When collecting wild greens or fruits, they understood the importance of taking only what was needed and leaving enough behind for other people, animals, and for the survival of the plants.</p>
<p>When they hunted, they used every part of the animal and were shocked to see European colonists waste so much of it. People had ways of preserving and storing foods to ensure they would have enough during leaner times. </p>
<p>These kinds of values, and the practices based on them, would serve as a good basis from which to imagine and create a more just and sustainable food system, with all of the transformative changes that will entail.</p>
<p><em><strong>(*)</strong>: Different groups in different parts of what is now South Africa had very different diets, for cultural as well as ecological reasons. The foodways of the San or Khoi in the Western Cape, for instance, were very different from those of the Batswana to the north. It is not my intention to suggest that all indigenous food systems were the same, but rather to suggest that they shared certain similarities, and that they were violently disrupted by colonialism</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research received funding from the South African National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>The inequitable distribution of the benefits and harms of the food system is a violation of the constitutional right to food.Brittany Kesselman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1818192022-05-13T12:15:16Z2022-05-13T12:15:16ZA shrinking fraction of the world’s major crops goes to feed the hungry, with more used for nonfood purposes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461805/original/file-20220506-12-ven81z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4288%2C2843&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harvesting soybeans in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Brazil exports soybeans and uses them domestically to make animal feed and biodiesel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/soybeans-are-harvested-at-fartura-farm-in-mato-grosso-state-news-photo/542626248">Paulo Fridman/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461817/original/file-20220506-24-jw9brq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Rising competition for many of the world’s important crops is sending increasing amounts toward uses other than directly feeding people. These competing uses include making biofuels; converting crops into processing ingredients, such as livestock meal, hydrogenated oils and starches; and selling them on global markets to countries that can afford to pay for them. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00504-z">2022 study</a>, my co-authors and I estimated that in 2030, only 29% of the global harvests of 10 major crops may be directly consumed as food in the countries where they were produced, down from about 51% in the 1960s. We also project that, because of this trend, the world is unlikely to achieve a top sustainable development goal: <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal2">ending hunger by 2030</a>.</p>
<p>Another 16% of harvests of these crops in 2030 will be used as feed for livestock, along with significant portions of the crops that go to processing. This ultimately produces eggs, meat and milk – products that typically are eaten by middle- and upper-income people, rather than those who are undernourished. Diets in poor countries rely on staple foods like <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-living-in-a-poor-country-means-you-have-bad-food-choices-121993">rice, corn, bread</a> and <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/blog/impact-ukraine-crisis-global-vegetable-oil-market">vegetable oils</a>.</p>
<p>The crops that we studied – barley, cassava, maize (corn), oil palm, rapeseed (canola), rice, sorghum, soybean, sugar cane and wheat – together account for more than 80% of all calories from harvested crops. Our study shows that calorie production in these crops increased by more than 200% between the 1960s and the 2010s. </p>
<p>Today, however, harvests of crops for processing, exports and industrial uses are booming. By 2030, we estimate that processing, export and industrial-use crops will likely account for 50% of harvested calories worldwide. When we add the calories locked in crops used as animal feed, we calculate that by 2030, roughly 70% of all harvested calories of these top 10 crops will go to uses other than directly feeding hungry people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="World maps showing increasing non-food usage of crops worldwide" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461803/original/file-20220506-2469-so7g9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">These two maps show how the use of 10 major food crops changed from the 1960s to the 2010s. In areas that change from blue and green to red and purple, crops increasingly are used for food processing, export and industrial uses (labeled ‘other’). One hectare equals about 2.5 acres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00504-z">Ray et al., 2022</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Serving the affluent, not the poor</h2>
<p>These profound changes show how and where agriculture and agribusiness are responding to the growth of the global middle class. As incomes rise, people demand more animal products and convenient processed foods. They also use more industrial products that contain plant-based ingredients, such as <a href="https://farm-energy.extension.org/what-are-some-of-the-most-common-crops-used-for-biofuel-production/">biofuels</a>, <a href="https://www.totalenergies-corbion.com/media/ijpb1qzl/totalenergiescorbionpla_whitepaper_foodstock_1-3.pdf">bioplastics</a> and <a href="https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/issues/311/ge-foods/pharmaceutical-crops">pharmaceuticals</a>.</p>
<p>Many crops grown for export, processing and industrial uses are specially bred varieties of the 10 major crops that we analyzed. For example, <a href="https://nebraskacorn.gov/issues-initiatives/your-food/field-corn-vs-food-corn/">only about 1% of corn grown is the U.S. is sweet corn</a>, the type that people eat fresh, frozen or canned. The rest is mostly field corn, which is used to make biofuels, animal feed and food additives.</p>
<p>Crops grown for these uses produce more calories per unit of land than those harvested for direct food use, and that gap is widening. In our study we calculated that industrial-use crops already yield twice as many calories as those harvested for direct food consumption, and their yield is increasing 2.5 times faster. </p>
<p>The amount of protein per unit of land from processing crops is twice that of food crops, and is increasing at 1.8 times the rate of food crops. Crops harvested for direct food consumption have had the lowest yields across all metrics of measurement and lowest rates of improvement. </p>
<h2>Grow more foods that feed the hungry</h2>
<p>What does this mean for reducing hunger? We estimate that by 2030, the world will be harvesting enough calories to feed its projected population – but it won’t be using most of those crops for direct food consumption. </p>
<p>According to our analysis, 48 countries will not produce enough calories within their borders to feed their populations. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, but they also include Asian nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan and Caribbean countries such as Haiti. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1521842257120407554"}"></div></p>
<p>Scientists and agricultural experts have worked to <a href="https://theconversation.com/mind-the-gaps-reducing-hunger-by-improving-yields-on-small-farms-67287">increase the productivity of food crops</a> in countries where many people are undernourished, but the gains so far have not been enough. There may be ways to persuade wealthier nations to raise more food crops and divert that extra output to undernourished countries, but this would be a short-term solution. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I believe the broader goal should be raising more crops in food-insecure countries that are used directly as food, and increasing their yields. <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal1">Ending poverty</a>, the U.N.’s top sustainable development goal, will also enable countries that can’t produce enough food to meet their domestic needs to import it from other suppliers. Without more focus on the needs of the world’s undernourished people, eliminating hunger will remain a distant goal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment supported the publication of this work.</span></em></p>A new study finds that by 2030, less than one-third of the world’s major crop harvests will go directly to feed people.Deepak Ray, Senior Scientist, University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1644932021-07-14T09:36:09Z2021-07-14T09:36:09ZSouth African riots and food security: why there’s an urgent need to restore stability<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411194/original/file-20210714-17-1ieq0b1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fuel storage tanks at South Africa's Durban harbour. Blocking the transport of fuel will stop the transport of food.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/speeches/address-president-cyril-ramaphosa-acts-violence-and-destruction-property">addressed the nation</a> on July 12 amid violence and destruction of property in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, he warned of several risks if the situation was not resolved swiftly. One of them was food security.</p>
<p>A lot has been written about the <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-13-duduzile-zuma-sambudla-from-pampered-diamond-queen-to-armchair-instigator-of-violence/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=First%20Thing%20Tuesday%2013%20July%202021&utm_content=First%20Thing%20Tuesday%2013%20July%202021+CID_afe017a372186f9079a1ada2ecae8450&utm_source=TouchBasePro&utm_term=Duduzile%20Zuma-Sambudla%20%20from%20pampered%20diamond%20queen%20to%20armchair%20instigator%20of%20violence">acts of criminality</a> and the disregard for the rule of law that’s swept parts of the country. Attention has also been given to the <a href="https://www.newframe.com/a-place-weeping/">underlying factors</a> that make the South African society so fragile. These include rising unemployment, inequality, corruption and poor service delivery.</p>
<p>In light of the ongoing state of turbulence it’s important to take a closer look at food security issues. </p>
<p>South Africa is generally a <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12135&gclid=CjwKCAjw87SHBhBiEiwAukSeUQhxU-y2abchhc9NMtxIXD94vaIrPGm86-WtzabYolueotvh6-mijxoCMMgQAvD_BwE">secure food country</a> at a national level. On top of this it is a net exporter of agricultural and processed food products. Last year agricultural exports reached the second-highest level on record of <a href="https://agbiz.co.za/content/open/15-february-2021-agri-market-viewpoint">US$10.2 billion</a> following a favourable production season.</p>
<p>But food security is about more than just having sufficient supplies. It also requires food accessibility, affordability, nutrition and stability over time. </p>
<p>This is where the challenge lies. </p>
<p>Continued disruption will affect supplies given the specifics of South Africa’s food supply chains. KwaZulu-Natal, the epicentre of rioting and looting, is a major producer of various agricultural products such as sugar, milk and poultry products. The province also serves as an entry for imported food products, including wheat, rice, poultry products, and palm oils. Gauteng, the other province also most affected, is one of the major food processing hubs. </p>
<p>However, South Africa’s food supply chains are not concentrated in one particular province. The biggest risk in the short term is the free movement of goods, including food and agricultural produce on the roads, specifically to and from the Durban port, the entry and exit point for agricultural imports and exports.</p>
<p>The other risk relates to increased income poverty because of the destruction of businesses.</p>
<h2>Food production and consumption</h2>
<p>In the same year as record production figures, the country experienced an increase in hunger, as identified in the <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/reports/#:%7E:text=The%20first%20wave%20of%20the,increase%20in%20household%20food%20insecurity.">National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM).</a>. But this wasn’t necessarily an issue of food shortage or a rapid increase in food prices. It was mostly because people were out of work and had reduced means to buy food.</p>
<p>In 2021, South Africa again enjoyed another season of an <a href="https://www.agbiz.co.za/content/open/sas-summer-crop-production-forecasts-were-left-unchanged-in-jun-2021-assessment">abundant harvest</a> following favourable summer rainfalls. This means that there are unlikely to be food shortages this year, but rather ample supplies for local consumption and export markets. This will be true for major grains, fruits, meat and various products. </p>
<p>Still, this doesn’t mean everyone in the country is food secure. Or that prices won’t rise rapidly.</p>
<p>There are long-standing challenges with income poverty in South Africa and the extent to which the poorest people are able to afford nutritious food. Still, food prices have only risen negligibly. South Africa’s consumer food price inflation was at 6.8% year on year in May 2021, from 6.7% year on year in April, according to <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=1854&PPN=P0141">data</a> from Statistics South Africa. This is not an alarmist rate as we have seen double-digit inflation rates in years of drought such as 2016, where consumer food price inflation averaged 10.8% year on year. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/Opinion/wandile-sihlobo-steep-food-prices-remain-but-there-may-be-hope-on-the-horizon-20210608">expectation</a> is that consumer food price inflation could in fact soften in the second half of 2021.</p>
<p>Therefore, Ramaphosa’s emphasis on the risks to food security in his address on July 12 was primarily focused on KwaZulu-Natal. The main challenge is a disruption due to the looting spree, forcing companies to avoid volatile areas so as not to expose their property and employees to danger. It is far from clear how long the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal will last.</p>
<p>Menacingly, no one can tell with certainty if waves of protest will not spill over to other provinces in ways that disrupt business and supply chains and affect livelihoods. If the wave of violent protests continues unabated, it could pose a risk to food security, with the poorest people most affected as their employment and livelihoods will suffer. Small businesses in particular might be forced to close given the scale of the <a href="https://www.news24.com/witness/news/kzn/unrest-in-kwazulu-natal-costs-at-least-r100-million-in-damages-20210712">continuing</a> violence.</p>
<p>But South Africans in other parts of the country that have not seen outbreaks of looting and violence should not panic about possible food shortages.</p>
<h2>Production patterns</h2>
<p>KwaZulu-Natal has been the most affected by the violence. But the province isn’t the epicentre of agriculture in the country. It isn’t an anchor to the South African food system. Provinces in central South Africa – the Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo – hold far more key positions. This is because of their abundant agricultural production and food processing capacity. </p>
<p>Maize meal and wheat flour – both staple to most South African diets – are primarily produced in the Free State, Mpumalanga, North West and the Western Cape. These provinces account for <a href="https://www.grainsa.co.za/pages/industry-reports/production-reports">over 60% of production of each of these grains</a>, and process <a href="https://www.sagis.org.za/processing-per-province.html">over 50% of</a> them. </p>
<p>KwaZulu-Natal processes roughly <a href="https://www.sagis.org.za/processing-per-province.html">8% of the 11.5 million tonnes of maize</a> consumed in South Africa each year. In wheat, KwaZulu-Natal processes <a href="https://www.sagis.org.za/processing-per-province.html">roughly 21% of the annual consumption</a>. The numbers vary per product, but the point here is that food supply chains are not concentrated in one particular province.</p>
<p>There is no risk of food shortage currently from other anchor provinces. But the risk comes when there is no fuel for transport within the country, <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-07-13-sapref-oil-refinery-declares-force-majeure-shuts-down-a-third-of-south-africas-fuel-supply/">given the force majeure that the refinery in Durban has declared</a>. It is South Africa’s largest refinery, accounting for 35% of the country’s refining capacity. </p>
<p>I highlight this because a large share of South Africa’s food is transported by road.</p>
<p>In the case of trade, the current disruptions weigh even more heavily on businesses and farmers in agriculture. On average, <a href="https://www.sagis.org.za/monthly-grain-transport.html">75% of the country’s grains are transported by road annually</a>. These are largely exported through the Durban harbour. The same is true for imported food products such as rice, wheat and palm oil, among other products. The volumes are also large for horticulture, specifically citrus, a leading exportable agricultural product in South Africa. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/at-least-25-trucks-burnt-in-kzn-protests-roads-remain-closed/">burning of trucks on the roads</a> and the blocked routes to the ports will prove costly to businesses and harm South Africa’s reputation as a global supplier in various value chains. This will also negatively affect the province’s food supply chains.</p>
<p>This needs urgent intervention, especially as agricultural products are perishable and the country is entering an export period for citrus in a year of a <a href="https://www.foodformzansi.co.za/record-citrus-exports/#:%7E:text=South%20Africa's%20citrus%20industry%20looks,the%20rest%20of%20the%20world.">record harvest</a>.</p>
<p>As South African authorities grapple with achieving stability, there needs to be a deeper introspection about ensuring that the country creates an environment conducive for businesses to thrive. And that it addresses the social ills that underlie instability and disregard for the rule of law. </p>
<p>In the near term, South Africans should not panic about the food system. But authorities will need to act swiftly and assertively to restore stability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), and also a member of the South African President's Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).</span></em></p>South Africans should not panic about the food system. But authorities will need to act swiftly and assertively to restore stability.Wandile Sihlobo, Visiting Research Fellow, Wits School of Governance, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387592020-06-05T11:49:13Z2020-06-05T11:49:13ZWhy forgotten food manufacturers deserve our thanks too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340076/original/file-20200605-176554-1wumer4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sderot-isr-aug-11production-line-worker-168773732">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government’s <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/when-work-lockdown-essential-key-workers-list/">list of key workers</a> helping society to deal with the pandemic was a long one. But it seems to me that some of the people who really keep us going have been overlooked. </p>
<p>For while supermarket staff and delivery drivers have quite rightly achieved hero status, much less attention has been given to where the food they sell or transport actually comes from. </p>
<p>But someone has to produce the raw, unprocessed food ingredients. Then someone else has to turn those ingredients into the kind of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/what_is_ultra-processed_food">processed food</a> products that fill the supermarket shelves. And for months now, they have been <a href="https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2020/03/22/Coronavirus-panic-buying-prompts-food-manufacturers-to-boost-production">coping with unprecedented demand</a>. </p>
<p>There are, of course, varying levels of process and human involvement required to end up with the food we want to eat. Even at a minimal level,
<a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-supply-systems/0/steps/53648">primary processing</a> involves cutting, cleaning, packaging and storing raw foods before they reach the consumer. Farmers produce livestock for example, which is sent to abattoirs, where a team of production staff ensures a continuing supply of various cuts to butchers and ready meal manufacturers.</p>
<p>And it was interesting to see that that among the first foods mentioned in tales of panic buying and hoarding, were pasta, tinned tomatoes and sausages. These are all <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-supply-systems/0/steps/53648">secondary processed foods</a>, defined as raw ingredients made into more useful or edible forms. This requires the skills of the often forgotten workers involved in refining, purifying, extracting, and combining minimally processed primary food products. </p>
<p>Many people’s shopping baskets consist predominantly of these secondary processed foods, which include dairy products, flours, oils and sweeteners. These form the beginnings of many quick, easy and cheap meals, so it makes sense that they were in such high demand. And as uncertainty about imports and transportation increased, food buyers and packaging companies worked hard to maintain supplies as sales soared. </p>
<h2>Home cooking</h2>
<p>As well as a surge in sales of flour and tinned tomatoes, lockdown also saw a new level of interest in recipe websites (and even the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/m000hbjd">launching a new daily cooking show</a>. Perhaps in the days before lockdown we had become over reliant on takeaways, eating out, and ready meals – and less confident in our own cooking abilities. </p>
<p>This apparent lack of food knowledge and skills could be blamed on the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/31/4/925/2593468">virtual eradication</a> of what used to be called “home economics” and is now termed “food technology” becoming <a href="https://digital.ucas.com/coursedisplay/results/providers?searchTerm=food%20technology&distanceFromPostcode=&studyYear=2020&sort=MostRelevant">increasingly less common</a> in British schools and colleges. </p>
<p>As a nutritionist then, I found it pleasing in a sense, that supermarkets were running out of the primary and secondary processed foods. It seemed to demonstrate that people were trying to cook well for themselves and their families. Every supermarket <a href="https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/109890/evolving-eating-habits-as-a-result-of-covid-19/">appeared to have plenty</a> of ultra-processed foods on its shelves, which were full of cakes, biscuits and confectionery. Perhaps this was evidence of a nation altering some of its poorer eating habits, and turning to healthier home cooked meals. </p>
<p>So when you reflect on the complexity of food manufacturing you can see why food industry workers are on (the somewhat ignored section of) the key workers list. One way the industry has coped is by speeding up recruitment. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/uk-medical-schools-urged-to-fast-track-final-year-students-to-help-fight-coronavirus">Just like medics</a>, final year students studying food science and technology are finding themselves required by employers much sooner than they expected, prior to graduation, to keep <a href="https://www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/Record-grocery-sales-as-shoppers-prepare-for-lockdown">outputs meeting demand</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338553/original/file-20200529-96723-qksxaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338553/original/file-20200529-96723-qksxaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338553/original/file-20200529-96723-qksxaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338553/original/file-20200529-96723-qksxaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338553/original/file-20200529-96723-qksxaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338553/original/file-20200529-96723-qksxaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338553/original/file-20200529-96723-qksxaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Part of the process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/frozen-red-raspberries-sorting-processing-machines-264507218">Shutterstock/Vladimir Nenezic</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Food technologists are taking up their graduate scheme posts early, in a <a href="https://www.ifst.org/resources/competencies-food-graduate-careers">variety of roles</a> both office and factory based, involving everything from sustainability to laboratory, safety and processing. </p>
<p>These food industry professionals are essential for maintaining a safe food supply. And luckily, the food industry continues to be a <a href="https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/suppliers/how-food-and-drink-suppliers-are-offering-a-helping-hand/604106.article">caring</a>, <a href="https://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk/news/18326509.castell-howell-launch-food-distribution-service/">dynamic</a> career destination. </p>
<p>In the UK in 2018, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/food-statistics-pocketbook/food-statistics-in-your-pocket-summary#agri-food-sector-employees-gb-q4-2018">14% of the working population</a> were employed in the food industry and the British population spent £226 billion on food, drink and catering. </p>
<p>So when you next queue to shop at a supermarket, do spare a thought for the <a href="https://mailchi.mp/fooddrinkeurope/foodheroes">forgotten heroes</a> working hard to ensure your basic essential products – be they raw carrots, dried pasta, chicken nuggets or truffle oil – have been safely delivered to your supermarket or independent retailer. In times of trouble, food is not only vital for our stomachs – it is also <a href="https://www.amdigital.co.uk/about/blog/item/feeding-a-nation-during-war-time">dear to our hearts</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Fairchild does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pickers, purifyers and producers are all working flat out.Ruth Fairchild, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1383862020-05-31T11:57:47Z2020-05-31T11:57:47ZSupply chain innovation can reduce coronavirus food shortages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338588/original/file-20200529-78867-1fvinkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4031%2C2263&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Empty shelves in a grocery store in Toronto on March 22, 2020 as customers stock up on dry goods and shelf-stable foods.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Food security is an essential issue brought to light by COVID-19. </p>
<p>The Canadian government recognized this <a href="https://www.producer.com/2020/04/essential-service-designation-called-necessary/">by deeming workers across the food supply chain as an essential service</a>. More importantly, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/agri-food-covid-liberals-1.5555591">in early May, the federal government announced $252 million</a> in funding to farmers, food processors and food businesses to get through this pandemic. </p>
<p>Of the funding, $77.5 million is earmarked for food processing. This is a critical juncture: we are at a time when we need to examine food processing technology pre-COVID-19 and deploy it to make us more food secure and ready to withstand the next big challenge.</p>
<h2>Relying on old approaches</h2>
<p>With COVID-19, we’ve fallen back to 19th-century food technology to make us feel safe — <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/62f0014m/62f0014m2020004-eng.htm">stocking our pantries with canned foods and shelf-stable dried foods, including grains and pulses</a>.</p>
<p>When considering a post-COVID-19 food system, we must focus on building resilience using modern innovation. Cutting costs should not be the only factor that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/04/horsemeat-scandal-report-urgent-comprehensive-reforms">informs our supply chains</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-the-perils-of-our-just-enough-just-in-time-food-system-133724">Coronavirus: The perils of our ‘just enough, just in time’ food system</a>
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<p>Most Canadians have lifestyles that demand the convenience of processed foods while valuing nutrition. The carbon footprint of food preservation done at the industrial scale is low: life-cycle analyses of foods show that the carbon footprint of home cooking is <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-bb144e.pdf">2.5 times that required to process the food</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7SuOBgv9LTE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Experts respond to questions about the Canadian food supply chain on CBC.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Food supply innovation tools</h2>
<p>In designing this post-COVID-19 food system, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/07/05/how-ai-is-transforming-agriculture/">the innovation tools are remarkably like the technology-focused terms of the pre-COVID-19 food system</a>. Some examples are:</p>
<p>• Blockchain: The incorruptible traceability features of blockchain permit agricultural commodities and food ingredients to be actively traced throughout the supply chain. Therefore, if, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cargill-meat-plant-closed-outbreak-covid-19-1.5538824">as happened recently in Alberta</a>, production workers get sick, preceding parts of the supply chain can be reconfigured. Products can also be readily recalled, limiting further spread of the sickness (regardless of whether the sickness stems from a pandemic virus or a food pathogen). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2018.08.011">The technology can also protect consumers from food fraud</a>.</p>
<p>• Sensors, robotics and automation: Even prior to the pandemic, an industry consortium, partnered with Industry, Science and Economic Development Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, had recognized the need to better automate Canada’s $105 billion per year food processing industry in order to <a href="https://www.foodincanada.com/food-in-canada/federal-government-invests-in-the-canadian-food-innovators-network-142243/">incentivize the growth of small- and medium-sized processors</a>. With COVID-19 affecting skilled and semi-skilled workers on process lines, the impetus for sensor-driven, on-line quality and safety assurances, coupled with hygienic robotic automation of production lines, will solve food security fears. Cheap sensors embedded in packages can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.9b00555">provide quantitative assessments of food spoilage</a>. Such innovations reduce the amount of food sent to landfills because of <a href="https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/confused-date-labels-packaged-foods">consumer confusion about best before dates</a>. </p>
<p>• Boutique food process operations: Megaplants producing large volumes of a limited range of products have cheaper production costs, <a href="https://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2012/mro-plant-designing-flexibility/">but are intrinsically inflexible</a>. Food processors who can respond with agility to a variety of seasonal food preservation demands can better serve local food system needs. Some of these boutique processors can address agricultural food waste issues while also <a href="https://www.brandonu.ca/rdi/files/2011/02/Canadian-Prairie-Garden-Case-Study2.pdf">innovating with third generation aseptic processing technologies</a>. This can produce nutritious high-quality foods that are shelf-stable for up to two years to deliver resilience capacity to our food system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338591/original/file-20200529-78867-sd98zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In addition to making the food supply chain more secure, technological innovations may also address the problem of food waste.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Refrigeration and transportation</h2>
<p>Because most foods are perishable, <a href="http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/4024-perishable-an-exploration-of-the-refrigerated-landscape-of-america">refrigeration or freezing is required to preserve the food from production to consumption</a> — a continuous system of temperature-controlled environments known as the cold chain. All of this cold chain, including the limited amount of cold-space in a consumer household, is completely reliant on uninterrupted power for refrigerant recycling.</p>
<p>Developing nutritious shelf-stable food innovations also addresses the cold chain’s carbon footprint. As much as <a href="https://climatesmartbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/CS-Food-and-Beverage-Sector-Industry-Brief-digital.pdf">80 per cent of the emissions profile of a food product is its refrigeration footprint</a>. More than half of all supermarket energy consumption is associated with their fridge and frozen aisles. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2018.07.029">Innovative drying practices</a> can replace these cold chains to preserve fruits and vegetables, at the same time maintaining quality and nutrients.</p>
<p>Finance Minister Bill Morneau noted that <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/supporting-canada-s-farmers-food-businesses-and-food-supply-868861444.html">Canada’s agricultural sector is interconnected</a>. </p>
<p>As we enter the post-COVID-19 world of the 21st century, our call to action is to renovate our food supply chains so that they readily absorb the effects of the next big challenge. It’s now up to all the food system actors represented on the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/food-policy/thecanadianfoodpolicyadvisorycouncil.html">Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council</a> to ensure the new investments make a positive and lasting change across the production chain to benefit both consumers and the environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Scanlon is affiliated with Association of Canadian Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. He receives funding from NSERC Canada and commodity agencies and has received funding for research projects from food processors. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rene Van Acker is affiliated with the Association of Canadian Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. He receives funding from NSERC Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs and agricultural commodity organizations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:rickey.yada@ubc.ca">rickey.yada@ubc.ca</a> is affiliated with Association of Canadian Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine; AgResearch, New Zealand; Riddet Institute, New Zealand; Bioenterprise Corporation Canada; Arrell Food Institute; Seeding Food Innovation (George Weston); International Life Sciences Institute - North America.
He receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Using innovative technologies like Bitcoin and automation can help protect our food supply chains from disruptions like the one caused by the current coronavirus pandemic.Martin Scanlon, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of ManitobaRene Van Acker, Professor and Dean of The Ontario Agricultural College, University of GuelphRickey Yada, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1372292020-05-11T19:48:24Z2020-05-11T19:48:24ZWhat Canada knows about food crises can help prevent shortages and protect workers during coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331852/original/file-20200430-42942-fqt5n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C479%2C3779%2C2482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food is a measure of how countries respond to crises from access to pricing to shortages.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(nrd/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As news of the pandemic began circulating, Canadians hurried to grocery stores, laying in supplies for the upcoming crisis. By mid-March, experts had begun warning <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6688655/coroanvirus-canadians-food-shortages/">against hoarding</a>. There is plenty of food in our supply chain, they said; do not “panic buy” lest we create shortages — and very real hardships — for vulnerable members of our communities. </p>
<p>As an historian of Canadian food, I am alarmed to see how pressures for productivity <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6856544/bc-coronavirus-outbreak-poultry-plant/">have endangered</a> — and in some cases <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cargill-alberta-covid-19-deena-hinshaw-1.5537377">tragically taken</a> — the lives of food workers. These tragedies are preventable and untenable. And there is historical precedent for strong government intervention in our food marketplace.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food stability and security are influenced by histories of colonialism and a history of governments exerting control over foodways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>They brought their foods</h2>
<p>The greatest crisis affecting Canadian food history started about 400 years ago: the <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/019373ar">colonization of Indigenous food</a>. Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have <a href="https://www.fnha.ca/Documents/Traditional_Food_Fact_Sheets.pdf">practised sustainable food production, distribution and consumption</a>. </p>
<p>When Europeans arrived, however, they brought their foods with them. By Confederation, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/edible-histories-cultural-politics-4">English</a> and <a href="https://www.septentrion.qc.ca/catalogue/a-table-en-nouvelle-france">French</a> Canadians were transposing their preferences for beef, pork, sugar and wheat upon the northern American landscape. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-unequal-health-system-may-make-remote-indigenous-communities-more-vulnerable-to-the-coronavirus-134963">Canada's unequal health system may make remote Indigenous communities more vulnerable to the coronavirus</a>
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<p>As settlement increased, a battery of measures meant that Indigenous peoples faced <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1033506ar">increased barriers</a> to their own food. <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1033506ar">Reserves</a>, the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pass-system-in-canada">pass system</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/B07-020">residential schools</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404373">forced resettlement</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/american-history-general-interest/pemmican-empire-food-trade-and-last-bison-hunts-north-american-plains-17801882?format=HB&isbn=9781107044906">species extinction</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-013-9591-y">habitat loss</a> have been especially harmful. </p>
<p>On the plains, for example, the extinction of wild bison in the 1870s dealt a severe blow to individual and <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/medicine-that-walks-3">community health</a>. Simultaneously, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald’s determination to push a railway through to the Pacific Ocean, together with his plan to fill the plains with European wheat farmers, spurred his government to enforce settlement on reserves, including through <a href="https://uofrpress.ca/Books/C/Clearing-the-Plains2">forcible removals</a>. Such actions were heinous. They also barred access to traditional animal and plant food.</p>
<p>Well into the 20th century, the food available to Indigenous peoples through rations and residential schools was carbohydrate-heavy and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2013.828722">devoid of most nutrients</a>. It was often also rancid. To this day, Indigenous people are three times more likely than non-Indigenous people to face <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2020/01/09/new-study-finds-first-nations-in-canada-face-serious-problems-with-food-supply/">food insecurity</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous food remains a sustainable and viable way fo producing food as documented by authors Dolly and Annie Watts of the Liliget Feast House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.annielwatts.com/wpf.htm">Annie Watts/Arsenal Pulp Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>State control of Canadian food</h2>
<p>The effects of colonization show how state oppression has created and maintained food insecurity. It is, in fact, instructive to compare the difference between how the Canadian state has treated Indigenous people’s access to food, on the one hand, and British and Euro-Canadians’ access, on the other. </p>
<p>During the First and Second World Wars, the Canadian government moved to protect the food supply. During the First World War, Britain called upon its empire to increase shipments of beef, pork, butter, sugar and flour to the mother country. </p>
<p>In response, (and as <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/purchasing-power-2">I demonstrate in my recent book</a>) — Canada stepped up production of these goods. It also introduced 28 orders-in-council that regulated meat, dairy, sugar and wheat consumption. At no time did Canada introduce rationing during this war; instead it urged compliance through propaganda, fines and jail sentences. </p>
<p>Things were different the next war. Having witnessed skyrocketing inflation between 1917 and 1921, the federal government created <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wartime-prices-and-trade-board">the Wartime Prices and Trade Board (WPTB)</a> in 1939. </p>
<p>Designed to curb inflation, reduce shortages and secure supplies for overseas, the WPTB was an unprecedented intervention. In 1941, the WPTB introduced “<a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/food-will-win-the-war">comprehensive price, rent, and wage controls</a>.” The next year, it introduced rationing. To purchase meat, sugar, butter, preserves, tea and coffee, Canadians had to use ration coupons. </p>
<p>The last restrictions weren’t lifted until 1947. Even then, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/CHR.83.4.483">shoppers protested</a>. As soon as restrictions were removed, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/us/radical-housewives-2">prices rose</a>. </p>
<h2>What we can learn from the past</h2>
<p>Today’s problems differ from those of other times. Especially pressing are dangers affecting <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/covid-19-southwestern-ontario-outbreak-puts-migrant-farm-workers-in-spotlight/">agricultural</a>, <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/04/24/Alberta-Meat-Packers-COVID-Outbreak/">butchery</a> <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/essential-workers-talk-about-how-covid-19-affects-them-1.4883241">and grocery</a> workers. There are also important difficulties that food distributors encounter when retooling wholesale products <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/saputo-inc-sees-demand-shift-from-food-service-to-retail-amid-covid-19-pandemic-1.4869609">for retail</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, other problems are familiar. Now more than ever, it is important to address how disruptions affect food insecurity. Some First Nations are already taking action against <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/adapting-to-coronavirus-how-b-c-first-nations-balance-food-security-and-conservation/">possible shortages</a>. Intermittent shortages in the retail sector — caused by supply disruption, increased consumer demand and decreased wholesale demand — also affect shoppers who cannot buy in bulk. Empty grocery shelves further affect those who shop infrequently in efforts to socially distance.</p>
<p>As Canadians experienced during the First World War, shortages often precipitate <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/purchasing-power-2">price hikes</a>. Already, Atlantic grocery distributors are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/atlantic-grocery-distributors-prices-rise-1.5534470">reporting changes to prices</a>. In the North, further inflation would be unconscionable, given that northerners already struggle with <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-unequal-health-system-may-make-remote-indigenous-communities-more-vulnerable-to-the-coronavirus-134963">outrageous prices</a>. </p>
<p>In the past, much finger-pointing accompanied price markups, with some arguing that profiteers deliberately raised prices and others suggesting that inflation was the inevitable <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/buying-happiness">result of disequilibrium</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever the causes of food instability, however, there are demonstrable viable solutions, in both the past and present. To this day, Indigenous food systems <a href="https://foodsecurecanada.org/resources-news/newsletters/1-indigenous-food-sovereignty">are equitable</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/indigenous-food-1.4294388">sustainable</a>. </p>
<p>During the Second World War, William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberal government’s interventions protected both producers and consumers. Its main instrument, the WPTB, also — and completely unintentionally — improved many <a href="https://wartimecanada.ca/essay/eating/food-home-front-during-second-world-war">people’s diets</a>. Restrictions kept prices affordable while rationing ensured greater availability. </p>
<p>It is time now to revisit how Canadians produce and distribute food. The twin spectres of food insecurity and fatal illness demand such consideration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donica Belisle receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>Food is essential to survival. It is also essential to identity. During times of national crisis like the coronavirus pandemic and in the historical landscape, food issues become prominent.Donica Belisle, Associate Professor of History, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1135992019-03-14T18:01:27Z2019-03-14T18:01:27ZSofter, processed foods changed the way ancient humans spoke<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263968/original/file-20190314-28492-1aak8om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=557%2C108%2C4506%2C2903&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Milling grain meant less wear and tear on neolithic teeth, which had other effects on language.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jaen-spain-december-29th-2017-neolithic-1053014084">Juan Aunion/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The human capacity for language divides our species from the rest of the animal kingdom. Language has not only allowed us to conquer all corners of the globe, but to devise writing, mathematics and all things thereafter.</p>
<p>But researchers can find many of language’s basic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockett%27s_design_features">design features</a> in the communication systems of other animals. For example, many animals have particular calls for specific objects and meanings, and some even seem to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006425">combine calls</a> in meaningful, albeit rudimentary ways. These lines of continuity, however thin, drive home the point that, at its essence, language is part of our biology. </p>
<p>Our new research suggests that a biological perspective is indeed necessary to resolve why languages have the range of sounds they have. We draw on evidence from paleoanthropology, speech biomechanics, ethnography and historical linguistics to suggest that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav3218">new speech sounds emerged in our ancient ancestors</a> as their jaws and teeth evolved to deal with new kinds of diets.</p>
<h2>Biology and language</h2>
<p>To study the origins of language and understand how it evolved into the remarkable faculty that we have today, it makes sense to investigate language from a perspective that includes biology as well as culture. But language doesn’t figure into the typical biology curriculum. It’s mostly considered a purely intellectual and cultural phenomenon, grouped together with literature and art as part of the humanities.</p>
<p>But this categorization is peculiar because, like the communication systems of other animals, language is simply part of our nature. We process it with the neural wiring in our brains, and we produce it with our bodies: mostly with our mouths, but in the case of sign languages, also with our hands and other gestures.</p>
<p>Language is also often seen as a fixed skill – it arose with the emergence of our species and has been stable in its basic design since its origin.</p>
<p>This traditional view is part of what researchers call the <a href="https://www.ling.upenn.edu/%7Ebeatrice/110/pdf/ringe/uniformitarian-principle.html">uniformitarian assumption</a> in linguistics and anthropology. The assumption is that languages today are the same – in terms of their types and distributions of linguistic structures – as they were in the past.</p>
<h2>Food and language</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.comparativelinguistics.uzh.ch/en.html">Our research group’s</a> work directly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav3218">challenges this uniformitarian assumption</a>. We believe the range of available speech sounds used in human language has not remained stable since its origin. Our research shows that labiodental sounds – such as “f” and “v,” which are made by raising the bottom lip to the upper teeth – began to arise only after the transition to agriculture, between 10,000 and 4,000 years ago (depending on the world region).</p>
<p>While labiodentals are rather common today and appear in roughly half of the world’s languages, we show that in the case of Indo-European languages, they’ve been innovated mainly since the Bronze Age.</p>
<p>Why? What caused this sudden emergence of a new class of speech sounds?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263947/original/file-20190314-28471-64u083.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The difference between a Paleolithic edge-to-edge bite (left) and a modern overbite/overjet bite (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tímea Bodogán</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To understand the relevant processes, we need to quickly dive into some biological anthropology. All primates start with an overbite and overjet bite configuration – colloquially a scissors bite – both with their baby teeth and their permanent teeth. Then a traditional diet of tough foods naturally develops the scissors bite of a young individual into an edge-to-edge bite by adulthood.</p>
<p>The invention of food processing technologies – like milling and fermentation – that gained steam with the development of agriculture allowed people to move toward a softer diet. And those softer foods meant people retained the scissors bite well into adulthood. For example, the archaeological evidence shows <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29540105">adult skulls with the scissors bite</a> as early as 4,300 years ago in what is today Pakistan.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263946/original/file-20190314-28475-qgui5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biomechanical model of producing an ‘f’ sound with an overbite/overjet (left) versus an edge-to-edge bite (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Moisik</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This rather recent change in the human bite paved the way for labiodentals to be incorporated into spoken languages. This process gradually began to appear in geographic areas including Europe and South Asia where there was increased access to softer foods through food processing technologies.</p>
<p>But these new sounds didn’t emerge everywhere: Retention of the overbite and overjet only facilitates the ease of producing labiodentals and increases the probability for producing them accidentally – it does not mandate it. So across diverse regions, societies and cultures, many groups slowly developed a new class of speech sounds, <a href="https://phoible.org/inventories/view/384">but others did not</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=243&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=243&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=243&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263945/original/file-20190314-28487-rjgon9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Probabilities of labiodental articulations of various sounds in the history of the Indo-European languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Balthasar Bickel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ideas to chew on</h2>
<p>A biological perspective on language evolution allows us to ask exciting new research questions, like how did the current diversity of speech sounds develop over evolutionary time?</p>
<p>At present, there are over <a href="https://phoible.org/">2,000 different speech sounds</a> that play a role in the world’s roughly <a href="https://glottolog.org/">7,000 or so spoken languages</a>. These speech sounds range from the omnipresent cardinal vowels (<em>i</em>, <em>a</em> and <em>u</em>) found in most languages to the rare click consonants found in a handful of languages spoken in southern Africa. Why is there such immense diversity in the sounds of the world’s languages?</p>
<p>Recent research suggests that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600723">basic anatomical conditions for speech were in place</a> long before the emergence of <em>Homo sapiens</em>. According to those results, it was chiefly a matter of neural development that allowed the sophisticated motor control that human beings now have over their speech organ. But our new findings now hint that researchers might have underestimated the importance of fine anatomical details: While the basics may have been set, some sounds may be older than others in the hominin and primate lineage, simply because of anatomical conditions and independent of motor control.</p>
<p>We believe that our discovery opens a new chapter in the quest for the origins of humanity’s most distinctive faculty, language, a quest that has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244843.003.0001">called the hardest problem in science</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Balthasar Bickel receives funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Moran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Considering language from a biological perspective led researchers to the idea that new food processing technologies affected neolithic human beings’ jaws – and allowed new language sounds to emerge.Steven Moran, Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of ZurichBalthasar Bickel, Professor of General Linguistics, University of ZurichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/911382018-02-08T22:37:26Z2018-02-08T22:37:26ZAs big food brands struggle, Canada has a golden opportunity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205163/original/file-20180206-88784-4kenmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A potato farmer works his fields in Prince Edward Island. The time has come for Canada to go beyond growing crops and raising livestock; it's time to expand its agri-food sector and create its own beloved food products.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The bloodbath in foreign-owned, large-scale food manufacturing in Canada continues.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, we’ve learned that two plants employing almost 600 highly paid workers are closing: <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/mccain-foods-dr-oetker-grand-falls-1.4511680">Dr. Oetker in Grand Falls, N.B.</a> and <a href="https://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/8098782-campbell-soup-closure-marks-last-of-new-toronto-industrial-giants/">Campbell’s in Toronto.</a> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.fphrc.com/food-beverage-industry/">Estimates suggest</a> that Canada has lost more than 30,000 similar positions in food manufacturing in a decade. This is not new.</p>
<p>Both cases have common denominators: Both plants were ancient, outdated and in dire need of a retrofit. However, the foreign-owned companies opted instead to consolidate assets and have products manufactured at more modern facilities. In other words, they never intended to modernize the existing Canadian plants. </p>
<p>The use of better automation and robotics could have helped, but instead the facilities were left to rot and die a natural death.</p>
<p>Ontario and other provinces have countless aging plants, owned by foreign companies and in need of a significant influx of capital to remain in compliance with modern-day standards of food safety and product advancement. </p>
<p>So, don’t be surprised to see more of these types of closures since we’re now paying for years of foreign control in this sector. </p>
<p>Brands are now worth more than the human capital working in their facilities across the country. It’s not personal; it’s business.</p>
<h2>‘Endangered species’</h2>
<p>Big food brands, often seen as symbols of out-of-touch food corporations, <a href="http://time.com/money/4857495/classic-food-brands-dying-sales-decline/">are becoming an endangered species</a>. Every week stores mark down those brands — think household names like Chef Boyardee, Chips Ahoy, Wheaties, etc. — to attract customers to their private-label products. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205168/original/file-20180206-88772-1hdkm3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205168/original/file-20180206-88772-1hdkm3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205168/original/file-20180206-88772-1hdkm3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205168/original/file-20180206-88772-1hdkm3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205168/original/file-20180206-88772-1hdkm3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205168/original/file-20180206-88772-1hdkm3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205168/original/file-20180206-88772-1hdkm3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Would you really still buy this? Neither would most millennials.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not only are store-owned labels cheaper, but customers, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/15/millennials-like-small-food-companies-but-big-brands-arent-dead--yet.html">especially millenials</a>, are moving away from major brands. They’re increasingly looking for organic, multicultural foods — hardly concepts mega-enterprises have been associated with, at least until recently. </p>
<p>The pace of this demographic shift is spectacular. We’re seeing more <a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5468">consolidation in food processing around the globe</a> because consumers in the Western world are looking for something different, organic and local. Many of the brands we all know don’t appeal to people looking for what are known as <em>value-based</em> brands.</p>
<p>This pressure is leading to seismic shifts in the sector.</p>
<p>Overseas, Keurig Green Mountain, the maker of coffee pod machines, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-big-question-about-the-dr-pepper-snapple-keurig-mergerwhy-2018-01-30">is planning to purchase the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group</a> in a massive US$18.7 billion transaction.</p>
<p>The portfolio of the new company will include products varying from coffee to soft drinks. But the deal is really about competitiveness at the retail level, and allowing major brands to remain competitive. </p>
<p>The appeal of big brands has ruled grocery aisles for decades, but it’s slowly becoming an afterthought. Margins must be better managed and merchandising strategies will need to be reinvented. Consequently, becoming bigger and more resourceful is key.</p>
<h2>Overly reliant on foreign brands</h2>
<p>Most Canadians may be unaware that the food-processing sector is the second largest manufacturing industry in Canada in terms of value of production, with shipments worth $112.4 billion last year and employing over 250,000 people. </p>
<p>It’s a big sector that’s flown under the proverbial radar for decades. </p>
<p>This is why the sector just created an industry association <a href="http://www.foodbeveragecanada.com/">Food Beverage Canada</a> — so processors have a voice. Without a vibrant manufacturing sector, Canada’s agri-food sector cannot prosper.</p>
<p>Growing grains and raising livestock is helpful for rural economies and small- to medium-sized businesses. As Canadians, it’s what we know best. But given how our world is changing, it’s no longer enough. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205167/original/file-20180206-88788-1n4pq8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205167/original/file-20180206-88788-1n4pq8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205167/original/file-20180206-88788-1n4pq8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205167/original/file-20180206-88788-1n4pq8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205167/original/file-20180206-88788-1n4pq8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205167/original/file-20180206-88788-1n4pq8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205167/original/file-20180206-88788-1n4pq8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cattle in a field near Ashcroft, B.C., in March 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food manufacturing has a multiplying effect on growth, which cannot be emphasized enough. For years, we have been reliant on foreign brands to offer job opportunities in small communities.</p>
<p>Most of these brands, however, are American. The Canadian brand has never been fully exploited in the food value-added sector, a missed opportunity indeed. But the needle is slowly moving in our country, recognizing that food processing needs to find its home-grown mojo. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/agriculture-agri-food/news/2018/01/new_agri-food_innovationcentreofficiallyopensinsaskatchewan.html">The Agri-Food Innovation Centre</a> at the University of Saskatchewan opened this year to support the sector’s will to diversify and launch new businesses. Many incubator and accelerator programs in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and elsewhere have been launched to create ag-tech companies, which focus on providing more value-added products to the market, both domestically and abroad. </p>
<p>Quebec now has <a href="https://www.mapaq.gouv.qc.ca/fr/Transformation/md/programmesliste/developpementmarches/Pages/Programmeaccesauxmarches.aspx">a new market access program</a> to support companies looking for new markets.</p>
<p>It’s no longer just about spreading money to different sectors across the agri-food continuum. Growing the sector and generating significant economic activity throughout the country are becoming priorities for most stakeholders in both government and industry.</p>
<p>Becoming a world-class agri-food giant involves building an ample food-processing sector. We also need to provide the sector with ways to mitigate against higher wages, restrictive trade rules and fluctuating currencies. Looks like someone is finally getting the message.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada does well growing crops and raising livestock, but it’s missed the boat in developing its own popular food brands. As preferences change, Canada has a chance to shine in the agri-food sector.Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/873102017-12-07T09:38:12Z2017-12-07T09:38:12ZMoving beyond the green revolution in Africa’s new era of hunger<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197925/original/file-20171206-938-94oaus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seeds and cereals are assessed in in laboratories to check the quality of the grains.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A quarter of the world’s hungry people are in sub-Saharan Africa and the numbers are growing. Between 2015 and 2016, the number of hungry – those <a href="http://www.ifpri.org/publication/2017-global-hunger-index-inequalities-hunger">in</a> distress and unable to access enough calories for a healthy and productive life – <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7967e.pdf">grew</a> from 20.8% to 22.7%. The number of undernourished <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7967e.pdf">rose from</a> 200 million to 224 million out of a total <a href="http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-population/">population</a> of 1.2 billion. </p>
<p>Conflict, poverty, environmental disruptions and a <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2017_KeyFindings.pdf">growing population</a> all contribute to the region’s inability to feed itself. </p>
<p>To tackle hunger, the continent needs to <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition-and-global-health/lecture-seminar-series/agriculture-nutrition-health-and-the-environment-in-africa/">find new</a>, integrated approaches. These approaches – discussed <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition-and-global-health/lecture-seminar-series/agriculture-nutrition-health-and-the-environment-in-africa/">at a recent</a> Harvard conference – must increase crop yield, enhance the nutritional content of people’s diets, improve people’s health and promote sustainability.</p>
<p>This may sound like a mammoth, perhaps insurmountable task. But Africa can learn from the experiences of the <a href="http://www.ifpri.org/publication/green-revolution">Green Revolution</a>, set into motion by the US in the 1960s. The initiative was launched in response to major famines and food crises in the 1940s and 1950s. It was a complex exercise which demonstrates the power of science, technology and entrepreneurship in solving global challenges. </p>
<p>The Green Revolution <a href="http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/topics/borlaug/special.html">is estimated</a> to have saved up to one billion people from starvation. Africa needs to stage its own version if its to help save its people from hunger. Its lessons are instructive because of the need to approach the hunger crisis as a <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/new-harvest-agricultural-innovation-africa">complex problem</a> – and not just to raise crop yields or aggregate food production.</p>
<h2>The Green Revolution model</h2>
<p>Geopolitics was the biggest impetus for the Green Revolution. The US and the Soviet Union were locked in the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hungry-World-Americas-against-Poverty/dp/0674050789">Cold War</a>. The Soviets championed a model of collectivised agriculture; the US dreamed up and implemented the Green Revolution.</p>
<p>Its focus was on increasing yields using improved rice, wheat and maize varieties. This was achieved by bundling the new varieties with fertilisers and pesticides. </p>
<p>Collaboration was a crucial part of the project’s success. A global network of <a href="http://www.cgiar.org/about-us/research-centers/">15 agricultural research centres</a> was created to localise crops that were bred in the US and Japan to countries like India and the Philippines.</p>
<p>But perhaps most importantly, political will was brought to bear. Countries recognised that there might be nutritional and environmental risks involved in adopting the technology being offered by the US. But they knew that the consequences of subsequent famines would create national security crises.</p>
<p>India, Mexico and the Philippines dramatically increased their food output. But the focus on yields left the same regions with poor nutrition, ecological degradation and farmers displaced by land consolidation.</p>
<p>There is no <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Geopolitics-Green-Revolution-Wheat-Genes/dp/0195110137">geopolitical stimulus</a> for action today. But there may be a way to tap into political will. Economic development is at the top of <a href="http://archive.au.int/assets/images/agenda2063.pdf">Africa’s development agenda</a> and African leaders recognise that they can hardly grow their economies without raising agricultural productivity. </p>
<p>This is the perfect moment to start tackling the continent’s hunger crisis. </p>
<h2>How it can be done</h2>
<p>This is not a task for one sector of society alone. Ending hunger in Africa will involve bringing together key players such as government, academia, industry and civil society. We must see what has already been done and what is already working; we must interact and learn continuously from each other.</p>
<p>African countries such as <a href="https://www.thecable.ng/adesina-nigeria-increased-food-production-21m-tonnes-4-years">Nigeria</a> and Ethiopia, that have increased their food production, relied on a system wide approach – not the traditional reliance on isolated projects. The measures include investing in rural infrastructure, improving technical training of farmers, leveraging new technologies, upgrading food processing and expanding local market access. Ethiopia went further and created the <a href="http://www.ata.gov.et">Agricultural Transformation Agency</a> to better coordinate this strategy.</p>
<p>Learning must happen from across sectors. For instance, what can the transition to clean energy teach us about transitioning to “cleaner”, healthier, more nutritious – food? It has inspired <a href="https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/political-economy-clean-energy-transitions-0">a shift</a> to new technological applications that increase energy use while reducing ecological effect. </p>
<p>A comparable scenario can be envisaged for transitions in food systems to; reduce <a href="http://www.harvestplus.org/viewpoints/improving-health-and-nutrition-through-rice-science">nutritional deficiencies</a>, curb the spread of non-communicable diseases (such as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-obesity-africa/focused-on-ending-hunger-africa-neglects-rising-obesity-idUSKBN1D61AA">obesity</a>), and protect the environment through practices such as <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/innovation-sustainable-intensification-africa">sustainable intensification</a>. </p>
<p>Fostering energy transitions also involves diversifying and conserving energy. Similar approaches to expand food sources and reduce <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306919217302440">food loss and waste</a> will need to part of food transitions. </p>
<h2>Technical experts</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/dr_norman_e_borlaug/about_norman_borlaug/">Norman Borlaug</a>, a scientist who spearheaded the Green Revolution and won the Nobel Prize in 1970, also laid the groundwork for some of what can be achieved in Africa.</p>
<p>In his later years, Borlaug led studies seeking to improve indigenous African crops in a bid to help expand the continent’s food baskets. He chaired a committee of the US National Academy of Sciences that added reports on Africa’s <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11763/lost-crops-of-africa-volume-ii-vegetables">vegetables</a> and <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11879/lost-crops-of-africa-volume-iii-fruits">fruits</a> to an earlier study on <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/2305/lost-crops-of-africa-volume-i-grains">grains</a>. </p>
<p>This kind of work needs to be expanded systematically to include other food sources such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-africa-learnt-to-feed-its-chickens-it-could-feed-its-people-65571">livestock</a>, fisheries, and insects.</p>
<p>For all of this to happen, universities must get involved in producing new generations of technical experts, policymakers and practitioners. These are the people who will support food transition and safeguard Africa’s food future. And this doesn’t require reinventing the academic wheel: for instance, engineering schools that focus on solving social problems have the opportunity to expand their roles from supporting manufacturing to including agriculture. </p>
<p>This is already being done by institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In many other cases new universities will need to be created as was done in Costa Rica in 1990 with the founding of <a href="http://www.earth.ac.cr">EARTH University</a>, possibly the world’s first sustainable development institution of higher learning.</p>
<p>Africa’s complex hunger challenges can only be addressed by taking into account emerging concerns about nutrition, health, non-communicable diseases, food loss and waste and environmental projects. These are also <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition-and-global-health/lecture-seminar-series/agriculture-nutrition-health-and-the-environment-in-africa/">global challenges</a>, making Africa’s efforts relevant to the rest of humanity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calestous Juma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>African countries, like Nigeria and Ethiopia, increased their food production using a system-wide approach, and not the traditional reliance on isolated projects.Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788642017-06-20T20:58:56Z2017-06-20T20:58:56ZMinimum wage hike ignores impact of Artificial Intelligence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173897/original/file-20170614-21910-18cpnzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gather in Montreal to demand a $15 minimum hourly wage in Quebec and across Canada. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The minimum wage is rising in many parts of Canada. Recently, Ontario’s Liberal government announced it’s hiking its minimum wage to $15 an hour, matching the move by Alberta’s NDP. </p>
<p>In the United States, the push for a higher minimum wage began in 2013 when <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/05/fast-food-strike-wages/3877023/">brave fast-food workers</a> in New York walked off their jobs. The movement, known as <a href="http://fastfoodforward.org/">Fast Food Forward,</a> was aimed at fast-food chains but garnered political attention, prompting changes in the minimum wage across the United States. To date, several cities and the entire state of New York have adopted minimum wages for various workers. In 2018, San Francisco will become <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/06/11/san-francisco-mayor-lee-introduces-plan-to-reach-15-hourly-minimum-wage-in-4-years/">the first city</a> in the U.S. to have a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Vermont, Hawaii and a few other states are also gearing up to pass a $15 minimum wage next year. </p>
<p>Implications of this change for the agriculture, food processing, retail and even food service sectors will be momentous. Alleviating poverty and wealth redistribution are certainly key drivers. But beyond the politics, there is much more to it than just wanting to provide the working class with better wages. </p>
<p>Let’s start with farming. Agriculture is <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/03/technology/climate-corporation-digital-agriculture/index.html">becoming more digitized.</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYwm-c9IHPA">Drones are used</a> to spread the proper amounts of fertilizers. Cows are milked by machines throughout the day. Many industrialized poultry and egg farms have one worker, who likely earns more than $15 an hour, to ensure that the operation’s information systems remain in working order. The trust in machines is palatable. For Canadian agriculture to keep its level of competitiveness, change is inevitable. In fact, to keep workers in rural Canada, higher wages are integral.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172301/original/file-20170605-16856-1ymoz7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172301/original/file-20170605-16856-1ymoz7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172301/original/file-20170605-16856-1ymoz7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172301/original/file-20170605-16856-1ymoz7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172301/original/file-20170605-16856-1ymoz7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172301/original/file-20170605-16856-1ymoz7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172301/original/file-20170605-16856-1ymoz7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An agricultural drone in the southern United States monitors crop vigour, insect infestation and fungal infection. (AP Photo/Johnny Clark)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In food processing, where working conditions are at times much less enviable, most workers earn more than $15 hourly already. Such a threshold won’t make much of a difference. Automation and business analytics are making inroads in this sector. Required skillsets are changing and employees need to be trained for optimal usage of state-of-the art technologies. Companies will capitalize their operations only if they have the right people to use newly acquired assets, and that tends to cost more money, and translates into higher wages.</p>
<p>A $15 an hour minimum wage will likely not put more pressure on operational costs for the near future. In fact, it may entice these sectors to adopt new technologies sooner.</p>
<p>Retail, though, is different. More than 26 per cent of workers in food retail and hospitality earn wages much lower than $15 an hour. Many small- or medium-sized enterprises and specialty stores rely on a lower minimum wage to keep a decent level of service. Small enterprises and start-ups, often credited for being key job creators in our economy, will struggle with this new constraint.</p>
<p>Larger outfits have anticipated a higher minimum wage for quite some time. McDonald’s, for example, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/11/29/thanks-to-fight-for-15-minimum-wage-mcdonalds-unveils-job-replacing-self-service-kiosks-nationwide/#4bf0642c4fbc">is now installing more automated tellers</a> so that customers can place orders by using an intuitive touch screen. As with farming and processing, these companies rely on quality continuance to support their business model; accordingly, a highly qualified workforce capable of using sophisticated technologies only makes sense. </p>
<p>Most of the larger chains will survive and do well regardless of a higher minimum wage. But for smaller restaurants in which human interaction is considered a welcome difference from big chains, a $15 minimum wage will become an impediment to growth.</p>
<h2>A minimum income for all?</h2>
<p>For the workers themselves, implementing a higher minimum wage is a double-edged sword. <a href="http://www.krishnaregmi.com/rminimum.pdf">Several studies suggest</a> that higher minimum wages will discourage small enterprises from creating jobs. That is a known fact. Other than students who need extra cash to support their education, many baby boomers retiring who are either bored or have not saved up enough for retirement are working in these jobs. Moving too quickly on the minimum wage could very well penalize those who governments are trying to help.</p>
<p>But what needs to be underscored is the seismic shift currently affecting the food industry. The $15 minimum wage battle is a provisional solution to a complex issue. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/11/robots-jobs-employees-artificial-intelligence">The rise of Artificial Intelligence</a> will force us to rethink how we produce, process and distribute food. Human beings may have very little to do with food production in the years to come - or at least much less than they do today. Some estimates suggest that more than half of the workforce involved in food businesses could disappear within the next 30 years due to AI.</p>
<p>Decades from now, when looking at what is happening in food from farm to fork, a guaranteed minimum income for all is likely inevitable. AI will change the food industry landscape to farms without farmers, processing plants using robotics, distribution centres operating with barely anyone in them and restaurants becoming more automated. AI has reached the point where it can do a better job than humans, especially when consistency and quality control are at the core of a business. </p>
<p>Given its capital-intensive nature and its risk- mitigating infatuation, the food industry is likely to embrace the consistency provided by AI. However, food is about connecting and sharing, and consuming food is intrinsically human. In this light, AI does have limitations.</p>
<p>Nonetheless we should put minimum-wage politics aside and instead envision the landscape a few decades from now. In doing so, it becomes clear that the $15-an-hour argument lacks scope and is nothing more than a vote-grabbing scheme. What’s really at stake is the human face of food retailing and service, and how we can provide a decent living to those affected by the next technological revolution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78864/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Charlebois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The minimum wage is rising in many parts of Canada, but it masks the impact of seismic changes to the agriculture, food and retail industries brought about by new technologies.Sylvain Charlebois, Professor in Food Distribution and Policy, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/457182015-08-06T04:33:12Z2015-08-06T04:33:12ZWhy Africa offers growing opportunities for agricultural products<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90897/original/image-20150805-22465-h9flyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African exports to the rest of the continent have more than doubled over the past 20 years. This has been driven by agricultural products, including maize.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The main drivers of demand for agricultural products are population growth, urbanisation, economic growth and changing diets. </p>
<p>Population growth brings greater demand, urbanisation leads to more people buying food rather than producing their own, economic growth increases purchasing power while changing diets implies that people are opting for diverse, and sometimes healthier, consumption.</p>
<p>Africa is expected to double its <a href="http://www.prb.org/publications/datasheets/2013/2013-world-population-data-sheet/data-sheet.aspx">population</a> from 1.2 billion to 2.4 billion by 2050, making it the fastest growing region in the world. The continent is also urbanising rapidly. More than 50% of the population still lives in rural areas but this is changing. The continent is expected to have one of the highest urbanisation <a href="http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/CD-ROM">rates</a> in the world over the next 35 years.</p>
<p>The fact that the growth factors are present on the continent and most are increasing presents opportunities for businesses connected to the agricultural sector. For South Africa, this is a chance to widen opportunities for its <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-struggling-agricultural-sector-what-went-wrong-20-years-ago-45171">struggling agricultural industry</a>. The <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/investorsmonthly/2015/06/26/africa-is-certainly-not-for-sissies">foundation </a> has been laid by some agro-processing companies and retailers that have successfully set up operations in countries north of the Limpopo River. </p>
<h2>Taking the gap</h2>
<p>South Africa’s agribusinesses and retailers have set themselves up to take advantage of these opportunities. Its businesses started increasing their participation on the continent soon after 1994 when the country was accepted in the international community.</p>
<p>Supermarket group Shoprite, for example, had 131 stores in 16 countries (excluding South Africa) in 2013. Woolworths has <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/10/us-africa-summit-woolworths-idUSBREA391GA20140410">65 stores</a> in 11 countries; Pick n Pay 110 stores, including <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/business/21586551-sluggish-home-market-pushing-south-africas-big-retail-chains-northward-grocers-great">joint ventures</a>. </p>
<p>These retailers are usually linked with agribusiness in the home country and thus source most of the food, fresh and processed from South Africa. In return, South African exports of food and agricultural products benefit. </p>
<p>South African <a href="http://www.financialmail.co.za/features/2013/10/10/africa-now-tops-sa-agriculture-exports">exports</a> to the rest of the continent have more than doubled from the mid 1990s to <a href="http://www.bfap.co.za/images/documents/baseline/bfap_baseline_2014.pdf">2014</a>. In 1994, Africa accounted for less than 10% of total exports. By 2014 the continent was the leading destination for agricultural and agro-processed products, accounting for more than 45% of all exports and surpassing some of South Africa’s historical partners in the European Union and the US. </p>
<p>Products that have benefited most are maize, apples, wines and processed food. The main destination countries are Zambia, Angola, Nigeria and Ghana. These countries achieved higher rates of economic growth over the past decade than the <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?page=2">global average</a>. Nigeria is not only the most populous country on the continent, but it is now the largest economy. In the last 15 years, Zambia achieved GDP per capita growth of more than four times, from about <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?page=2">$400 to $1800</a>. Angola managed an average <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?page=1">annual growth</a> rate of more than 10%, supported mainly by oil resources.</p>
<h2>Targeting the affluent</h2>
<p>General incomes have been growing in most African countries. In the past five years at least four African countries have been making the list of the fastest growing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/01/09/these-10-countries-are-set-to-be-the-fastest-growing-economies-in-2014/">economies</a> in the world. They include Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique and Kenya. In theory, the growing economies improve average incomes and affordability.</p>
<p>But one of the weaknesses with these growth rates and progress in economic growth is that the gains have not been evenly distributed. Income inequality in many countries remains high and continues to increase in others. For example, the <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.DST.05TH.20/countries">wealth gap</a> in Zambia and Nigeria is growing. The richest 20% in Zambia had national income share of about 57% in 1993, and their income share increased to 62% in 2010. In Nigeria, the richest 20% controlled 45% of income in 1985, and then increased to 49% by 2010.</p>
<p>South African companies have targeted the rich segments of the economy. Stores are usually located in the main centres, with high population density, relatively better infrastructure than the rest of the country and generally high income than the rest. </p>
<p>This practice has led to criticism being levelled against South African companies. Resentment from local businesses has been fuelled by the fact that South Africans are not developing local capacities in agro-processing, manufacturing and other value adding activities that will make local products meet the required standards of those retailers.</p>
<h2>Africa is not for sissies</h2>
<p>Businesses face a number of constraints and potential threats.</p>
<p>Infrastructure in many countries is relatively undeveloped and weak, especially in rural areas. As a result, the cost of moving goods across the continent is higher, making the products unaffordable to many. </p>
<p>There are still concerns about political instability and social unrest even though a great many more African countries have become peaceful over the last 20 years. </p>
<p>There are also concerns about the sustainability of current growth rates. This is because most of the fast growing countries rely on resources for their growth. These include oil, copper, gas, gold and other minerals. These commodities are usually exported in raw form or with little value added and their prices are highly volatile.</p>
<p>Competition from countries such as China, Indian and the developed world is also increasing. Although it is fragmented, it remains a concern. </p>
<p>There is a need to manage trade relations on the continent and deepen integration. The right foundation has been set with the completion of the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2015/06/17-tripartite-free-trade-area-andriamananjara">SADC free trade</a> area as well as the signing of the tripartite free trade area in June 2015 providing additional access to <a href="http://globaledge.msu.edu/blog/post/23952/africa%27s-new-free-trade-zone--the-tripartite-free-trade-area-%28tfta%29">African markets</a>. This expands duty free markets in 25 countries, a combined population of more than 620 million and aggregated economic value of $1.2 trillion.</p>
<p>Intra-Africa trade is very low at about 10%, but this widening of market access should help to improve that trade. It should also encourage further expansion of South African retailers which in turn will facilitate that intra-Africa trade. South Africa is already the largest contributor to intra-Africa exports, accounting for one third of the total export value. This contribution serves a a useful building block for both deeper economic integration and further capacity development for future growth of the people of the African continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45718/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mmatlou Kalaba receives funding from National Research Foundation (NRF).</span></em></p>The demand for agricultural products in Africa is expected to rise over the next 35 years due to factors such as population growth, urbanisation, economic growth and changing diets.Mmatlou Kalaba, Lecturer in Agricultural Economics, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/418722015-05-19T05:11:38Z2015-05-19T05:11:38ZWhy one of the wealthiest countries in the world is failing to feed its people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82066/original/image-20150518-25422-18xke6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cost of food predicted to rise.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-193690586/stock-photo-people-makes-foodstuffs-out-of-donation-box-on-grey-background.html?src=dt_last_search-3">Donation by Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On May 8 2015 I awoke to discover that not only were we not looking forward to a new coalition government in the UK, but that the overall collapse of the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party had given the Conservative government a mandate. At an individual level I’m likely to see some benefits from the strong neo-liberalism that underpins this government’s ideology, but I’m concerned about a further deepening of the division between those who have and those who have not. </p>
<p>This will mean the continued exponential growth in the numbers of people requiring emergency food assistance and increased numbers of children and elderly with inadequate food supply. This will also translate into higher rates of obesity, diet-related illness and malnutrition. </p>
<h2>The most vulnerable</h2>
<p>In the United Kingdom there are nearly 5m people today living <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/low-pay-britain-2014/">as food insecure</a>. Wendy Wills, an expert in food and public health, <a href="http://foodandpoverty.org.uk/">defines this</a> as those who are unable to acquire or consume an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food made available in socially acceptable ways, or who have the (regular) uncertainty that they will be able to do so.</p>
<p>In 2014, <a href="http://www.trusselltrust.org/resources/documents/foodbank/6323_Below_the_Breadline_web.pdf">more than 20m meals were provided</a> to people unable to provide for themselves. Since 2010 there has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/food-bank-use-is-on-the-rise-with-austerity-the-clear-culprit-40598">an exponential growth</a> in the number of households relying on emergency food aid. In 2009-10 nearly 50,000 households received three days of emergency food aid but by 2014-15 the number had increased to more than a million. Oxfam UK <a href="http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/our-work/poverty-in-the-uk/food-poverty">has estimated that</a>: “36% of the UK population are just one heating bill or broken washing machine away from hardship”.</p>
<h2>Poor distribution</h2>
<p>Looking at these figures one might think the UK is not a wealthy nation. But this is not the case. Credit Suisse put the UK fifth in a ranking of nations by wealth, behind the US, Japan, China, and France. Based on 2010 UK Census figures, per capita wealth in the UK is about US$182,825, but this wealth is not distributed evenly across the population. While the wealthiest fifth of the population controls nearly 41% of the income, <a href="http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/about-inequality/scale-and-trends/scale-economic-inequality-uk">the poorest fifth have just 8%</a>. And while rates of employment have increased over the last few years, pay growth <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/press-releases/jobs-market-recovering-strongly-but-puzzle-emerging-as-pay-growth-remains-subdued/">has not kept up</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82068/original/image-20150518-25412-19zpdtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82068/original/image-20150518-25412-19zpdtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82068/original/image-20150518-25412-19zpdtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82068/original/image-20150518-25412-19zpdtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82068/original/image-20150518-25412-19zpdtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82068/original/image-20150518-25412-19zpdtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82068/original/image-20150518-25412-19zpdtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Libraries and parks may come under further fire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/52059084@N02/5418958402/in/photolist-9fRzxh-9fRAtq-9fNw1Z-9fNuFD-9fNwRc-9gWg3x-9gWfY4-9gZnts-b4KD9R-97mSAv-f96yQL-97mSzB-97pYYo-97pWEm-9fREEJ-9fNzQi-9fRAgS-9fNAjK-9fRF97-9bGMna-9bGxfD-9fNyur-9fRhzG-9fNaWc-9fRfy5-9fRfYm-9fRhMY-9fNbF8-9fRgE3-9fNc66-9fNzmH-9fNbTt-9fNaux-9fNbcv-9fRA1S-9fRC7h-9fRBgy-9fRE2u-9fNwDz-9fRBs9-9fNtNX-9fRAF3-9fNxoe-9fRDPw-9fNyh2-9fNxQr-9fNy3r-9fNu5c-9fNtwM-9fRCDW">Save Doncaster Libraries</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new government has little in its manifesto to indicate relief, instead there are promises to cut public spending <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/01/austerity-cuts-2015-12-billion-britain-protest">by a further £55bn by 2019</a> (on top of the £35bn cut during the coalition government). We have already seen cuts in work programmes that support those with disabilities in their first week in office. In the firing line are Sure Start programmes and programmes for refugees and migrants while reduced funding for local authorities will mean not only cuts to programmes that support the most vulnerable but also cuts to other services providing things such as road repairs, parks and libraries. </p>
<p>On top of the loss of services and support programmes, cuts also translate into bodies out of employment. So this new round of austerity will reach higher up the ladder for those living in the UK because a large proportion of the costs associated with these services is the wages for those who deliver them. The Office for Budget Responsibility indicates that by 2020 there <a href="http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.independent.gov.uk/December_2014_EFO-web513.pdf">will be a further loss</a> of a million government jobs (compared to the loss of 400,000 government jobs over the course of the last parliament). One can only conclude that income inequality will widen, a state that already <a href="https://www.quandl.com/collections/demography/gini-index-by-country/">has one of the highest divisions between wealthy and poor</a> in Europe (only lower than Turkey and Portugal in 2010).</p>
<h2>Disposable income</h2>
<p>For those living in poverty in the UK today the amount of disposable income for the poorest fifth of households is about £156 per week. This is income after taxes and transfer payments and includes spending on clothing, getting to work, childcare, keeping warm, washing, communicating with others, paying for housing, celebrating birthdays, holidays, paying for school trips, uniforms and supplies, socialising and cooking (including not just the food but also the fuel to run the cooker, microwave, and refrigerator).</p>
<p>For many households (not just the poorest), the most flexible item in their budget <a href="http://www.fabians.org.uk/fabian-commission-on-food-and-poverty/">is food expenditure</a>. Families in this position are not concerned with the environmental or social implications associated with the food that they buy, but instead concentrate on “getting fed”. Because it is <a href="http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/12/e004277">now less expensive</a> to feed ones family on processed food (with higher salt, sugar, and fat content) than fresh food and as the cost of food is <a href="http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/1630.pdf">predicted to continue to rise</a>, we can expect to see not just increases in the numbers of people going hungry and relying on emergency food aid, but also increases in the rates of dietary-related illnesses such as obesity, diabetes and malnutrition. These health implications will, in turn, continue to place greater pressure on an already-struggling NHS.</p>
<h2>Obligations made</h2>
<p>The government has an obligation to ensure that the right for all human beings to be free from hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx">as specified in a UN covenant</a> to which the UK is a signatory, is upheld. The UK is also a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which specifies a duty to provide “material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition.” </p>
<p>At present the rolling back of social services, the decline in real wages, increases in food costs coupled with an emphasis within the Conservative manifesto to develop food production in this country as an export (as opposed to subsidising it in order to feed the nation), suggests that this obligation is not one that is being taken seriously.</p>
<p>If we cannot look to our national government to uphold these rights and obligations, it seems that there is no recourse but to fill the gap from within, something the Conservatives are banking on. In their manifesto, the only mention of food justice is expressed via the following phrase: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have always believed that churches, faith groups and other voluntary groups play an important and longstanding role in this country’s social fabric, running food banks, helping the homeless and tackling debt and addictions, such as alcoholism and gambling. In the short term it is evident that the public will need to rely on each other to support the most vulnerable, which includes the elderly and children.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82002/original/image-20150518-25417-9efj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82002/original/image-20150518-25417-9efj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82002/original/image-20150518-25417-9efj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82002/original/image-20150518-25417-9efj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82002/original/image-20150518-25417-9efj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82002/original/image-20150518-25417-9efj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82002/original/image-20150518-25417-9efj9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food banks are not a long term solution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghamnewsroom/8508903897/in/photolist-dXUmFB-8eGQD5-dWaBGG-7W4947-9nne71-9nnebu-eKKfc1-8eDxnt-reZQdS-8dEjuN-dWaB5S-dW52iV-nxDDGr-dWaChJ-q57WFi-99DSTX-fKRSrR-99H1Gj-99H4rQ-oGCNEH-oZ68yG-oX66dW-99H3sW-9b4dj4-63rShT-ppaHrh-nofYK-dXUmxP-rQabQd-fxFh8t-fxFhc2-fxFhai-eKKfdf-99H2h7-95p92N-99H333-99DUAz-efFytx-9RUDcu-9RRJkZ-99Rmz1-9RRE5P-99H1po-efFyvR-efFyvK-9RUEE3-aYQSCx-9RRDTR-dgZKpK-c8pHv3">Birmingham News Room</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Food banks and charity are not a long-term solution, nor are they an adequate solution. We know that food banks are an insecure form of support as they rely on gifts which can be withdrawn at any time. Their coverage is spatially uneven as they are more likely to be located in cities leaving the rural poor in a more precarious position. Donated food also <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-a-better-alternative-to-food-banks-subsidised-national-kitchens-37928">tends to be non-perishable food</a>, as opposed to fresh food free of E numbers, fat, salt, and sugar. Food banks also do not address more structural issues that give rise to food insecurity in the first instance. The Trussel Trust, which runs many food banks, does offer some ancillary support but this still focuses on individuals, not on the wider problems. </p>
<h2>No single department is responsible</h2>
<p>As a country we need a better understanding of the resources available to local authorities who bear the burden of addressing the inequalities associated with food and who must deliver services to the poor. </p>
<p>As citizens we also need to demand that the government meet its UN obligations to ensure the right to food and the rights of the child. This cannot happen within existing government departments as the focus of these rights is not embedded within any one single agency. We have the Food Standards Agency, but its remit doesn’t address food access. DEFRA’s focus is on food production and agriculture. The Department of Health’s focus is on nutrition outcomes rather than the root causes of obesity and the structure of food system in the UK. The Department for Work and Pensions similarly only considers those elements that are employment focused. </p>
<p>We currently have subsidies for winter fuel, transportation, and housing, but there is nothing that ensures food affordability. What is called for is a cross-cutting governmental body, with a minister for food, who ensures that policies enacted through these departments deliver access to sufficient, healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food for all of us, not just the wealthy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Blake received funding from the Leverhulme Trust for research that informed this work and from the ESRC. </span></em></p>Division between the have and have nots is likely to widen – and food is one area where many will go without.Megan Blake, Director of the MA Food Security and Food Justice, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/350812015-01-05T10:54:47Z2015-01-05T10:54:47ZWhy most food labels are wrong about calories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67557/original/image-20141217-31052-tcex84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">OK you can trust this food label. But calories? Forget it.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bryankennedy/715890075">Bryan Kennedy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67558/original/image-20141217-31018-bjt6ye.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Looks so official and definitive….</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nutrition_label.gif">FDA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food labels seem to provide all the information a thoughtful consumer needs, so counting calories should be simple. But things get tricky because food labels tell only half the story.</p>
<p>A calorie is a measure of usable energy. Food labels say how many calories a food contains. But what they don’t say is that how many calories you actually get out of your food depends on how highly processed it is.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67991/original/image-20141223-32216-3qmp3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Raw versus cooked – they look different and that’s not all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/waiferx/3016613907">Waifer X</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Processed food makes you fatter</h2>
<p>Food-processing includes cooking, blending and mashing, or using refined instead of unrefined flour. It can be done by the food industry before you buy, or in your home when you prepare a meal. Its effects can be big. If you eat your food raw, you will tend to lose weight. If you eat the same food cooked, you will tend to gain weight. Same calories, different outcome. </p>
<p>For our ancestors, it could have meant the difference between life and death. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, when early humans learned to cook they were able to access more energy in whatever they ate. The extra energy allowed them to develop big brains, have babies faster and travel more efficiently. Without cooking, we would not be human.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/68042/original/image-20141223-32216-bj6sn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Potatoes – raw, then cut, then cooked, then mashed. Such processing implies more calories for your bottom-line.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robynanderson/8071315769">Robyn Anderson and United Soybean Board</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More processed foods are digested more completely</h2>
<p>Animal experiments show that processing affects calorie gain whether the energy source is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22622">carbohydrate</a>, protein or lipid (fats and oils). In every case, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112128108">more processed foods</a> give an eater more energy.</p>
<p>Take carbohydrates, which provide more than half of the world’s calories. Their energy is often packaged in starch grains, dense packets of glucose that are digested mainly in your small intestine. If you eat a starchy food raw, up to half the starch grains pass through the small intestine entirely undigested. Your body gets <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.02.011">two-thirds or less</a> of the total calories available in the food. The rest might be used by bacteria in your colon, or might even be passed out whole.</p>
<p>Even among cooked foods, digestibility varies. Starch becomes more resistant to digestion when it is allowed to cool and sit after being cooked, because it crystallizes into structures that digestive enzymes cannot easily break down. So stale foods like day-old cooked spaghetti, or cold toast, will give you fewer calories than the same foods eaten piping hot, even though technically they contain the same amount of stored energy.</p>
<h2>Softer foods are calorie-saving</h2>
<p>Highly processed foods are not only more digestible; they tend to be softer, requiring the body to expend less energy during digestion. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/154405910308200617">Researchers fed rats</a> two kinds of laboratory chow. One kind was solid pellets, the type normally given to lab animals. The other differed only by containing more air: they were like puffed breakfast cereal. Rats eating the solid and puffed pellets ate the same weight of food and the same number of counted calories and they exercised the same amount as each other. But the rats eating the puffed pellets grew heavier and had 30% more body fat than their counterparts eating regular chow.</p>
<p>The reason why the puffed-pellet-eaters gained more energy is that their guts didn’t have to work so hard: puffed pellets take less physical effort to break down. When rats eat, their body temperature rises due to the work of digestion. A meal of puffed pellets leads to less rise in body temperature than the same meal of solid pellets. Because the puffed pellets require less energy to digest, they lead to greater weight gain and more fat.</p>
<p>Our bodies work the same way. They do less work when eating foods that have been softened by cooking, mashed or aerated. Think about that when you sit down to a holiday meal or dine in a fine restaurant. Our favorite foods have been so lovingly prepared that they melt in the mouth and slide down our throats with barely any need for chewing. No wonder we adore them. Our preference is nature’s way of keeping as much as possible of these precious calories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67993/original/image-20141223-32222-l202zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whole wheat vs white bread: less-processed is better for slimming down.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://pixabay.com/en/bread-breakfast-breadbasket-eat-6110/">Hans</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why food labels don’t tell the full story</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, of course, in today’s overfed and underexercised populations nature’s way is not the best way. If we want to lose weight we should challenge our instinctive desires. We should reject soft white bread in favor of rough whole wheat breads, processed cheese in favor of natural cheese, cooked vegetables in favor of raw vegetables. And to do so would be much easier if our food labels gave us some advice about how many calories we would save by eating less-processed food. So why are our nutritionist advisers mute on the topic?</p>
<p>For decades there have been <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/BJN2000253">calls</a> by distinguished committees and institutions to reform our calorie-counting system. But the calls for change have failed. The problem is a shortage of information. Researchers find it hard to predict precisely how many extra calories will be gained when our food is more highly processed. By contrast, they find it easy to show that if a food is digested completely, it will yield a specific number of calories.</p>
<p>Our food labeling therefore faces a choice between two systems, neither of which is satisfactory. The first gives a precise number of calories but takes no account of the known effects of food-processing, and therefore mis-measures what our bodies are actually harvesting from the food. The second would take account of food-processing, but without any precise numbers.</p>
<p>Faced by this difficult choice, every country has opted to ignore the effect of processing and the result is that consumers are confused. Labels provide a number that likely overestimates the calories available in unprocessed foods. Food labels ignore the costs of the digestive process – losses to bacteria and energy spent digesting. The costs are lower for processed items, so the amount of overestimation on their labels is less.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67992/original/image-20141223-32219-8hmbbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food labels seem so specific, but they’re not telling the whole story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-163664810/stock-photo-shopping.html?src=gJ94MDu7HvQVTAqiM8ng2Q-1-3">Man image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Time for a change?</h2>
<p>Given the importance of counting calories correctly, it’s time to re-open the discussion. One idea would develop a “traffic-light” system on food labels, alerting consumers to foods that are highly processed (red dots), lightly processed (green dots) or in-between (amber dots). </p>
<p>Public health demands more education on the effects of how we prepare our food on our individual weight gain. Calorie-counting is too important to allow a system that is clearly limited to be the best on offer. We need a major scientific effort to produce adequate numbers on the effects of food-processing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35081/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Food labels seem to provide all the information a thoughtful consumer needs, so counting calories should be simple. But things get tricky because food labels tell only half the story. A calorie is a measure…Richard Wrangham, Professor of Biological Anthropology, Harvard UniversityRachel Carmody, Visiting Fellow in Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.