“A greedy man in a hungry world” is the title of a new book
by Jay Rayner, an award winning author, journalist and most notably, restaurant
critic. Anybody seriously interested in the food chain should read this book.
It is highly informative, funny and embraces a fair degree of autobiography.
There are a number of key points made by the author.
The first is the folly of the polarization of views in any
discussion on food. Thus if you think supermarkets are a good idea, then you are
seen to be opposed to local, slow food. If you are not convinced by the
environmental or economic arguments for local farmers markets, then you are a
supporter of global food trade. And if you eat food out of season, you are
betraying the natural order of things. Rayner makes the point that you can see
the great value of supermarkets while at the same time seeing the shortcomings
of this sector. You can support local food suppliers but not accept the case of
“food miles”. Thus food warriors who can only see slow, natural and local food
are slated in his book and in my view, rightly so. In describing the case for
only eating what is in season, he writes thus: ”Arguing for a food policy based on the kind of principles that would
make the Amish look like a bunch of happy-go-lucky, profligate Sybarites may
make a certain type of gimlet-eyed, self-regarding food warrior feel smug and
self- righteous. It may make them glow with an inner purity. ‘Feel my deep well
of virtue. Stroke my inner goodness”. And so on. But it will not provide a
solution.”
Rayner, rightly, does not believe that the business-as-usual
model will work and he recognises the need for reform of the present structure
of the food chain. The UK’s capacity to feed itself, for example, fell from 70%
efficiency in the mid-1990s to just 58% in 2011. In 2001, there were 2.25
million cows in Britain. By 2012, the dairy herd population had fallen to 1.85
million, all of 400,000 cows less. And the reason? Supermarket power was
driving down prices paid to its suppliers such that farmers were being paid 25p
per liter while the cost of production was 27p per liter. As a colleague of
mine quips: “What is the difference between a supermarket buyer and a
terrorist? Well, you can negotiate with a terrorist”!
Economics lies at the heart of many of the points made by the
author and he has called for the establishment of a new branch of study,
“gastronomics” combining gastronomy and economics. Take two examples. In 1962 the average salary in the UK was £799
per annum. That increased 30 fold by 2012 to £26,000. In contrast, house prices
in that period rose from an average of £2,670 to £245,000, an increase of 90
fold. Two incomes now became a necessity and the tedium of high street shopping
in the green grocers, the grocers, the butchers, the egg man, the cheese man
and so on became impossible. Welcome to the one stop shop the supermarket where
you could buy everything at one visit at any time of the day. Supermarkets and
women’s liberation are linked. On the other side of the coin, the global food
chain has shown great vulnerability to natural and man-made events – a bad
harvest in Australia, a cyclone in the Bay of Biscay, the US drive to supply
the bio-ethanol industry with corn, a rise in the cost of oil which inflated
farming input prices and the ever growing demand for meat and dairy products in
China. In the space of 2 years between 2006 and 2008, the price of rice rose
217%, wheat by 136%, corn by 125% and soya by 107%. These massive fluctuations
in food commodity prices will continue unless there is a move to ensure a
stable and sustainable food chain. For supermarkets, the real problem will be
supply. Local food production has fallen because supermarkets can buy the same
products cheaper from elsewhere in the world where the natural advantage
favours that particular food. Thus in New Zealand, the yield of apples is 50
tonnes per hectare while in the UK it is 14. However, the present monopoly of
Western supermarkets might be challenged by the growing demand in economics
such as China. The New Zealanders will sell apples to the buyer with the
biggest purchase price, who are likely to be residents of the great Asian
cities. Looking into the future, we can expect food prices to rise and we can
expect some return to self-sustainability in food in individual EU states.
Prices are also a feature of his criticism of farmers’
markets: “Farmers’ markets are brilliant
places. As are Ferrari showrooms, and glossy shops selling Chanel handbags. If
you’ve got the cash, go right ahead. Knock yourself out”. Organic food is
also slated for its feeble arguments and Rayner welcomes GM food but he states
that “Biofuels are total bollocks”.
In addition to an excellent and amusing narrative about the
food chain covering hunger, big agriculture and sustainable agriculture, Rayner
also writes about his childhood growing up in London in a “culturally” Jewish
family, his children and the hospitalization of his son with complicated
appendicitis and of course his Mum, Clare Rayner the author and famous agony
aunt, her life and death. This is a lovely book. Enjoy its facts, its humour
and its pathos.
