Meat + Poultry - March 2006 - 55

FSI INSIDE THOUGHTS

Whose burden is consumer awareness?

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Are you worried about the food
you, your children or grandchildren
consume? A lot of folks are, but few seem to
understand what to do about it.
Our ever-influential news media regularly chase sensational food stories, seldom
pausing long enough to deliver more than a
sound bite. And attention-deficit consumers
digest only the headlines - making foodbuying decisions based on flimsy evidence or
the latest media-generated food crisis.
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is one of the
latest examples. Headlines screaming "The
next pandemic," and "A repeat of 1918,"
have needlessly worried many consumers.
Needlessly because there is little the average
American can do about the threat of a flu
outbreak. Our governments and the healthcare industry, however, should take warning,
and they are feverishly working to develop
vaccines and anti-viral treatments.
BSE, of course, is the classic overblown
food scare. The number of cows found in
North America with the disease is so small
they wouldn't even fill a small stock trailer.
And none of those cows made it into the
human food supply. But the media focused
on the threat, rather than the fact that
several safety nets put into place over the
past decade have reduced the BSE risk to as
close to zero as can be measured.
Beyond the sensational bird-flu and
BSE-type stories, the national media has also
focused heavily on lifestyle-type food stories
- the long-term effects of eating certain
food. Obesity has garnered the most airtime
the past few years and has spawned documentaries such as "Super Size Me," which
details how a man's weight increased and
his health declined when he decided to eat
three meals a day at McDonald's. "Super
Size Me" was nominated for an Academy
Award in 2005. Another documentary, "The
Future of Food," scrutinizes genetically
engineered foods and addresses the consequences that certain food choices have on
society, the land and people's health.
A full-length feature film due this year
called "Fast Food Nation," with the tagline
"Are we what we eat?" examines the health

2 FSI

FOOD SYSTEMS

ınsıder

MARCH 2006

risks involved in the fast-food industry and
its environmental and social consequences.
Unfortunately, criticism and misunderstanding of the food system does not stop
with the media. The governments of several
developed countries seem to be as misinformed as many consumers, and their kneejerk reactions can damage your business.
For instance, last year, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair called for healthy organic
food in the United Kingdom schools. Bowing
to demands from parents, Blair announced
a series of plans to swap junk food for
"organic and local" fresh meals. The plan was
applauded by British TV chef Jamie Oliver,
who claimed, "It will only be a matter of
months before British health, education and
farming could be affected for the better."
Replacing junk food with nutritious meals is
a positive move. But suggesting that healthy
and good-quality can only equal organic
sends a much deeper message to parents
and the public.
American parents are also concerned
about their children's diets, and many are
turning to organic food as a remedy to fight
obesity and to ensure food safety. Many of
those parents are stocking their refrigerators
with organic cheese, milk, fruits and vegetables because they fear pesticides, hormones,
antibiotics and genetic engineering. During
the past year, sales of organic baby food
have jumped 18 percent, double the overall
growth of organic food sales.
Consumer demand for safer, healthier
foods is not a bad trend. That they depend
so much on misleading sound bites and
biased films for their food news, however, is
disturbing.
The burden of proof for safety and
quality falls squarely on America's food system - the producers, processors and retailers. Since we shoulder that burden, isn't it
about time we became more proactive in
providing information and education about
that food system and the products we
deliver?
Greg Henderson
Editor, Drovers magazine

Greg Henderson

In this issue...
Like fine wine . . . . . . . 4
Food for Thought:
Commonly
senseless . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cultivating
awareness . . . . . . . . 10
FSI Trends . . . . . . . . . . 14
FSI Insights . . . . . . . . . 14
FSI Numbers . . . . . . . . 15
Media Watch:
The untold
antibiotic story. . . . . 16
Insider on theWeb: www.
foodsystemsinsider.com

http://www.foodsystemsinsider.com

Meat + Poultry - March 2006

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat + Poultry - March 2006