"We have more food than ever and the average quality was probably never worse"

 
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The journalist Miguel Jara publishes Real Food. Food without lies or tricks (Akal)
"We have more food than ever and the average quality was probably never worse"
By Enric Llopis: About 690 million people suffered hunger in the world during 2019, the United Nations reported on July 13, which implies an increase of 10 million compared to 2018.

Regarding the global impact of COVID-19, "it could cause a 130 million increase in the number of people affected by chronic hunger by the end of the year," according to the document The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. Furthermore, at least 3,000 million people on the planet cannot access a healthy diet, the cost of which, the UN remembers, is well above $ 1.9 a day (international poverty line). Meanwhile, obesity in adults has become a global pandemic.

Miguel Jara focuses on the qualitative value of diet in the book Real Food. Food without lies or tricks (Akal, 2019); Freelance writer and journalist also author of Traffickers in Health (2007); Health to come. New diseases and fear marketing (2009); and Fair vaccines, are they all necessary, effective and safe? (2015). Jara defends organic food and agroecology, which FAO characterizes as a scientific discipline, a set of practices and a social movement, for which family farmers are essential; over 90% of the world's farms are family farms and produce 80% of food in value terms (FAO, 2019). "The real food is the same as always, the one that remains as close as possible to its original natural state or, in any case, has been minimally processed," emphasizes the journalist.

The example of palm oil is cited in the book. The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AECOSAN) notes that this refined vegetable oil contains about 50% saturated fatty acids; on the risks, adds this agency attached to the Ministry of Consumption, it is not recommended fats for a healthy diet, since they raise cholesterol and can promote arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases.

There is a chemical compound - 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) - formed during food processing, the presence of which has been found in some refined oils, such as palm oil; "Laboratory animals exposed to 3-MCPD have mainly shown renal toxicity, infertility, decreased immune system activity, and development of benign tumors; the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified 3-MCPD as a possible carcinogen (group 2B) ”(AECOSAN, March 2018). The group of journalists Carro de Combate details products in which palm oil is present: pastries, margarine, chocolates, soups, soaps, shampoo or fuels; in one of the Combat Reports there is a “black map” with the abuses of the sector: Colombia (expropriation of peasants for the oil palm plantation) or Indonesia-Malaysia (deforested rain forest and labor exploitation).

Another relevant point - regarding the questioning of the diet and the methods of the food industry - is the consumption of meat. Miguel Jara is supported by the report of the Equo Eat well to live better (2018) party, which highlights that livestock (especially beef and milk production) represents 14.5% of global emissions of greenhouse gases by human action (FAO). Added to this is that the production of animal proteins requires ten times more hectares than that of vegetables, details in the introduction Equo's co-spokesperson, Florent Marcellesi (one of the consequences is the deforestation of Amazonian forests, to dedicate to pastures, and loss of biodiversity).

 
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The document adds that with the more than 1 billion tons of feed - wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn or sorghum - produced annually for the animals, nearly 3.5 billion people could be fed. Another issue is the link between animal suffering and human nutrition: in Spain, 297.3 million cattle were slaughtered (mainly avian, pig and sheep) in the first half of 2020, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food . Furthermore, in addition to the massive use of antibiotics in the livestock industry, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in 2015 that the consumption of red meat or processed meat could be related to different types of cancer, such as colorectal cancer, that of the pancreas or that of the prostate (diets rich in processed meat could be attributed to the death of 34,000 people worldwide each year from cancer, according to the WHO).

Diet, nutritional habits and threats to health can be analyzed from different perspectives. “Transgenic or biotechnological techniques have served to play at being Frankenstein, linking, for example, genes from different species; nanotechnology goes one step further (…) ”, explains Miguel Jara; In 2007 more than 70 environmental organizations, trade unions and NGOs from around the world signed a declaration –Principles for the supervision of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials– for an adequate regulation of nanoscale chemicals (one millionth of a millimeter), regarding environmental risks and for human health.

Friends of the Earth warns that nanomaterials (such as titanium dioxide) are being used in hundreds of consumer products, beverages and food - chocolate, cookies, milk, mayonnaise, cheese, soy, almonds or cereals - made by multinationals such as Kraft , Nestlé, Mars, Unilever or General Mills; and according to “increasing tests”, they are also used for the packaging and preservation of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as for nutritional additives, flavorings and colorants (Small ingredients, big risks 2014).

But the industrial and laboratory strategies applied to food do not conclude at this point. Insecure, unpredictable, unfair and unsustainable. This is how the action group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC) for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) 2.0 describes in a Guide for consumers published –in its Spanish version- in 2017. GMOs 2.0 are the products of synthetic biology , "extreme genetic engineering"; the guide mentions as examples apples to which a gene is deactivated so that, when oxidized, they do not turn brown; genetically engineered vanilla, stevia, and saffron; or the deletion of a small section of the DNA of the rapeseed plant, in order to make it resistant to pesticides.

Who controls what we eat? One of the tasks of the ETC action group is the analysis of the agro-industrial corporations that dominate the food chain, from the seed to the distribution center. "Decentralizing control and democratizing food systems is key to feeding the world," they emphasize (Techno-Fusions Edible report 2019, with data from 2018). Four companies –Bayer Crop Science (including Monsanto); Corteva; ChemChina / Syngenta; and Vilmorin & Cie / Limagrain- concentrate 53% of the commercial sector of seeds, patented and offered for sale in world markets (the investment fund BlackRock is one of Bayer's outstanding shareholders); Likewise, ChemChina, two German multinationals -Bayer and Basf- and the American Corteva control two thirds of the world herbicide / pesticide market.

As for industrial livestock, the big three –Tyson Foods / Cobb-Vantress, from the United States; Hong Kong-based WH Group and Thailand's Charoen Pokphand - added sales of $ 79 billion in 2018. A similar degree of concentration is seen in food and beverage processing, led by Nestlé, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev from Belgium and JBS from Brazil; and in grocery retailers, both in physical stores and online, with the primacy of Walmart and Kroger (United States), Schwarz Group and Aldi (Germany) and France's Carrefour.

"We have more food than ever, from more remote places -fish from Senegal, fruits from Brazil or rice from China-, there has never been so much variety and probably the average quality of the products has never been worse," says Miguel Jara; The journalist broadens the focus to fashionable superfoods - such as avocado or quinoa -, widely promoted by marketing. Summum -supplement of trends, fashion and leisure of the ABC newspaper- characterized quinoa as "one of the standard bearers of the superfoods revolution, an exotic ingredient with a nutritional profile of the most interesting and very attractive in the kitchen".

The United Nations declared 2013 the international year of this ancient plant and pre-Inca Andean origin, whose grains have high nutritional and medicinal value ("the cultivation of quinoa is expanding, currently being found in more than 70 countries", reported the FAO in 2013 ); but the group Carro de combat warned about the risks of this fashion: price increases, which would make it difficult for many Bolivian peasants to buy; or land grabbing and landowner practices, in countries like Peru.

Author of the Medical Laboratory. Journey to the interior of medicine and the pharmaceutical industry (2011), Miguel Jara also ventures into the field of food supplements - vitamin or mineral supplements, for example - which are marketed in the form of pills, tablets or ampoules of liquid. How has this industry evolved? According to the International Alliance of Dietary / Food Supplement Associations (IADS)