Europe: food crisis caused by capitalism
"Like scenes from the apocalypse" said the BBC reporter. He spoke as an image of a JCB scooping up farmyard carcasses appeared on the screen. Photographs of blazing pyres dominated the front pages of national newspapers.
Such pictures will linger in the mind’s eye long after the 2001 "epidemic" of foot and mouth disease (FMD) has come to an end.
Over a 100 confirmed cases in the UK, precautionary measures on the continent which have led to drastic reductions in livestock movement. But what lies behind this widespread outbreak of FMD that has wrought such havoc to the sporting calendar, sparked panic buying in supermarkets and led to the imposition of draconian travel restrictions?
The simple, accurate answer is the quest for profit in an increasingly global marketplace. Market pressures dictate that farms concentrate ever larger numbers of livestock, often in squalid conditions, and transport them ever greater distances to sale and slaughter.
This explains why the geographical spread of the disease is much wider now than at the time of the 1967 epidemic and why it looks set to affect both Ireland and continental Europe.
The Northumberland farm believed to be the source of the outbreak was filthy, yet the inspection teams sent to visit it five times in six months never shut the farm down. Despite the widespread fear about food safety in the wake of e-coli and salmonella outbreaks, and, above all, the BSE crisis, the regulation of farm hygiene remains hopelessly inadequate.
The infected livestock were rapidly transported around the country by dealers looking to make the highest profit. The trail of contagion spread from the North East to the South East of England and the Cheale Meats abattoir in Essex – one of the comparative handful of slaughterhouses that has come to dominate the industry in the wake of BSE.
The culprits who benefit from the current system of poorly regulated, complex chains of food processing and distribution include the big supermarket chains.
In Britain these outfits command bigger market shares and higher profit margins than elsewhere in Europe or the US.
The "big five" monopolies (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Safeway and Somerfield) chalk up 80 per cent of UK grocery sales. Tony Blair may make the occasional noise about the role of the supermarkets in the FMD crisis, but will not lift a finger against them. He even has one of their bosses, Lord Sainsbury, in his government.
Ultimately, ensuring food safety and effectively controlling the likes of FMD will mean challenging the giant capitalist retailers’ control over the marketplace.
In its place, we need a planned system of agricultural production and distribution that can make the best use of the agricultural science and technology developed under capitalism while minimising the environmental damage.
