The Guardian, 29 April, reports that, ‘Washout winter’ spells price rises for UK shoppers with key crops down by a fifth: Analysts say impact on wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape harvests means price rises on beer, bread and biscuits and more food imported.
Two historical examples of bread riots, one in France, one in Newbury,UK:
‘Bread was the basic staple of most people’s diets, and variations in the price of bread were keenly felt by the poor, especially by women who most frequently bought bread in the marketplace. Women would sometimes protest against what they thought to be unjust price increases for bread in what were known as "bread riots."... were a collective action designed to force bakers to sell bread at a "just" or "moral" price rather than at whatever price the market would allow.
(17 July 1725)—On Saturday the fourteenth, a baker of the faubourg Saint-Antoine seemingly tried to sell bread for thirty-four sous which that morning had cost thirty. The woman to whom this happened caused an uproar and called her neighbours. The people gathered, furious with bakers in general. Soon their numbers reached eighteen hundred, and they looted all the bakers' houses in the faubourg from top to bottom, throwing dough and flour into the gutter.’
https://revolution.chnm.org/items/show/491
‘The millers and bakers of the town and neighbourhood were the especial offenders, as notwithstanding the price of wheat was not immoderately high, they kept up the price of bread much in excess of what was fair and legitimate. At last the long subdued feeling of discontent found forcible expression. On a certain market day in August, during the time the sack of corn were being pitched for sale, the people broke out into wild riot.
Upsetting the open stalls, they flung themselves upon the scattered provisions, corn, meat, butter, and eggs, wrecked a couple of houses and so alarmed the bakers that they at once lowered the price of bread, and promised a further reduction. But the spirit of the mob was not easily to be managed. They proceeded to break into the mills, and throw the corn into the river; windows were broken, and damage to the extent of £1,000 was done. Several persons were injured in the fray, one of them fatally.
http://www.newburyhistory.co.uk/bread-riot
The following is from the Socialist Standard, May 1986.
‘Under capitalism food supplies are manipulated to increase profits regardless of the consequences to health. This is because food, like all other goods, is produced for its exchange-value and, therefore, supplied according to the dictates of the market instead of for social needs.
Profits
from agriculture are maximised in the following ways: destroying or
storing food when there is a surplus that cannot be sold at a profit,
regardless of the number of deaths from starvation or malnutrition;
cutting back on food production to prevent unsaleable surpluses in
subsequent harvests; farming land more intensively by using
artificial fertilisers and pesticides; extending the number of
processes which food undergoes.
Although
about a quarter of a million old people in Britain suffer from
malnutrition and there are obscene inequalities of wealth in the rest
of the population, generally speaking there is relative affluence
compared with underdeveloped countries and the problem for food
manufacturers is to try to persuade people to buy more in order that
the market can be expanded and profits increased. Normally
manufacturers can persuade the public to buy more by the skilful use
of advertising, playing on the fears and insecurity of consumers in
an aggressively competitive, acquisitive society. But food presents a
greater problem because, beyond the level of satiety. people do not
eat more as a result of increased wealth. Nevertheless, profits can
be increased by extending the number of processes which food
undergoes and adulterating it with cheaper additives.
In
1969 a Lancet editorial pointed out that, on
average, three pounds of chemical additives a year were consumed in
food by each person in this country and that the number of additives
exceeded 20,000, but by 1985 this number had increased to 35.000 and
the consumption of additives was a staggering 8-11 pounds a year!
Indeed, a new term — 'junk-food' has been coined to describe the
artificially flavoured, highly processed food that is increasingly
consumed today. Additives are used to provide colouring, enhance
flavour, inhibit mould, emulsify, sweeten and provide uniformity of
ingredients in the products sold.
The
extent of the profits that can be made from expanding the processes
which food undergoes can be seen in the sale of potato crisps which
cost forty or fifty times more than the same weight of potatoes. Fish
fingers and chickens are treated with polyphosphates (E450) to absorb
more water, while fish and prawns are dipped in water before being
frozen to increase their weight. It has been estimated that the
public pays nearly five million pounds a year for water! (Walker. C.
and Cannon. G. 1985. The Food Scandal, Century
Publishing). All of these practices are perfectly legal: the 1984
regulations only require water to be declared in uncooked cured meats
if it exceeds ten per cent.
The
addition of water alone in frozen fish and prawns has no detrimental
effects on health but polyoxyethylene monostearate, an emulsifier
used in bread to make flour absorb water, causes cancer in rats.
Cancers can be caused by some synthetic food colours. The use of
amaranth, a red food dye, is permitted in Britain although in 1970 a
Russian study showed that in its pure form it possesses carcinogenic
activity. Amaranth was banned in the USA in 1976. Its continued use
in Britain is a feature of additives in that there is a complete lack
of uniformity of products permitted or banned from one country to
another. Commercial considerations determine which additives are
permitted, however harmful, while public awareness of the dangers of
certain substances and consumer pressure in refusing to purchase
certain products restricts or modifies their continued use.
The
production of meat involves a number of processes which are
potentially injurious to health; milk and meat may become
contaminated from the routine doses of antibiotics given to cattle to
prevent infectious diseases. The modern methods of rearing cattle
cause them to be considerably fatter than wild game; the fat is also
higher in saturated fats, which contribute to heart disease. and
lower in polyunsaturated fats. But meat products present the greatest
threat to health. Profits are boosted by using hide, skin. bone,
preservatives and large amounts of fat in sausages. Most processed
meats not only contain preservatives and colouring but consist of two
or three per cent salt by weight while salami consists of as much as
five per cent salt. Processed meats and bacon contain nitrates which
interfere with the body's ability to convert carotene into vitamin A
and combine with amines, occurring naturally in food, to produce
nitrosamines which can cause cancer.
It
is estimated that about twenty times more salt (sodium chloride) is
ingested in this country than is needed for the maintenance of health
and that an excessive intake is, at least in part, a causative factor
in the production of high blood pressure. But salt is added to a wide
range of products besides processed meats, including cereals, tinned
vegetables. soups and bread.
Sodium
also occurs in the diet by the wide use of monosodium glutamate, a
flavour enhancer which permits smaller amounts of more expensive
foods to be used. It was also widely used in baby foods until a study
at Washington University in 1969 showed that in large doses it
damaged the brain cells of baby mice. As babies have a poorly
developed sense of taste its use was clearly directed at the mothers
who "tested" the food to ensure that it was suitable. The
publicity that resulted from the study led to some manufacturers (but
not all) withdrawing monosodium glutamate from their products. The
extensive use of monosodium glutamate in Chinese cooking can lead to
side-effects such as palpitations, general weakness, gall bladder
discomfort and numbness of the arms and the back of the neck and has
become known as the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome".
Table
salt, itself, is not free from additives but may contain sodium
ferrocyanide and magnesium carbonate to prevent caking. In addition,
sodium is consumed in the form of sodium citrate in soft drinks. It
is, therefore, not surprising that a study in Scotland in the 45-64
age group found that one-fifth of them suffered from mild
hypertension.
Sugar
is an invaluable additive to the food manufacturer, it provides bulk
cheaply, preserves, thickens and sweetens. Every man. woman and child
in Britain consumes an average of two pounds of sugar a week. Tooth
decay, obesity, constipation, diverticulitis, gall bladder disease,
chronic digestive disorders and diabetes have all been implicated to
some degree with the excessive consumption of refined foods in
industrialised countries. By contrast. adult-onset diabetes is rare
in rural Africa where a diet high in unrefined carbohydrates is
eaten.
The food industry is also making more use of
dextrose in food: more than 16lbs of glucose (dextrose) a year, on
average, is consumed in processed foods. Fructose, a naturally
occurring sugar which is twice as sweet as sucrose (white sugar) has
been used in the food industry in the USA and could be an improvement
in health terms because only half the amount needs to be used. But
health needs under capitalism are always secondary to the requirement
of profitability and the Common Market placed an import quota on high
fructose com syrup to protect sugar beet production.
Highly
refined foods provide more calories, but less nutrients (unless
artificially added) and do not induce satiety as readily as unrefined
food, tending to lead to higher consumption with greater profits for
the manufacturers. White bread is made by the highly mechanised
Chorleywood Bread Process which avoids the hours of fermentation that
traditional bread requires. It also contains more air and water than
the traditional loaf as a result of using additives that are
potentially harmful. Polyoxyethylene monostearate, potassium bromate,
propionic acid, ammonium sulphate, chlorine dioxide, nitrosyl
chloride, benzoyle peroxide, sodium propionate. L-cysteine
hydrochloride and azodicarbonamide are all used in refined bread.
Agene was used for bleaching flour for nearly thirty years before it
was linked with nervous disorders in humans and in 1968, 600 people
in Johannesburg were poisoned by bread containing one per cent
potassium bromate (Grant. D., Your Daily Food, Faber
and Faber. 1973).
Even when additives are present in food
at what are considered to be "safe" levels there is still a
risk to health. The American Food and Drug Administration found that
two chemicals taken at the same time can enhance the effect of each
other; for example. silicone when used with an emulsifier makes the
cells of the gut more absorbent and susceptible to poisoning.
There
is also considerable contamination in food from the use of
insecticides. In 1984 the Association of Public Analysts found that
one third of fruit and vegetables were contaminated with DDT (despite
being banned), aldrin (a carcinogen), dimethoate and
mevinphos.
Although consumer pressure has resulted in a
few dangerous substances being withdrawn from food the number of
additives used has increased considerably in the last twenty years.
Additives will continue to be used while it is profitable to do so.
Only a socialist society which puts people first can stop the threat
to health which capitalism imposes.’
Carl Pinel
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2020/05/fit-for-consumption-1986.html
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