How to Enable Citizens to Eat Fairly and Well - Essay Example

?What Role Can or Should the Play in Enabling its Citizens to Eat Fairly and Well? Introduction Challenges related to food are a growing problem in the developed and the developing countries across the globe (University of Reading, 2012). These challenges include but are not limited to the epidemic of obesity, chronic illnesses and diseases like high blood pressure caused by the consumption of unhealthy food. To a large extent, these growing problems can be attributed to the consumption of fast food and typically junk food. The fast food and junk food industries have thrived over the past few decades (Kalaidis, 2013). This imparts the need for the state to intervene and provide the citizens with adequate food security. The definition of food security, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is “secure access [of all individuals] to adequate safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy life” (FAO, 1996). The government, with all its powers and channels, can play a very important role in providing people with high quality food. This paper looks into the different ways in which the governments can provide the people with better access to good quality food. Key goals for food and nutrition policies A Europe-wide research project called EATWELL has recommended the government ways to tackle the challenges associated with unhealthy diets (University of Reading, 2012). This research analyzed the secondary data in order to assess the individual programmes’ effectiveness. One of the findings of the research was that the salt campaign run by the UK Food Standards Agency in the year 2004 reduced the salt intake by 10 per cent on average in the people of the UK, and the most fundamental changes in behavior toward the intake of salt was demonstrated by young women (EATWELL Project, 2011). The key goals to the member states of the EU made for the encouragement of healthy food consumption were as follows (University of Reading, 2012): To impose taxes for the promotion of healthier food consumption and collection of revenue for the programmes directed at healthy eating. This revenue should be ring-fenced. Different countries may impose different forms of taxes. The precise form of tax should be informed through prudent assessment of the impacts of taxes that have been imposed in countries like Finland, Denmark, Hungary, and France in the past. To start information campaigns as they are cost-effective and yet have a positive impact on healthy food consumption. These information campaigns should be long-term initiatives in order for them to generate optimal results. To restrict the advertisement of unhealthy foods on different forms of media. To make the nutrition education a necessary component of curriculum in schools across all countries. To display the labeling of food nutrition over the front of the packs with a consistent positioning and format. To introduce the nutrition labeling in the food restaurant chains. To foster negotiation with the manufacturers of food, and retail industries to establish agreements for the reduction of salt. Such agreements should also include reduction of sugar content, saturated fat, and portion size. Other key goals that need to be achieved to provide the consumers with better access to good quality food are: To design the foods for specific groups of consumers like busy professionals and children. To design the foods or supplements like pills to compensate for the inadequate patterns of food as well as to compensate for the manufacturing and processing. To use latest biotechnology to develop new seeds that can enhance specific qualities in the plants or animals so that their resistance to pests, diseases, and chemicals is enhanced and their ability to sustain themselves in harsh conditions is improved. Types and examples of intervention to achieve the goals Free market plays an important role in structuring the economies, thus allowing the government to impose its decisions (Matterhorn, 2013). Governments’ interventions in the economies are directed at helping the society improve. In certain cases, the markets do not work in the best interest of the people in the perspective of the government. Although sometimes government’s intervention leads to certain inefficiencies, yet they are required to help the needy people. The different types of interventions governments make to improve the quality of food consumed by the people are described as follows: Taxes Governments levy taxes on the people to make them consume better foods (Sacks et al, 2011). These programmes are generally not created in a typically market-based system. Taxes collected by the government are used in worthy programmes for the betterment of the citizens. While certain programmes might not be profitable, they are still deemed important by the government because of the purpose they serve (Matterhorn, 2013). Nominal fat taxes have been implemented on unhealthy foods by various countries e.g. Denmark and Hungary. Sweetened drinks in France have been imposed an extra tax on while Peru also plans to impose a tax on the junk food (Koebler, 2012). However, in order to make the taxes effective in preventing or limiting the consumption of unhealthy foods by the people, it is imperative that they are substantial; “only "fat taxes" of 20 percent or more are likely to have broad societal impacts” (Koebler, 2012). Subsidies The government provides different sectors with subsidies to produce foods that are not otherwise produced because of their lack of profitability for the free market (Matterhorn, 2013). Subsidies are given by the government to lower the food prices, to increase the exports, and to reduce the living expenses of the people accordingly. Without these subsidies, a country may be deprived of jobs because of the availability of lower costs to the people outside the country. An example of this is the expenditure of over $1 billion USD by the Cuban government upon the food subsidies that are provided to the citizens through their ration books (Ravesberg, 2012). Using this facility, the Cuban citizens just have to pay 12 per cent of the products’ market value. It takes about 10 days per individual for the small amounts to last and the total price paid by one person per month is about $1 USD. Tariffs Tariffs place tax over the imported foods in order to increase the competitiveness of the domestic foods. If a food item imported from a foreign country is worth one dollar and the cost of the domestically produced food item is two dollars, a tariff of two dollars over the imported food item would increase its cost as compared to the domestically produced food item. This not only keeps the demand of the food item high in the country but also increases the employability within the country (Matterhorn, 2013). In addition to that, it deters the lowering of prices. In the system of a free market, consumers tend to purchase the cheapest food items irrespective of whether it is domestically produced or has been imported. Tariffs, antidumping laws, and quotas are intervention policies meant to hinder the import of cheap goods from other countries. An example of this sort of intervention is the antidumping regulations according to the Trade Partnership in the year 2003, that compelled the Americans “to pay duties of 148 percent on preserved mushrooms from Chile and 194 percent on honey from China” (Foulkes, 2008). Dietary recommendations and guidelines In the year 1917, the USDA issued a 14-page pamphlet based on the overall dietary recommendations. The title of this pamphlet was How to Select Foods (Nestle, 2007, p. 34). This pamphlet established remarkable precedents that are still adhered to by the agency. USDA organized the sources of food nutrients by establishing the format of food-group that were then known categorized to be required for good health as; protein-rich foods and meat, fruits and vegetables, starchy foods and cereals, fatty foods, and sweets. The USDA also established principles to govern its dietary advice policy. Rather than recommending any special food combinations, the pamphlet simply told the requirements of the body from food to build the tissues, maintain itself in a good shape, and provide the energy required to do the muscular work. It generally showed how these needs are addressed by different food materials according to the bodily requirements of different groups (Nestle, 2007, p. 34). The unique and distinguishing aspect of this pamphlet was that it permitted all types of foods to be consumed as healthful diets without restricting the consumption of any food in any group. School food programmes There is a long history of school food programmes in the US. The earliest examples of the school food programmes in the US can be traced back to the start of the 19th century when the volunteer groups used serving meals to students in schools in the big cities as a strategy to fight the odds of malnutrition and hunger. One of the school food programmes that have been recorded first was run by the Children’s Aid Society in the New York City in 1853 (Morgan and Sonnino, 2008, p. 3). In 1904, the Women’s School Alliance started to serve the needy children lunches. As the compulsory school attendance was introduced in the schools around 1900, the school feeding movement spread further in the US. Although the efforts to promote the school food programmes multiplied in the following decades, yet the Federal Government of the US did not actively participate in such programmes until the Depression Era during which, the Agricultural Act’s Section 32 allowed the government to use the federal funds to make donations for food in schools (Morgan and Sonnino, 2008, p. 3). A UK-based school food project started in the year 2003 analyzed a 5-a-day campaign of fruits and vegetables used social marketing to encourage the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables and found a substantial improvement in the intake of fruits and vegetables from 0.2 to 0.7 portions a day particularly among the middle income and lower income classes (Ransley et al, 2007). Technological approaches A range of technological approaches can be adopted by the state to make interventions. One such technological approach is the fortification of food in which nutrients are added to the specific foods so that the nutrients replaced during the processing phase can be replaced. Other goals behind the fortification of food include provision of a rich nutrient source and improvement of sales. Traditional or new bio-technology is used to develop new foods with health-giving properties. Food fortification is different from other interventions in which nutrients are added to the food to increase its nutritious value (Wirakartakusumah and Hariyadi, n.d.). Fortification is a programme of nutritional intervention in which there is a specifically defined target and the main source of the nutrient that is specifically added is the fortified food product. As a result of that, food fortification helps the prevention of malnutrition in such targeted populations that have an identified risk of nutrient deficiency. The impact of food fortification is generally less immediate as compared to nutrition education and dietary diversification, yet its impact is more sustained and much wider (who.int, n.d., p. 12). The effectiveness of a food-fortification programme is analyzed on the basis of the level of improvement of the nutritional status of the targeted population. Its effectiveness also depends on the acceptance and consumption of the fortified food by the targeted population. Factors that play a decisive role in the effectiveness of the programme of food-fortification include but are not limited to taste, price, and quality of the fortified foods. Other factors that need to be considered while designing such programmes include selection of sufficient quantities of the fortified food, stability of the added nutrient under normal storage conditions, implementation of quality control and quality assurance measures for the fortified food, and distribution of the fortified food among the targeted population (Wirakartakusumah and Hariyadi, n.d.). Research Another initiative taken by the government to achieve the aforementioned goals is establishment of the direction in which the future research can be made and in which, the products related to the biotechnology can be developed. “[I]t will be important to invigorate the policy debate to ensure that biotechnology does not just address technological problems in a socioeconomic vacuum, but provides solutions for problems of hunger and disease universally and democratically” (Maurer and Sobal, 1995, p. 196). Rationing In some countries, government uses rationing to provide people with the foods according to their individualistic and collective needs. One such policy has been in use in Cuba since the year 1962 (Rios, 2009). The 11.2 million citizens of Cuba are granted the right to purchase the chicken, sugar, grains, eggs, fish, coffee, rice, pasta, bread, cooking oil and such other products using their ration cards at nominal prices. This is achieved with the help of a meticulous system of regulations which considers such factors as the buyer’s place of residence and age. Role of price interventions Price interventions play a very important role in the tendency of the consumers to consume a particular type of food. Americans have historically shown immense resistance to increased food prices. Politicians around the world are worried over the increasing price of food items because of the threat posed to the stability of the government by the starving citizens (Mason, 2011). The issue of instability of food prices came at the discussions’ forefront when Sahel was affected by the food crises in the year 2005 followed by the international markets in the year 2008 (Galtier, 2009). When the prices of foods were sharply increased in 2008, urban riots occurred in as many as 40 different developing countries across the world (Galtier, 2009). This drew the politicians’ attention toward the potential of variations in food prices to have serious implications on the security of food in terms of the consumers’ access to food in the short term and in terms of incentive for producers to increase the production in the long run. Part of the issue of increase of price of food is that food is not reaching the targeted populations and the prices are increasing partly as a result of the growing fear of shortage of supply. According to the analyst Erin FirzPatrick, fear of the unpredictable weather and the relation between corn prices and wheat are some of the factors that have driven the prices high. “We've seen pretty much across the board a dip in production and a lot of that is weather-driven…But with the demand side of the equation and economies coming back to life, forecasts are still positive” (FitzPatrick cited in Mason, 2011). Another very important reason of the low prices of foods is the subsidization of the production of food by the government in rarely evident ways. Some of the prominent subsidies include the price supports for milk and sugar, but production quotas, import restrictions, market quotas, low-cost land leases, lower tax rates, and water rights are also supported by the taxpayers for the main food commodities. The cost of agricultural subsidies increased rapidly near the end of the 20th century, with the cost increasing from $18 billion in the year 1996 to $28 billion by the year 2000 (Nestle, 2007, p. 18). In the US, sales are stimulated by lower prices. This is particularly true for the sale of items with high costs; the factor that is more important in the choice of steak by the consumers as compared to the ground beef is price. The importance of price as a factor in the choice of foods can be estimated from the fact that economists can calculate the relation between change of price of food items and nutrient intake (Nestle, 2007, p. 18). Economists have estimated that when the price of meat is lowered, it increases the average intake of iron and calcium, but at the same time, it also increases the consumption of fat, cholesterol, and calories by the consumers. Marketing practices and food pricing are thus some of the most fundamental components that shape the eating environment. In many recent studies, the theories of economy have been applied to the changing dietary behavior. The strategies of price reduction play an important role in the promotion of choice of the targeted foods since they can be purchased at a lower rate as compared to the alternative food choices (French, 2003). Taxation of food; good or bad? Global policies that have encouraged the animal production have conventionally attracted criticism for increasing the demand for grain and land, thus benefiting the rich consumers and costing the poor consumers at the same time. To allow the unfettered increase in the production of meet to address the needs of people is an option full of risks in the long-term. This imparts the need to consider alternative policy development options in favor of a diet largely based on plants. To achieve this, changes in the agricultural support mechanisms, cost internalization, and taxation are required. Although many countries in the Western Europe have reported abundant supplies of food, yet the need to encourage greater sustainability and reduce the inputs from farms is acknowledged by several of them. In certain cases, economic concerns have become more important than the protection of health. For instance, Iceland reported that taxes imposed on the imported vegetables and fruits for the protection of the local farmers led to a decline in intake (Robertson et al., 2004, p. 270). In the EATWELL research project, the researchers have recommended imposition of taxes upon the unhealthy foods and the use of money thus collected for the promotion of healthy eating, voluntary agreements over the level of salt in the foods, front-of-pack labeling of food, and long-term campaigns related to the food information. According to the Professor of Food Economics, Bruce Traill who was the research leader, “Our research, based on the available evidence, demonstrated that these programmes do, in general, have a positive effect on unhealthy diets. Information or education initiatives, such as nutrition labelling, have small but positive effects on healthy eating while policies seeking to change the choices facing consumers by, for example, restricting the availability of less healthy foods or changing relative prices of food through taxes and subsidies, have the potential to bring about substantial changes in food choices. However, these are seen as intrusive by the public and are therefore less likely to be accepted” (Traill cited in University of Reading, 2012). Although such optimistic perceptions of the imposition of taxes on food can be found in the literature and the media, yet not much evidence is available regarding the use of taxes on food as a strategy of public health (Thow et al, 2010). Cash and Lacanilao (2007) analyzed the studies about pricing and taxation on food and reached the conclusion that there is not sufficient evidence about the efficacy of taxation as an intervention in health. Powell and Chaloupka (2009) said that if food prices undergo a small change, it would not have much effect on the body weight in the US, but if a “non-trivial” change is effected in the food prices, the effect on the body weight would be significant. Therefore, Powell and Chaloupka (2009) said that the greatest effect on the body weight can be achieved with the help of a combination of subsidies and taxes. Effective food policy intervention examples and their reasons of success Advertising Advertising is an example of an effective food policy intervention. Government uses the advertisements to spread awareness in the public about what foods should or should not be consumed and also provides the reasons for that. Advertising is a very effective way of changing people’s perceptions about foods. The Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Professor Terence Stephenson discussed the important role played by imposition of ban on advertising in the reduction of smoking among the audience in these words, “That required things like a ban on advertising and a reduction in marketing and the association of smoking with sporting activities - that helped people move away from smoking” (Stephenson cited in Gallagher, 2013). Ofcom carried out a research in 2004 to study the television’s role in influencing the HFSS food consumption by the children (Ofcom, 2007). Ofcom reached the conclusion that advertising affects the food choices of children directly and modestly and has an even larger indirect effect on the behavior, consumption, and preferences of the children toward food. This led Ofcom to the conclusion that “there was a case for proportionate and targeted action in terms of rules for broadcast advertising to address the issue of childhood health and obesity” (Ofcom, 2007, p. 2). School food programmes A good example of a successful intervention with the school food programmes was the Cooking with Kids (CWK) programme (Poppendieck, 2010, p. 235). In this programme, the CWK staff cooked some food items with children. In the time required by the dough to set or for the pizza to get baked, students finished their food journal lessons given to them by the CWK staff to make their contribution toward the attainment of particular state standards. The baked pizzas were served to the children like the food is served in a restaurant. Children enjoyed eating it. Many children find it daunting to try new foods whereas when the see the same food being made available to them in the cafeteria that they have been preparing themselves in the class, they feel that their adventuresome eating and bravery has been reinforced. The excitement of being involved in the making of the food to develop the students’ repertoire is harnessed. Repeated exposure has been found to be the solution of food neophobia i.e. the fear of eating new kinds of foods (Poppendieck, 2010, p. 235). “Through hands-on classes, children learn that good food is delicious and that cooking is an important way to take care of yourself” (cookingwithkids.net, 2013). Family support programmes In Australia, the initiative of Communities for Children in the Family Support Program provides the families with early intervention and prevention services with children up to 12 years of age and others who have the risk of disadvantage partly from the food insecurity. “To address underlying causes of disadvantage, Communities for Children providers deliver a wide range of activities including parenting support, information and referrals, case management, and other supports such as education and skills training to prevent child abuse and neglect” (daff.gov.au, 2012, p. 84). Labeling An intervention policy that is increasingly being used by different countries is labeling of the food packages. The New York City and San Francisco have approved the bills requiring the fast food chains to post the calorie content on the food menus (Elbel et al, 2009). The intervention based on labeling of food packages requires the restaurants to display the calorie content for different food items in the menu. This is not only a very effective intervention strategy but is also an effective outpatient education program. Labeling food packages significantly improves the knowledge and confidence of the consumers (Miller, Jensen, and Achterberg, 1999). Even if the labeling policy in a certain case does not have a direct effect on the intake of food by the consumers, it still benefits them with the producer-initiated reformulation of the food item to improve the nutritional outcomes (Variyam, 2005, p. 11). Through the reformulation of products, labeling provides the consumers with benefits. The biggest benefit of labeling is the resulting of more healthy offerings from the reformulation of products (Beales, 1980). Ban on harmful ingredients Governments place bans on the use of certain food ingredients or nutrients that are considered deleterious for the people. The main concern behind these bans is that fast food restaurants and trans fats have played a major role in increasing the obesity rate in the society. These bans are justified because the “consumption of trans fats, and of fast foods more generally, creates an "externality" because this helps produce obese teenagers and adults. The so-called externality results from the fact that greater obesity raises taxes on others because the medical bills of the obese are partly paid by general taxpayers due to subsidized medical care” (Posner, 2008). An example of such bans is the ban placed by the New York City upon the trans fats’ use by the restaurants (Posner, 2008). This not only limited the consumption of trans fats, but also placed many restrictions upon the fast food industry. A similar ban was approved by Boston. California is the first state to place ban over the use of trans fats in the restaurants as well as in all goods that are retail baked (Posner, 2008). A bill in Los Angeles is under consideration that deters the fast food restaurants from opening any outlet within the city’s 32 square mile area that already consists of such restaurants (Andersen and Matsa, 2010, p. 40). One-dish wedding law of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of Punjab in Pakistan, enforced a law according to which, people can only serve one dish in their weddings (Pakistan Today, 2010). Shahbaz Sharif emphasized upon strict enforcement of the law and accountability of the marriage halls and people that violate the law. This law has served three main purposes in the country; firstly, it has brought an equality of status that reflects from the wedding ceremonies as both rich and the poor can serve no more than one dish. Secondly, this law has reduced the financial load upon the poor people when they arrange wedding ceremonies. Thirdly, it has limited the consumption of trans fats and fast food by the people. Challenges for the analytics of food policies “In a world with global markets, enterprises and problems, national responses and rules are no longer sufficient to tackle sensitive food, environmental and economic issues” (Tansey and Rajotte, 2008). Presently, many countries around the world are making efforts to change the farm policy’s nature for the better. Many developing countries have started to eliminate the traditional farm policies and adopt the more market-oriented policies. For example, the traditional farm policies have been terminated in New Zealand and some other industrialized countries while other countries like the EU and the US have substantially modified their traditional food policies (Mohanty and Peterson, n.d.). In certain cases, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have exerted pressure on the developing countries to change their food policies’ direction. The policies of cheap food in these developing countries have traditionally been based on the rates of overvalued exchange, agricultural inputs, or direct food subsidies. Many developing countries have been using methods that drained the budgets of the government and minimized the earnings of the foreign exchange (Mohanty and Peterson, n.d.). With the passage of time, these countries’ economic situation became more precarious and they became increasingly dependent upon the IMF. This caused the World Bank and the IMF to place emphasis on the reforms of policies, referred to as the “structural adjustment programs” that were placed by the World Bank and the IMF as a condition to sustain the financial assistance of the developing countries (Mohanty and Peterson, n.d.). The pressure for the change of policies in the industrialized countries primarily built up as a consequence of the realization of the financial implications of the traditional farm policies as well as of the fact that the original problem of low incomes of farm has generally diminished. Many industrialized countries have started to use the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an international forum for political reasons because it is generally simpler to sell the reductions of subsidy to the farmers of a country when they are aware that other countries have subjected their farmers to the same kind of treatment (Mohanty and Peterson, n.d.). A strong case for developing the nutrition policies can be made by addressing three fundamental areas including food safety, nutrition, and food security as the political commitments related to these areas often overlap. In addition to that, an integrated approach like this can deter the inadvertent development of policies that are potentially damaging (Robertson et al., 2004, p. 222). Conclusion There is a lot that governments can do to provide the people with access to better foods. Governments can make different types of interventions to help the people consume good quality food. Such interventions include but are not limited to taxes, subsidies, and tariffs. Under the changing circumstances, many countries around the world have started to eliminate the traditional farm policies and adopt modified policies in order to match the supply with demand. The state can make a range of policy and programme responses including food fortification, dietary diversification, measures of food safety and public health, nutrition education, and supplementation. The relative importance of these complementary approaches depends upon the local conditions and local needs. By making these interventions, governments can effect substantial changes in the food choices of the people and their perceptions about acceptable practices through public procurement. The interventions that can be suggested to the departments of government to enhance the food security include but are not limited to developing the irrigation schemes, providing farmers with inputs and credit like agricultural starter packs, improving the management of environmental health and safety and of natural resources, making the low-interest loans available to the programmes supporting the farmers, providing the storage of community grain, providing access to the services of community agricultural transport, and processing facilities. Agencies and organizations involved in the evaluation of food policies attempting to reveal positive outcomes should emphasize upon the development of written policies. Benefits associated with a written policy include establishment of a clear statement of intent and a firm foundation for the initiatives related to food and nutrition, legitimization of action, development of a framework for the health ministry to act through, eradication of the possibilities of misinterpretation of the position of the government on nutrition, development of a corporate document for the referral by the concerned organizations and individuals, demonstration of commitment to the well-being of the public, and justification of the resources’ allocation to the national plans. Discordant policies of food, industry, and agriculture pose different kinds of threats to health and safety of people and environment. These harmful effects can be minimized by spreading awareness regarding the policy options in all sectors. 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