Expensive Europe and Perfect Fruits.
Food perfection in shape and appearance is so paramount in Europe that often the very poor cannot have enough to eat because food prices for such perfection have become too expensive.
Walking out in the Streets of Paris and many other European cities like Bonn did underline that fact. The local street vendors provided tons of beautiful, fresh and perfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. But sales tend to be slow and limited. It is no wonder; their prices are often multiples of what were used to paying. Reminds me of Tokyo.
The EU Commission of the quality of produce has come up with a set of recommendations that includes allowing perfectly good but oddly shaped fruits and vegetables to come to market.
So, what’s the fuss?
Nothing, if you live in the rest of the world. But in Europe, have you ever found an out of shape melon or carrot?
The standards at present actually drives up the prices of fruits and vegetables we in North America take for granted. So what if the carrot has a weird shape; the onion has a minor scrape; the melon is not perfectly round; the potato looks a little flat? No, the EU produce industry takes it very seriously.
This perfection keeps prices high. But to the detriment of people who cannot get enough nutrition for high costs of food and poverty, it’s a travesty. It’s difficult to ascertain, but some estimates put the total loss of produce due to industry “imperfection” at close to 50%.
That means many people living in poverty cannot have the nutrition they need. It also means subsistence farmers cannot sell their perfectly healthy produce (though looking less than industry ‘perfect’) for much needed income.
This new recommendation slated to take effect in July of 2009, is an effort by the EU to get control of runaway food price inflation. It is also a recognition that there are countries in the EU that cannot apply the standards of the perfect produce and still feed its citizens.
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I wasn’t going to comment as this post was written a while ago, but I found myself asking a lot of questions when I read it. I think it is important to find the blogs that you read regularly and stay involved in the discussion in a regular, relevant and timely manner. So I’ll be back and see whether you’ll be answering :o).
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