Industry is accustomed to being painted as the villain in global food circles.
For decades, it’s paid the price for failing to explain agricultural biotechnology to the consumers on the receiving end of it.
The confusion it nurtured by hiding in the shadows while biotechnology was introduced led to all kinds of misconceptions about farming and food safety.
Meanwhile, food processors and manufacturers were thrown into the same pot for marketing unhealthy products. Most lately, they were scolded by the Canadian government for making unreasonable profits, again at the expense of those they’re supposed to serve, and told to adhere to a code of conduct.
But that scolding was a piece of cake compared to the vitriol raining down on the agri-food sector now in the US.
Last week, as wild-eyed presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the race and instead threw his support behind Donald Trump, he unleashed a whipping on food manufacturers and the likes of pesticide producers. Farmers have become so big and simultaneously reliant on industry’s products that the food they produce is poisonous, he claims.
He’s been saying for months, even years, that he wants to revolutionize the US food system and save family farmers. On Tuesday, Kennedy was named to be one of the two members of Trump’s transition team. If Trump gets elected, that is a very powerful position.
The task would be herculean, but I imagine Kennedy would get all kinds of support from the public, even if no one really understood the issue or whether his contentions were true or not. The main problem with food is overconsumption and bad nutritional choices, not safety.
Anyway, even Kennedy’s missive seemed tame compared to the fire-and-brimstone reference from US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for president.
Seizing the public distaste for record profits in the food business, she promised to stomp on corporations who are price-gouging consumers and driving up food prices.
Like many Harris proposals, the details remain to be seen. But when asked by the US farm news publication Agri-Pulse what Harris meant, agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack offered this nugget.
“I think it’s important and necessary for the federal government to be on the side of consumers,” he said. “I think that’s essentially what Vice President Harris is saying. ‘Okay, you got a choice: you can be on the side of the industry or you can be on the side of the consumer.’”
How’s that for drawing a line in the sand?
Woe be the campaign fundraisers this week for either the Democrats or the Republicans, knocking on the door of the agriculture and food sector, asking for money. But really, all the food sector can do is stand there and take it. It’s done such a poor job of explaining its role in providing people with safe, abundant, hitherto affordable food that it is totally backed into a corner.
And if it backs off on what Harris calls price gouging and what Kennedy calls poisoning the public, it’s admitting guilt. What a spot to be stuck in. The results will be precedent setting, and the food industry in every corner of the world will be watching how this plays out.
