Regulars
CONSERVATION
If you have to eat on your feet, think before you eat

by Andrew Taylor
December 2004

For those readers who are expats working for large international companies, your job is, at least in part, to promote the products and services of your employers. In a world dominated by the power of marketing, this means that many of us are being paid to encourage a lifestyle more similar to Western Europe and North America than anything that could be found in Eastern Europe. Rather than explore the ethics of this, I thought it might be fun to take one day's consumption out of an average readers day and think about the ecological consequences of that consumption.

So we begin the day by getting out of bed and brushing our teeth. Interestingly, toothpaste contains a wide range of extremely toxic and harmful chemicals, including CL42090, which is banned in Austria, Belgium, France, Sweden and other countries, CL47005, banned in Australia, the United States and Norway and a host of other chemicals known to causes allergies, irritation and with carcinogenic properties. In fact one tube of toothpaste contains enough fluoride to kill a small child. So remember to spit, rather than swallow!

For breakfast we shall tuck into some nice bread fresh from the supermarket and a glass of cold milk. How much more healthy can you get? Well, a lot more, actually. The freshness of supermarket bread is prolonged by chemicals including those derived from the pancreas of pigs and large amounts of salt. Moreover, most modern dairy farmers use a variety of hormone injections and high protein feed additives to increase yield per animal. Often this causes gross malformations and absurdly large udders. Pofta buna.

Now we head off to the airport to catch our flight to wherever. Watch out: the US Environment Protection Agency found that the drinking water of 20 out of 158 passenger planes was contaminated by bacteria from human faeces. Yum, yum!

We arrive at our destination at lunchtime. Shall we have some tasty chicken nuggets, or go for the healthy sandwich option? Chicken nuggets are made by pushing carcasses through teabag-like screens to produce a slurry, which is bound together with chemicals, gums, water, soya, salt and emulsifier to hold it all together. Perhaps we should take the healthier option. Well, sandwiches do not belong in fridges; it makes the bread go soggy. Yet almost all pre-prepared sandwiches are sold that way today. It is only possible by the use of specially treated ingredients that stop the crust from seperating from the rest of bread, which would normally collapse in a soggy mess. As for the contents of the sandwich, let's take the humble lettuce, a popular ingredient in most sandwiches. These are grown in monoculture conditions, which quickly damage soil and are dependent upon large-scale use of fertilisers and pesticides for their growth rates and uniform appearances. An article in the Ecologist recently indicated that pre-packed salad leaves are washed in a water-chlorine mixture that is twenty times more potent than a swimming pool. Maybe you should eat the lettuce before drinking the airline water!

So lets have a nice tasty fresh apple for a low calorie dessert: you can't tell me that that is bad for me. Sadly, apples are treated with highly toxic insecticides and herbicides. Furthermore, supermarket buyers insist that all apples are a perfect shape, size and texture. To be absolutely sure they use a special tool called a penetrometer to test the resistance of fruit. Supermarkets like fruit that is not too strong tasting, has a neutral aroma and a long shelf life. All of which can only be provided by massive use of chemicals and producing fruit that tastes of cardboard.

The saddest part of all is the impact of global food chains upon farmers, who, 50 years ago in Europe and North America received 45-60 per cent of the final price paid for food. Today it is 3.5 per cent in the US and 7 per cent in the UK. No surprise at the very high suicide rate amongst farmers.

Well we have only got to lunch and things already look pretty bad. It is easy to criticise such things, but make no mistake each of us takes a part in creating such conditions. Whether we audit a supermarkets books, train the fast food companies people, or simply buy sandwiches for lunch we are all bringing this lifestyle to Romania. So rather than harp on about how awful the government is and the futility of opposition, it might be better to begin to take responsibility for our own actions. Think global (as you are paid to) but think local. As the band World Party said in frustration at the difficulty of resisting Thatcherism: ''The only real revolution is a personal revolution''. Your choices do make a difference aside from making your conscience feel good by opting out of the global supply chain, and it will make your body feel a whole lot better too.

Andrew Taylor runs Connect-CEE, an outdoor training company.