Telling lies over the abyss
Food security was as popular a trend about 20 years ago as energy independence is now – the talk of the town indeed. There was not a forum, a summit, or a meeting with big shots on the stage, where there were no calls for national producers to cultivate, breed, and plant so that people were well-fed and the country was wealthy. But, as usual, things went awry. In all probability, the national producer began to care about his personal security more than ever before, and the food subject has receded to the background. The sources and vectors of dangers have also changed. We are no longer afraid of Western capital which will demand that we join NATO in exchange for chicken wings and legs. Nor are we fearful of the Chinese capital which is prepared to give us money for striking deals with what once was Celestial Empire. It is now time to tremble with the fear of food as such.
A natural need for daily bread turned into a test of the moral and physical qualities of people in the global food sector. No matter where sausages, sour creams, condensed milks, and pastes may be coming from, they all pose a potential threat to the life of people. Western sources estimate that two to three million people die annually from food poisoning, and 120-150 billion dollars are spent on healing food-affected stomachs. Of course, we do not have this kind of statistics. We can only judge about the scale of an alimentary tragedy by news bulletins and the names of projects and commissions that occur in the press. As the press prefers to cover the sensational instances of the collective eating of poisonous mushrooms and pathogenic-germ rissoles, let us focus on everyday life things.
Healthy eating in Ukrainian conditions can be achieved it two ways: to stand all day long by the kitchen stove after buying fresh integrative foodstuffs, such as milk, meat, fish, and vegetables, or to hire a cook without nasty habits. Naturally, in the latter case, the household must have money to spare. All the other options will not save you from disappointments, diarrhea, and running your liver and kidneys at the peak of installed power. The sausage field is mined with ersatzes. Rivers of milk are crawling with palm monsters, and you can bump into a horned devil in the shape of ravioli in the forest of semi-finished goods. Even if you arm yourself with a powerful lens to read about the product’s ingredients, you will not spot the enemy hidden behind the wrapping. An antipode lurks under a nice-looking natural juice guise. A bottle with a label of grape wine in fact contains a liquid from beetroot fields, et cetera, as my teachers used to say in the times of my natural product youth.
How can one survive in a sea of never-ending food reefs? Where can one seek the truth and exercise the right of food self-defense?
At first glance, this country does have the ones who are supposed to stand guard over the shores of bread and the rivers of milk, for example, the State Inspection for Consumer Rights Protection and nonprofit committees of the same name… There are agencies galore, but they do not perform their functions. You will see this once you’ve bought a suspicious summer sausage in a supermarket. If you poke the salespersons with this baton, they will refer you to the producer if they have not yet changed the sell-by date. If you live in a district center of one region, reaching the commodity producer from another Ukrainian “hemisphere” is tantamount to discovering America. Shall we rush to the consumer honor and dignity committee? They will ask you: “What are you exactly displeased with, sir (comrade)? The sausage, cash memos, and sell-by dates are OK. And we can’t be held accountable for tastes. If you want to have it tested, please do so.” And then it suddenly appears that it is either impossible to impartially check the sausage with proper test equipment, or it is possible for legal entities only, or it is expensive, or a combinations of all these things. But if you are very stubborn and not very stingy, please pay 2,000 hryvnias and see that the producer has exceeded the content of starch. Sue him and add another three or five thousand hryvnias of legal costs to your “curiosity bill.” Or you don’t know that, before complaining about the producing company, you should first obtain disability status?
Unwittingly, the algae of bureaucracy brought to a halt the Ukrainian frigate that patrols the borders of peaceful food life. The mighty trend of the last century’s end has transformed into the food security of our neighbors. Europe is subsidizing us so that we start at last the motors of governmental and civic control. Russia closes its borders at the slightest sign of danger. Belarus, as well as some other friendly countries, is seizing an opportunity to dilute its ersatzes in our vast sea. They are all set.
Why have we become like this? Why has a centuries-old culture of healthy and diversified eating in a unique fertile agrarian country turned into a mass-scale consumption of semi-synthetic food?
Many are perhaps inclined to search for culprits in the offices where MPs and ministers dwell. And they are right to choose this address. But it is not only the eternal fall guys of this system who bear the blame for common woes. Ersatz sausage destroys some but makes others rich and happy. The cheaper the product is, the more commercial benefit it fetches, and the more often it balances on the verge of a dangerous abyss. Should standards give way a little, everything will fly into the chasm of evil.
Who then produces substandard foodstuffs for us? The specialist who adds too many thickeners, preservatives, and coloring agents? No, he just follows the product engineer’s instructions. But the product engineer is not to blame, either, because he also follows the cost calculation and his boss’s instructions. Do you think the manager is behind all this? But you just ask him why natural components are being replaced by additives and fillers. He will reveal to you the secret of business. If he acts differently, the price will skyrocket, the sale-by date will come closer, and the enterprise will not withstand competition. Then the people who throw what is inedible into the hopper will remain jobless. This means the producers who are still afloat will have to “scheme” more, putting out the goods accessible to the populace. So making inedible things in our conditions is a rite of mercy. Does the state really need to cast a stern eye over this? It is enough just to take an occasional look. For the main underminer of the country’s food security is poverty of the population. It forces one to balance over the abyss and lie to oneself by painting the mythical beauty of Ukrainian gastronomy with advertising frescos. According to the IFC Ukraine Food Safety Project launched by the Europeans in collaboration with our governmental bodies, only one hundredth of the 12,000 foodstuff-producing businesses has adopted the system of European safety guarantees. Alas, many businesses are just unable to upgrade their facilities in line with EU standards due to low cost effectiveness and unpredictable demand in the future. For if even we, consumers, do not know what and how much we will buy for our breakfasts and lunches next month, what can we say about the producer’s plans? He has long been working on order, that’s all.
