Food fights

Some of the world's most bitter conflicts have nothing to do with access to resources, ethnic chauvinism or the balance of power, but with food, says the Foreign Policy magazine.

Eggplant:
 

• In October, the Indian government gave its first approval to a genetically modified food, "Bt brinjal" – an eggplant bioengineered by agro-giant Monsanto to resist certain insects.
   
• But a widely circulated independent study showed that Bt brinjal has fewer calories than traditional eggplant and gave lab rats diarrhoea.
   
• Indian environmentalists and farmers took to the streets in protest, dressing in eggplant costumes and burning eggplants in effigy.
   
• In February, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh temporarily halted the rollout of the modified veggie pending a government investigation.
  
  Whale meat:
   
• Since 1987, the International Whaling Commission has allowed Japan to send a small fleet of vessels to catch a maximum of 1,035 whales in Antarctic waters each year.
   
• And each year, activists attempt to stop the slaughter, doing everything from throwing rancid butter at the whalers to making noises to scare away the marine mammals.
   
• This year, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that "diplomacy [has come] to an end" and threatened to sue Japan in the International Criminal Court unless it suspended its hunt.
  
  Caviar:
   
• Overzealous fishing has wiped out the sturgeon that produce this prized roe in the Adriatic and Azov seas.
   
• Russia and Kazakhstan claim that Caspian hatcheries will make up the shortfall.
   
• But in a comprehensive study of sturgeon released in February, scientists vehemently disagreed.
   
• Stony Brook University researchers say the countries need to cut their yearly catch by 80 per cent – or caviar will go from rare to nonexistent.
  
  Escolar:
   
• The escolar, a member of the mackerel family, has fatty, sweet, firm, white flesh and healthy stocks.
   
• U.S. seafood companies started marketing it to restaurants aggressively in recent years, and it popped up on menus under the aliases "white tuna" and "butterfish."
   
• But humans cannot digest the wax esters that make escolar so tasty, giving some eaters serious gastrointestinal problems.
   
• Food bloggers and journalists in Hawaii – where most of the fish is caught and sold – led a campaign to ban it, and lawmakers introduced a bill to do so this year.
  
  Source: Annie Lowrey, Food Fights, Foreign Policy Magazine, May/June 2010.
  
  For text: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/26/food_fights
  
  For more on International Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=26
  
  First published by the National Center for Policy Analysis, United States
  
  FMF Policy Bulletin/ 06 July 2010