To food labels, and beyond!

 The below is one I posted last night, in response to an Hereford Times reader's letter response to the HT's 'Buy British' campaign.

Hereford Times: It's apple season,
so let's buy British!

Dear Letters Editor

Writing regarding the importance of buying locally sourced food, Elizabeth Gwynne points out that packaging of th supposedly ‘farm fresh’ produce for a cauliflower she bought in a country shop was labelled ‘Country of Origin: Poland’ and notes, “Presumably the wages of those working on the land there, producing mushrooms, are so low that despite the costs of flight etc, the UK business people can still retail at a profit.” (Letters, October 15.)

Julian Day Rose’s book ‘In Deference of Life’ gives a detailed analysis of such trading practices with a special focus on Poland. Before Poland exited the Warsaw Pact, Polish farming served local communities, yet Poland’s debt crisis on exiting the Soviet empire led to a restructuring of the Polish economy. 'Structural adjustment’ directives of the International Monetary Fund, and the ‘bail out’ terms of the World Bank and European Central Bank and their economic principles were culpable. A reviewer writes: “Rose is critical of Europe’s subsidy system and the way it pays per hectare regardless of farm size, favouring big farms. He goes to the heart of what it means for farmers on Europe’s new industrial frontier – Poland – describing his personal battles to stop small farmers there being driven out of business...

"Whilst no fan of Europe, he is equally critical of the UK which 'thinks it clever to copy the United States' he says, and 'apply Ford motor company principles to the management of sentient livestock.'"(1)

A reason there are so many Polish workers in the UK, as a Social Researcher and ‘critical friend’ of the EU told me, is basically because of what the West did to the Polish economy as it leapt to the West.

Yet there is or was more hope for a small-scale and local future for farming in the UK by remaining in the EU than by the vulnerability associated with Brexit, a nonproportional electoral system and ‘"whatever next?" terms and conditions’ — especially post Covid-19 lockdown! The Head of the World Bank now says, “[P]eople, even the world’s poorest and most destitute, are required to pay their government’s debts as long as creditors pursue claims.. In the worst cases, it’s the modern equivalent of debtor’s prison.” As Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now writes: "If the head of the World Bank can call the global financial system a ‘debtors’ prison’ anything is possible."(2)

I believe international co-operation and democratic transformation from within trading blocs is key.

Alan Raymond Wheatley
Notes
(1) https://www.ciwf.org.uk/philip-lymbery/blog/2015/05/book-review-in-defence-of-life-by-julian-day-rose
(2)  https://newint.org/features/2020/10/14/official-global-economy-debtors-prison

Democratic intervention on UK trade deals

Luke Cooper of Another Europe is Possible writes me:

Dear Alan,

Do you believe Parliament should get a vote on Johnson’s trade deal with Trump? You might even think it's automatic. But you’d be wrong. There is no automatic right of Parliament to vote on a US or any other trade deal. In fact, Parliament has very few rights over what the British government does in foreign policy at all. Worse still, for years the UK has taken positions ‘in our name’ in the EU with very little democratic control. It’s fed euroscepticism - the mistaken belief that the EU does things to us and we never get a say of our own. That’s why we’ve launched the ‘Not In Our Name’ principle today. It’s a simple idea to strengthen our democracy with three basic steps. First, end the extreme secrecy in what position UK negotiators take internationally. Second, give Parliament the right to mandate British the government to take particular positions in international negotiations. Third, give Parliament the right to a final say on signing international treaties.

Find out more: read our briefing note here

Can you help us get the word out? Write to your candidates in the general election today.

Click here to write to your candidates

In solidarity,

Luke Cooper
Another Europe Is Possible

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