LO EFOODhate waste

FoodCareEU's Food(bank)

Labyrinth“Dutch Food Bank” out of

balance. Welcome to food politics!

Culinary MulticulturalismA delicious view on Amsterdam’s

culinary diversity

Prosperity or Passion

An easy decision!

CONT

ENTS Prosperity or

PassionAn easy decision for the pepper farmer in Oisterwijk. An exlusive interview can be found on page 3.

FoodCare Blogazine 2011

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Culinary MulticulturalismA delicious movie on Amsterdam’s culinary diversity. Take a look into the kitchen of Amsterdam.

EU’s Food(bank) Labyrinth“Dutch Foodbank” out of balance. An attractive feature about facts and opinions on EU’s Foodbanks.

From Soil to StreetHow much food ends up in the garbage? A pictorial presentation can be found on page 9.

Importance of AgricultureHow important is Agriculture related to the increasing population? A critical feature.

From the Editor 02

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Imprint

Chief editor: Alexandra Gamst, Jennifer Pompe & Carine Wansink

News editor: Bart WeelFeature: Sjoerd SloetjesFeature: Yadigar BilginInterview: Melanie KarolewskiVideo: Gülgün Dedeçam & Juanma Fiñana Garcia

Photo Cover: Berggeist007/pixelio.de

For many peopleFor many people in Western Europe, food is a necessity not often worried or cared about. Yes, biological food is winning in popularity but is highly dependable on price. Waste management is done in Amsterdam but only in certain areas. The interest in food or food waste seems small.

For people to start caring about food, information is necessary. What happens to our food, how much is wasted, what happens to the waste and how do politics handle the problems around food? FoodCare tries to look at these topics from a journalistic perspective.

From Soil to the GroundA potatoe field, shot by Bart Weel, captured in a

photo essay about Food Waste by Jennifer Pompe

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© Mika Abey/pixelio.de03

FoodCare INTERVI EW

“Peppers are my everything, I take care of them as if they

are my own kids”

T IS IMPORTANT to know that in the South of the Nether-lands the farming industry distinguishes itself from farming in other parts of the Netherlands. Basicly because the south of the Netherlands focuses on the quality, not on the quantity. “It is not about fast production and making lots of money.

Priority is the care for food and the taste of it. This can only be achieved by teamwork, this often means good family businesses, peppers are my everything, I take care of them as if they are my own kids”.Peppers need lots of heat, so harvesting them is only possible if they are protected by either glass or plastic. “It might be possible to grow this type of pepper outside, though. How-ever, they won’t grow as fast as the market needs them.” knows Schoemakers. To get the best results, farmers sow the peppers around the end of January. The seeds need the right amount of moisture to grow the way they should, also litter and compost should be added. After the peppers are harvested they need to be checked. “We cut them with scissors, and then store them in a cool and dark place”. However, not every pepper is good enough for the market. “Of course, there is a possibility that there is a certain amount that can’t be sold due to their appearance”, says Schoemaker. “The waste goes to companies who cut the peppers in smaller pieces. Afterwards they freeze them. Even though they are depreciated, they are still useful for soups, sauces, stir-fries recipes etc”. It’s obvious this farmer is trying to do his best to waste as little as possible.To make sure Schoemakers’ peppers are recognized as honest products, he is involved with a new orga-nization, “Het groene woud”. This organization makes sure that regional biological products stay on the market and, moreover, that people will get to know the real origin of them. “We always treat the peppers with care and we want to express this to our customers. By setting up this organization we now coorporate with different growers in the area to clarify our fair trade. Many companies have joined since this organization started.”“Het groene woud” will make sure that the farms will be treated well, even though their land is wanted by a lot of people. “ I know that cropland is very popular in the Netherlands and in other countries, but we have to work together and be strong to make sure we keep excisting. I know we could make a lot of money by selling the land, but this cannot compete with our pas-sion for growing.”

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“We always treat the peppers with care and we want to

express this to our customers”

Interview with Mr. Christian Schoemakers,

a pepper farmer in Oisterwijk.By Melanie Karolewski

ProsperityorPassion

decisionAn

easy

“I know we could make a lot of money by selling the land,

but this cannot compete with our passion

for growing”

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FoodCare INTERVI EW

You have to open yourself

to accept the food

FoodCare VIDEO ESSAY

C u l i n a r y

>>W A TCH H E R E

M u l t i c u l t u r a l i s m

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A delicious movie on

Amsterdam’s culinary diversity

FoodCare VIDEO ESSAY

Eventhough Amsterdam, as The Netherlands capital city, hasn’t got a good reputation

as the world’s major cuisine, it’s well-known for its culinary multiculturalism. You

can find various cafés and restaurants that offerlight and tasty food. Amsterdam’s

cuisine provides a cultural diversity from all over the world. “You have to open yourself

to accept the food”, then you can enjoy a wide range of different delicacies.

By Gülgün Dedeçam & Juanma Fiñana Garcia

C u l i n a r y

Geen mens schijnt enig medelijden voor onze familie te kunnen opbrengen. Over letterlievendheid gesproken Geen mens schijnt enig medelijden voor onze familie te kunnen opbrengen. Over letterlievendheid gesproken…

M u l t i c u l t u r a l i s m

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© Jennifer Pompe

FoodCare FEATURE

The Dutch Food Bank’s catchy phrase on their website is: “we divide the rest.” An honourable and apparently necessary goal looking at their client base, which has tripled over the past three years. With most people applauding their methods, they have been helping poor people - with food given to them by companies - for many years. But this is all at stake now. Due to the financial crisis, which ironically also tripled their demands, the income of supplies went down drastically. They are up in arms. Welcome to food politics.

Text by Sjoerd Sloetjes

Eu's food (bank)labyrinth

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N JUNE THE Dutch Food Bank started complaining to the secretary of State (economics, agriculture and innovation)

Henk Bleker about the governments’ unwillingness to make use of the European Programme of Food Aid for the Most Deprived.

This programme, which is in big need for an abbreviation, was brought by Jacques Delors in the 1980’s and basically means that agricultural surpluses are used against poverty on European soil. These surpluses are now called intervention stocks and according to the news broadcaster NOS these stocks are good for around 500 million Euros of milk, rice, sugar and grains, annually.

Now the problem that the Food Bank so attentively points out, is that only 20 of the 27 state members make use of this programme. Holland is not one of them. “But Holland pays for it!” says Food Bank spokesperson Clara Sies when FoodCare asked for a clarification.

“If we don’t start using these supplies, the food parcels will be much smaller in 2012. Companies nowadays wait longer to give away products, so when we get the food it is often expired. Or they sell it to market salesmen. We need to start using our part of this 500 million Euros, or else we have a problem. With the help of this programme, we could hand out 50% more food.”

This all makes sense. But now the confusion starts. On the 20th of September, newspapers as Trouw, Volkskrant and de Telegraaf report

about the Council of the Europian Union (agriculture and fisheries), who sacked a plan to raise the budget of the intervention stocks from 113 to 500 million. So the budget wasn’t already 500 million? The Food Bank and the NOS were wrong? When confronted, spokesperson Clara Sies was perplexed and couldn’t give an answer.

Vice president of the Food Bank, Tom Hillemans, made a better attempt. “It is much more complicated than that,” he says, “In the 90’s, the European Commission made it possible for the Programme Food Aid for the Most Deprived, to buy food from the normal market to accommodate the need. This came on top of the intervention stocks.

Because of this, the total budget was 500 million Euros over the past years. But the Germans opposed to it in April at the European Court, claiming it was unlawful use of public money.”

The Germans were right. According to current European legislation, the Programme can only use the actual intervention stocks to divide over the countries. And for 2012 those surpluses were estimated on 113 million Euros. The European Commission came with a plan to change the legislation on the 20th of September. Eight member states blocked the proposal. Holland was one of them.

Now the Food Bank’s cry to the Dutch government seems irrelevant. Even if Holland would make use of the Programme, it would only be a small percentage of 113 million instead of 500. The EU even states

that the intervention stocks are not sustainable and will come to an end soon.

So the energy spent on using the Programme, might as well go in to finding a sustainable solution for the shortages at the Dutch Food Bank Why don’t these State Members want to help the need? The State Secretary Bleker is very clear: “Food shortages should not be a matter of concern to the EU but to the States individually.”

The fact that this comes from eight of the Ministers of agriculture is not strange. It is strange that food assistance should come from the budget of agriculture, while there is another structural fund called The European Social Fund. But what is really weird is that according to those ministers “food shortages should not be a concern to the EU”. Well, food shortages are a big matter of concern to the EU when it is not on European soil. Africa alone received 1 billion Euros from the Humanitarian Food Assistance budget in 2007. Another 1.1 billion Euros was available for acute food assistance over the period 2007 – 2010. Apparently there is a lot of money for food.

It is understandable that the Food Bank remains angry with the Dutch government. While they say food shortages should be a national matter of concern, they don’t actually step up and do something about the problem. But the real focus should be on the priorities of the EU. There still is poverty in the EU, but they only seem to have interest in feeding the people in developing countries.

FoodCare FEATURE

Eu's food (bank)labyrinth

with the help of this programme, we could hand out 50%

more food

I

it is much more complicated than

that

food shortages should not be a concern to EU

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FoodCare PHOTOESSAY

froM soiL to street

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FoodCare PHOTOESSAY

According to Valentin Thurn’s new movie “Taste the Waste” most of the food does not arrive at the market, because the product characteristic doesn’t match with our demand behavior. Also in the Netherlands we

cannot ignore the waste of food and disregard of groceries anymore. The Dutch „Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality“ estimate

in May 2010 that Dutch consumers throw away at least 8-11% of the food they buy. That is 2,4 million Euros worth of edible food, per year.

Even worse, we would only need half of the food that is wasted in Europe, to feed all starving people in the world.

A Photoessay by Jennifer Pompe

froM soiL to street

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FoodCare PHOTOESSAY

“And everything has to look just right: One withered leaf of lettuce, a crack in a potato or a dent in an apple and the goods are sorted out”. According to Friedrich Wilhelm Greafe zu Baringdorf, a farmer from Spenge in Germany, there is in the end 50% of harvest still on the field. (©Taste the Waste, pictures by Bart Weel)

A fast way to waste your food, Picture by Jennifer Pompe

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People’s leftover, Pictures by Jennifer PompeBunch of Green, Picture by Jennifer Pompeenig medelijden voor Over letterlievendheid gesproken…

Visible Traces, Picture by Jennifer Pompe

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LL OF THEM have a main export product, which is also used for feeding their own population.

A stable agriculture is therefore necessary for these coun-tries, they want to use their agriculture to be seen as politically stable.

This could be a huge problem for some small developing countries, like Pakistan. These nations have or produce not enough food, even though they see their agriculture as their major source of income. About 67% of the population lives in such rural areas and they either rely directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood. Problemati-cally about that is that agriculture is most influenced by weather and vermins.

The current technology and sci-ence are slowly implemented in the agriculture. This technology has to be used, since many farmers are under pressure of pro-ducing more food even faster. This means that they should increase their quantity of products on the same piece of land.

The United Nations Food and Cul-ture reports that there has been a decline in the quantity of food pro-

duced per capita since 1984, based on cereal grains. Grains make 80% of the world’s food supply.

The world’s population is grow-ing, which means that there has to be more food. Rice, for example is eaten by two-third of the world.

The more people, the more food is needed and the more pressure on farmers. Also, with US $1 it might not even be possible to improve agriculture. However, a report from 2007 (Srinivasan et al, 2007; Landes and Gulati, 2004) stressed that invest-ment in agriculture sector has in-creased to try to solve the problem of hunger and poverty.

The “Population Reference Bureau” indicates that a number of 250.000 people are added every day to the estimated 6.9 billion.

In addition you would say that the amount of food production should increase with the same amount. Unfortunately, the planet has no more arable land or fresh water to spare.

FoodCare FEATURE

The Importance of Ag ric u ltu reA primary requirement of any nation is to provide enough food to feed their own population. An economy can be called stable when their food culture ensures the food security. Many countries,

like Sub-Saharan African countries, have a huge economy based on Agriculture.

ABy Yadikar Bilgin

417 million people living in agriculture-based

countries

Global population has doubled during the

last 45 years.

170 million of whom live on less than US $1 a day.

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FoodCare FEATURE

14©Bart Weel