Food politics: striving for a radical social critique or just looking for a good lunch?

The enormous interest that exists today in food preparation, sophisticated recipes, ethnic cuisine, health food, celebrity chefs, organic produce, café culture, and eating in general has given us the word ‘foodie’ to describe the food-obsessed amateur gourmet. Along with this burgeoning food fascination has come the rise of food politics. This is a very different politics from the disquiet about Third World hunger which seemed so widespread in the 1970s and early 1980s. Today, in the wealthy countries of the world, that concern with justice for others appears to have given way to a concern with the food we ourselves consume.

A shock to the ecosystem: Neoliberalism and the environment

In the past 25 years, neoliberalism has become economic orthodoxy. In that time, as James McCarthy and Scott Prudham have written, neoliberalism’s “political and ideological projects have successfully masqueraded as a set of objective, natural, and technocratic truisms” (p.276).

Indeed, so pervasively institutionalised have the values of neoliberalism become that it almost seems a throwback to the 1990s even to write about it critically, at least in the New Zealand context that is most familiar to me. Here, as elsewhere, both the dominant political parties – Labour (nominally social democratic) and National (conservative) – support a neoliberal agenda, and all that it entails, in what amounts to a tacit ‘grand coalition’ in a number of policy areas.

In this article I look at the impact of neoliberalism on the environment through both the roll-back of the state and the roll-out of neoliberal policies, taking some examples from recent New Zealand experience.

Carbon markets: Trading in ignorance

Are tradeable emission credits, offset schemes and carbon markets the way to solve the climate crisis? Do such markets demonstrate how ‘environment’ and ‘development’ can be combined into ‘green capitalism’? In a carefully argued deconstruction of the carbon market fiction, Larry Lohmann explains how such markets effectively conceal and undermine “the knowledge and analysis needed to respond to global warming.”

In his article, Lohmann provides examples of the wilful ignorance inherent in carbon markets. The following is my summary of these ‘10 ways in which carbon markets create ignorance’.

The World According to Monsanto

The World According to Monsanto is a documentary that dissects the evil that is Monsanto. Evil is a very strong word, but I don’t know a better one. Watch for yourself and judge if I’ve been too harsh. It makes for fascinating, if grim, viewing, and is available to watch free on the web. Be warned - it will most likely make you feel angry and radical.

The Green Party and the environmental movement in New Zealand

A recent editorial in the New Zealand Herald (4 June 2008 ) offers the Green Party some advice on political positioning:

Despite their durability, the Greens should be a stronger party in this country. Environmental values are widely held and can offer a political identity outside the normal social divide. The party in our Parliament, however, has not offered a separate identity, it adheres to a left-wing view of environmentalism, opposed to free trade, preferring public ownership to private property, distracted by issues it calls social justice.

A broader Green Party would build some conservation projects on private property rights and recognise the power of market forces to ensure resources are used sustainably. A party of that stamp would draw support from across the spectrum and could contemplate dealings with any government.

The Green Party needs to move out of left field and become a central player.

It’s not first time I’ve seen this complaint in the Herald (here’s another example). But one might easily be led to suspect the Herald’s motives in freely offering its counsel to the Greens, given the newspaper’s tendency toward unreconstructed neoliberalism (which might just explain the emphasis on private property rights and market forces, and the dismissal of social justice concerns in the above quote).

However, the frequency with which I have heard similar complaints from environmentalists, conservationists and even, at times, some party members suggests that it is not just editorial writers who have failed to grasp something quite fundamental about ecopolitics.

On the origin of specious(ness)

A recent study of environmentally sceptical books gives a fascinating glimpse behind the wall of denial that has been constructed in these publications. Peter Jacques, Riley Dunlap and Mark Freeman, the authors of the study, characterise this environmental scepticism as:

- the denial of the significance and even the authenticity of environmental problems

- the questioning of environmentally protective policies and a promotion of anti-regulatory policies

- the suggestion that environmental protection threatens western ‘progress’.

Compiled on the basis of these criteria, the “sceptics’ reading list” comprises 141 books published in English and appearing between 1972 and 2005.

The unequal cost of climate change inaction

Climate change is inescapably a social justice issue. It’s not just about how much climate change will cost the global economy, it’s also about who will pay that price. Rich-nation inaction on climate change will most likely condemn many of the world’s poor to continuing poverty, homelessness and even death. We pollute, they pay.

Two studies released by GDAE at Tufts University illustrate the highly unequal economic and human implications of climate change inaction.

The Carbon Connection

Greens around the world are exhorting governments to take action on climate change. But in encouraging this action, we are also responsible for ensuring that it is both meaningful and just. The theme of climate justice is central to the 40-minute documentary The Carbon Connection (available for free viewing here).

Still looking for the light switch: The mathematics of climate change and what it means for climate change politics

One of the most extraordinary things about the equations that describe planetary motion is that they allow us to predict the positions of the planets in the future. We can forecast solar and lunar eclipses with great accuracy. Furthermore, small deviations from predictions allowed astronomers to guess the existence of the previously unknown planets Uranus and Neptune. This predictive power is very impressive – and therefore very, very beguiling. In a complex and messy world, we like being able to predict things.

As a consequence, as David Orrell describes in his book Apollo’s arrow, Newton’s great achievement has led modern western society and most of its practising scientists to believe that all other natural phenomena also can be described mathematically and, more importantly, accurately predicted.

Risks and scenarios - are we heading for a political “perfect storm”?

Further to Be careful what you wish for:

Brian Fallow from the New Zealand Herald writes about the fiscal risks facing the New Zealand Government.

The chapter on ‘Risks and Scenarios” from the Budget Economic & Fiscal Update 2008 makes for interesting reading too.

What worries me is that we might be heading for a political “perfect storm”: A right-wing (National) government, governing without the encumbrance of coalition partners, facing a recession and a (tax-cut caused) fiscal crisis, amplified by an Exchange Rate crisis (forcing interest rate rises that compound the recession) etc…in such circumstances I’d be willing to bet on deep and extensive privatisation of State assets (education, health, water, Kiwibank); benefit system “restructuring” (i.e. cuts); and other expenditure cuts (e.g health, education, social services).

Throw in a couple of extreme weather events, and given the level of our external debt, we might end up on the phone to the IMF begging for structural readjustment.

Let’s hope not!