Lobbiysm: The food industry.

    

Let’s make it clear: The world food situation is ambivalent. On the one hand more than 800 million people suffering hunger and nearly 2/3 of them living in the poor global south. On the other hand a lot of industry states, for example the USA or countries in Europe, have problems with their health because of wrong food, too much sugar in products or just because they don’t know how to eat healthy. Not to know what is healthy for your body and furthermore not know in which dimension products are easy to consume limits the possibilities of consuming and also provides the fact for an elucidate of a balanced diet through different institutions. Two fields flank that process: The food industry, its rules, behavior and principles as well as consumer’s faith, acting and the inherent imagination of being under control by the food industry.

The food industry is an industry with a huge impact in politics. In the European Union organizations and associations (for example Food and Drink Europe) try to get influence in decision making of the parliament, actions by individual player or processes between areas which depend on each others. The power of the industry is influential and concentrated on huge player, which were successful in stopping the food traffic light labelling, which should signal if a product is healthy or not. Of course it’s possible to mention lots of more examples by which the industry intervene. However the important point refers to the possibility of the food industry in doing so which means to have a legal framework which allows manipulating the political process. This framework contains special norms, conventions, symbols and also a collective awareness about the manipulating practice. One reason because the industry manipulates the political process results from the products the industry´s offering. The company Nestle for example sells their Cereals as a “delicious breakfast (…) made with whole grain” – this suggests being a healthy meal although there are a lot of unhealthy ingredients in it.

The industry arguments it is not necessary to implement such an instrument because the consumer has the skills as well as the knowledge to get to a decision by himself. So the consumer realizes which product is healthy and which he shouldn’t eat that much. In order to benefit and to maximize the profit the food industry presents itself as a non-guilty, transparent and honest global player. In this connection companies also try to declare themselves as a victim of requirements and desires. This means they are just answering and fulfilling the imagination the consumer wants.

By considering these facts it is necessary to mention the projects by the non government organization LobbyControl. The projects deal with issues all about lobbyism in Brussel, where the European policy is made. With this it seems possible watching how much companies are trying to influence Member of Parliament, the Parliament and so on. It won’t change the influence, but it communicates a feeling of transparency in a nontransparent event.