Last night I had a great night. After talking to my fourteen-year-old son for years about the importance of eating quality food, I decided it was time for him to watch Food, Inc. I had tempered my expectations. I even imagined that he would beg to turn it off after just 10 or 15 minutes – not because of the disturbing images … but because he’s a teen, and he might get bored. To my pleasant surprise he watched the whole thing, and he even stopped it several times to ask some questions. After watching it he summed up his thoughts with, “it really shows us just how bad our food is treated” and he made a personal commitment to try to eat less processed foods. Wow, I couldn’t be happier!
Then this morning I fired up my computer to read my various news feeds. When I came across this article in Fast Company entitled Nestlé Chairman Skeptical Of Growth In Organic Food Market my blood started to boil. Please, if you read nothing else today, read this article. In it Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board of Nestlé, basically dismisses the organic, slow food movement by saying “it’s a privilege. We also have to think of the world food supply.” I’m sorry Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe, the movement is about the world food supply and fixing the mess that he and other processed food companies of the world have created! And is it a privilege to have good, nutritious food? I say NO! Everyone has a right to real, delicious food vs. the manufactured, empty-nutrition, high-caloried crap that most processed food companies churn out.
Am I disappointed that the real food movement is so casually disregarded by the chairman of the world’s largest food company? — Yes! Am I surprised? To be honest — Not really. Despite their slogan “Good Food, Good Life” Nestlé has quite an infamous track record, and it’s known internationally for putting profits ahead of nutrition. Remember how they showed careless disregard for infants by pushing their own formula over safer, more nutritious breast-milk? Yes, it appears that same domineering, self-righteous attitude towards food still prevails.
So what does this mean? Well certainly the battle for better food is not over. Fighting for greater transparency of the quality of our food supply is one of my passions. That’s why I write this blog. It’s also why I wrote my novel, FAT PROFIT$, a thriller about a BIG food company that will stop at nothing to fatten its profits. You see I figure that there are lots of different ways to get the word out, and as a real-life, food-industry insider, I can offer an authentic voice to the call for better food.
But … what do you think? If you agree that real food is an important cause worth fighting for, help me out. Friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, sign up for my email blog feed, and make lots comments on my posts. Then please share my blog, Facebook page, and tweets with friends to help me get the word out. I promise — you won’t be disappointed! As a former marketer with some of the biggest food companies in the world, I will share with you the many tricks and ploys processed food companies use to convince you their food is healthy. Also, in the coming weeks I will be releasing a preview of my novel, FAT PROFIT$. Facebook friends, email subscribers, and Twitter followers will all get first dibs to check out why a very well-respected, influential editor called it “an epic novel … [that’s] an important political weapon without being a repetitious non-fiction exposé.” I hope you will agree my blog and novel are worth your time … but you’ll never know if you don’t climb on board!
As always, thanks for reading my blog and for caring about real food!
Bruce Bradley
3 Responses
I am not surprised that the chairman of Nestle is dismissive of real food. It is offensive to me that he thinks people are too ignorant to wash their produce before they eat it. I seem to recall that bagged spinach, prewashed lettuce, processed meats have been in the news the most when it comes to food borne illnesses.
I first encountered the idea of sustainable agriculture in the movie Food Inc, with the memorable Joel Salatin from Polyface farms. Surely there are more farmers who would be willing to try a smaller, more sustainable model with government backing and incentives.
I also think it offensive that he claims that feeding the world requires an industrialized model. The industrialization of agriculture is ruining the very land we need to preserve in order to be able to feed our people. Why turn wetlands and prairies into monocrops that decrease biodiversity and sustainablility of the land.
Governments have the moral obligation to point out that there could be a better way- and then at least try it.
Yes, I totally agree. Some argue sustainable agriculture won’t be able to feed our 7Billion+ population, yet somehow farming unsustainably will. Under our current industrialize system, our farmlands are being used-up, and will become unproductive over time. Then where will we be?
The truth is corporate farms really aren’t worried about tomorrow. Corporations have proved that in all different industries. They make their buck today and are gone tomorrow. We can’t afford such mismanagement in the world of food.
The best defense is a good offense. Can slow food take a stand against this? My son (he’s almost 18 now) has slowly shifted to an organic paradigm far more easily and at at far younger age than I. That, in my opinion, is reason to hope.
It’s taken my living through the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and Aughts and beginning to suffer horribly from the onslaught of predatory marketing on all fronts in order for my son to begin from an enlightened place. Food, employment, credit, banking, transportation, energy… in every market larger than local the preferred business model is unbridled predation.
But I’m pissed now. How does one fight a war with liars of this incredibly perverted caliber? I don’t have a solution for an ideal such as American Profiteering at any cost. Anarchy solves nothing.
I’m not a very good writer so please forgive if this is hard to read. Thanks for the blog Mr. Bradley. I wish more people would step from the “inside” to the sunlight of the spirit and help the rest of us out a little.
Mike
Los Angeles