Food as a public service, like education and health because they are basic needs that should not be left in the hands of private individuals.
If during the years of agricultural bounty, linked to the availability of fossil energy, food markets did not guarantee sufficient income for a large part of the peasantry, what will happen now that we enter the time of scarcity? If during these years the markets did not guarantee food for many people in the world, what will happen now?
What we are seeing is a relentless food inflation that increases the number of people who are unable to satisfy their basic needs with sufficient and healthy food, while the closure of many agricultural and livestock farms continues unabated. And it is that the responses of the administrations – lowering the VAT on food, the food voucher or rescues for the most affected sectors of the peasantry –, in addition to being insufficient, do not point to the place where we have the problem: the food markets.
Although we say that we live under a capitalist and free market economy, this is not entirely correct. As a society we have agreed that fundamental issues for life, such as health and education, have to be guaranteed with public systems, that is: regulated, controlled, planned, intervened… put the verbs that you consider, that work outside of speculation, privatizations or corporate controls.
Right to health and education, including food
We all have the right to receive health care and education, whether we have money or not. And the people who offer us these services have their salary guaranteed without jumping into the waters of productivism, intensification, competitiveness…
On the other hand, we treat food, another basic right, as a simple commodity and leave it in the hands of speculative markets, with what that means both for consumers and producers, as well as for the territory.
It is necessary to propose models of guaranteed food markets in the public domain. In Australia, where two supermarket chains control 65% of the market, there is talk of creating a public supermarket chain.
In France, a group of organizations advocates the need to launch a Food Social Security. Just as we can go to the doctor with a health card, this model proposes that everyone has a card with a certain value for basic food that can be exchanged in establishments that, with seasonal, local food and regulated prices, want to be part of of this public system.
In Catalonia, these markets planned for the common good can start with agreements with the cooperative world and with the social and solidarity economy, which is very mature in this sense.
A powerful network of consumer cooperatives or cooperative supermarkets for all neighborhoods and cities, where food prices are negotiated fairly and transparently with the closest producers, is not difficult to promote to ensure food for all.
This planning in the food supply will mean, on the one hand, lower energy expenditure and less impact on ecosystems and, on the other hand, more local peasantry and resilience in the face of the scarcity crisis.