France, Alternative Libertaire AL #227 - Food industry: They take us for oxen (fr)

Scandal horse meat, hidden back animal meal ... The agro-industry is not left to occupy 
the media scene. We are dealing with isolated incidents or a real industrial system in 
place? In all cases, the losers are the producers and populations. ---- The scandal broke 
horse meat first in the UK in January, where traces of DNA horse are found in frozen 
hamburgers. It actually comes from an additive hyper-protein powder made from animal 
carcasses in which there is the horse. This additive is intended to lower the cost of 
meat. It comprises 30% of steaks implicated. Then, the case landed in France, where we 
discover a number of intermediaries and kilometers unthinkable. The Findus Group (based in 
Sweden) outsourced manufacturing flat in Luxembourg factory Tavola Comigel subsidiary 
(located in Metz), supplied by the importer Spanghero (installed Castelnaudary), which 
acquired the frozen meat with a Cypriot trader, he had subcontracted the order to a trader 
located in the Netherlands - the latter being provided with a slaughterhouse and a cutting 
located in Romania.

The peasantry in the bottom

So the industry will stop at nothing to increase his profits: degradation of our food, 
purchase of raw materials at the lowest price, aberrant transport ... At the expense of 
consumers and consumers, farmers and peasants. The logic of profit structure the entire 
industry and is the source of all these scandals. A more rigorous traceability does not 
call into question the operation because it does not change the operation of the food 
industry. The problem is their existence.

The peasants, Romania as France, their incomes melt the benefit of industry. The 
concentration of agricultural cooperatives - which have become multinational in the final 
quasi-monopoly - was a disaster for farmers and breeders, placing them in a situation of 
dependence. They are caught in a spiral of debt to increase farm productivity and face a 
steady decline in the purchase price of their production.

The nearby railing drifts

Many farms disappear unable to bear margins increasingly reduced. The industrialization of 
farming only benefits agribusiness and encourages specialization of production by country. 
The cattle in western France suffered the brunt of this industrial development. The large 
number of struggles against cooperatives can attest.

The relocation of the diversity of agricultural production and food self-sufficiency are 
the only elements that assure consumers and consumers with quality food and Producers 
decent income. We must implement a genuine agrarian reform on the distribution of land to 
develop a variety of production on small farms and a significant change in the modes of 
production. Proximity is a guarantee of quality control products. The organization of 
production and distribution structure must be built around a central idea: planning. In 
this way, we remove parasites and competition intermediaries. It is the farmers and 
peasants, and the public that it is the right to control the power.

Georges Claas, peasant