1. Our food system is currently regulated and controlled in many different ways. There are
laws that control the production and sale of foods; voluntary agreements by producers
and retailers; consumer pressure groups; and the attitudes of shoppers themselves - all
these shape the way food is produced, sold and consumed. For generations, these
different forms of regulation and pressure have all influenced the way food producers
meet the needs of society. In the 1800s, for example, food laws were passed
to stop producers from ‘adulterating’ food – i.e. mixing cheap, fake
ingredients into products to fool the customer. Before these laws were
FOOD AND
REGULATION

2. put into place, some tea sellers, for instance, would bulk out their tea with dried leaves
from local trees, and spice sellers would mix into ground pepper generous helpings of
floor sweepings.
Shortages
In the 20th century, one of Europe’s main concerns was producing enough food to feed
people. Food shortages during WWII, for instance, had a major affect within Europe on
the rules governing food production and food consumption. Governments specified
what foods farmers could grow and how much food people were allowed to consume.
Trading places
Governments around the world often try to protect farmers in their own countries by
limiting how much food can be imported. Farms in Europe are affected by the Common
Agricultural Policy (or the CAP). After European nations suffered great food shortages
during WWII, European governments established the CAP to encourage their farmers to
produce more food. The scheme gave farmers government subsidies (or extra
payments) to pay for the cost of the food they produced and to help them maintain a
good standard of living. By encouraging farmers to produce more goods, the CAP has
had the affect in the past of causing some products to be overproduced. This can cause
the market to be flooded with particular products, and that in turn can lower prices on
the world market. This situation can make life particularly difficult for farmers in
developing countries – most of whom do not receive subsidies and must compete with
the cheap goods produced in the West. In recent years, organisations like Fairtrade have
been working to ensuring that farmers in the developing world are paid a fair wage for
their products.
Defining and protecting
In some countries, certain foods are defined and regulated by laws, making sure that
they cannot be copied and that standards of production are maintained. France, for
example, has a system which strictly regulates how wines, spirits, certain cheeses and
other foods are produced and branded. 1In today’s age of biotechnology, gene
patenting is an important and controversial issue. Patents have been taken out on plant
varieties, microorganisms and genes. Since patenting is very expensive, it is
often carried out by corporations in industrialised countries, often on
plants found in the developing world. Some people see this as “bio-

3. piracy”. When in 1998 an American company patented a strain of rice very similar to
Indian basmati, the Indian government fought against it and the patent was revoked.
Confident or conned?
As UK consumers, the foods we eat are regulated by rules. Chocolate, for example, must
contain a minimum amount of cocoa solids. Debate rages as to whether the
government, the food industry or individual consumers should control what people eat.
Some believe that the government has a duty to restrict foods that are unhealthy,
particularly those foods that are bad for children. Others believe that consumers should
be allowed to make their own choices about the foods they consume. There are huge
debates about the kind of information that should be available on food labels. The risks
associated with particular foods, and trends in eating are often very complicated and
difficult to decipher. Food companies spend large sums of money every year advertising
their products. The government spends considerably less on promoting healthy eating.
Who do you believe is best placed to determine what children should be allowed to eat?
Safe to eat?
During the mid-1980s the UK saw an outbreak of BSE, or 'Mad Cow Disease'. The disease
was spread by feeding meat and bone meal (MBM) to cows. The Foot and Mouth crisis
which took place in 2001 in the UK caused some 10 million animals to be slaughtered.
This prompted an urgent inquiry from the government into the modern food system
(The Curry Commission). Today, there are real worries about bird flu, the spread of
which has been linked to the rise of intensive poultry farming.