The reason that SWEFM first came into existence was to
create a vehicle for community. What the
original organizers very quickly came
to realize was that a farmer’s market was a perfect setting in which people
could come together, form valuable connections with each other, meaningful
connections with their food and with the artisans who created beautiful items,
and connections with their local community. Not only could they support the
local economy with their purchases, the people who came to the market could
also support each other.
In our neck of the woods, bursting to the seams as it is
with young families, it also became a perfect place for families to come
together and to spend time with each other, building memories and a history of
shared experiences. Add to that fun & tasty reasons to stay there for a
long time… from the food trucks to the balloon busker, from the face painter and
musical buskers to the huge inflatable slide, from the tempting produce to the
delicious take-home baking… and it soon became obvious to many that our
farmers’ market had become a destination.
In that vein, we are planning an exciting new kids’ program
this year… one that will support your
efforts as parents to teach your kids how
to embrace a healthy, nutritious and fun approach to their food. More details
will follow soon as we’re working very hard to get grants lined up and
sponsorships in place. Know that it will encourage your children to try and to eat
healthy fruits and vegetables. Know that it is something that will help to
support you, as a parent, in your efforts to raise your children in a healthy,
nutritious environment. Know that it will empower them to make good choices in
their young lives.
Lately I have been catching up on a few podcasts that I
enjoy listening to, and back in December, CBC aired an episode of “Ideas” that
I found absolutely fascinating. In it, Jill Eisen explored the politics,
economics and science of overeating. It was called “Stuffed Part 1” and you can
follow this link to listen to the entire episode (I highly recommend listening
to it in its entirety)… CBC-Ideas
with Paul Kennedy “Stuffed, Part 1,” by Jill Eisen
What I have learned there, about the ways that marketers of
processed food reach out and ensnare the appetites, attention and focus of us..
and even more alarmingly, of our children… is extremely fascinating. I thought
I’d share a few of their findings here… some of these things you may already
know, but some you may find surprising:
1)
The more we process food, the less nutritious it
becomes.
2)
The more we process food, the more energy-dense
it becomes (think higher in calories per bite or sip and lower in fiber, antioxidants
and a whole lot of other vitamins and nutrients). In 1970, 3200 calories a day
were purchased by the average person in the US. By 1990, that number rose to
3900 calories per day…. This represents way more calories than a normal person
should consume in an day.
3)
Processing foods has made food products highly
attractive to us as it adds sugar, fat and salt for taste and preservative
reasons… we are, afterall, creatures that have evolved to love and crave salt,
fat & sugar. Evolutionarily speaking, foods high in sugar, especially in
the form of refined carbohydrates, allow us to get glucose into the blood
stream faster, and that, in turn, equips our bodies for the flight or fright
survival instincts with which we are better apt to survive. We are wired to
crave it.
4)
Grain is the basis (whether through sugar or
oil) of most processed foods. When governments began subsidizing grain-based
foods (think anything with high fructose corn syrup… items such as pops, snack
foods, breads & pastries) and doing nothing for the healthier foods
(produce such as raw fruits & vegetables & legumes), a flood of
calories saturated the grocery store shelves, and these unhealthy products also
came to those shelves at a very low, very attractive price point.
5)
Since 1980, thanks in part to this
subsidization, there was a huge oversupply and saturation of the market in
processed, grain-based foods. We humans are nothing if not clever and quick to
seize an opportunity to turn a profit, and manufacturers and inventors came up
with brilliant ways to make new foods out of these cheaper, subsidized food
sources. The end result was that the price of produce went up 40% while the
cost of pop went down 7%. So government policy has supported the grain-based
foods at the expense of healthier, whole foods like fruits and veggies.
6)
As a result, there was a growing disparity in
the price between what can be loosely called healthy whole foods and their
unhealthy processed food counterparts.
7)
Our eating follows the dollar very closely.
8)
When Reagan came into power in the US, he
brought with him a sweeping deregulatory agenda. And one of the things that was
deregulated was marketing… and in particular, marketing to children (how it
could happen, when it could happen, where it could happen, and how often it
could happen).
9)
At the same time (post baby boom), food
companies had to find new markets for their products… with the North American
population remaining relatively stable, the only way they could meet growth and
profitability targets was to find new markets, and to encourage us to consume
more of their products.
10)
Children were that new market, and the
deregulation atmosphere changed things significantly. Food marketing has always
been directed to children, but it changed significantly in the 1980’s to be a
deliberate & direct focus of advertisers: they put cartoons on food
packages, increased the number of times that children’s food commercials aired
on television and increasingly put marketing in the places where children are
(eg. at eye level in the grocery stores or at the height where they’d see it
sitting in a shopping cart). According to this episode of “Ideas,” “the average
child in North America sees 10,000 food ads on TV and many more directed just to them on social media each year.”
11)
The processed food industry spends hundreds of
millions of dollars every year in North America, targeting children. The
governments spend an insignificant fraction of that amount on encouraging
people to lead healthy, active lives. As a result, we get almost no aid
competing with the misleading agenda of the processed food advertisers.
12)
Children are a captive audience & easy to
reach.
13)
If you can induce brand loyalty... get a child
to prefer a particular brand… that preference may continue throughout their
life.
14)
There’s the highly effective pester factor at
work… getting a child to know and prefer a product by brand name and pester the
parents to buy branded foods when he or she sees it in the store.
15)
And then there is, perhaps, the most insidious
aspect of marketing to children… according to Mary Ann Nestle, “marketers want
children to believe that branded foods with cartoons on them are foods designed
for children, foods made especially for
them… they’re kids foods.. they’re
what they’re supposed to be eating. Not the boring foods that their parents
are eating. This is a complete undermining of parental authority around food
issues and a highly successful strategy.”
According to Michael Polan, the diet of the average North
American child is 70% junk food and 30%
is real food, some of which is healthy.
Of that 30%, some of it is milk, some of it is fruits and vegetables, some of
it is meat and other “healthy” things. The most popular category in the diet of
the typical North American child is what’s called “grain based desserts”…
including granola and cereal bars , breakfast cereals, baking, sweetened
yogurts & icecreams… basically, anything using high fructose corn syrup),
then sugary beverages, then salty snacks… and only after all those categories
do children consume a healthy food item like milk.
Admittedly, a farmers’ market has its unhealthy temptations…
kettle popcorn, cupcakes, chocolate,
pastries, candies, hot dogs and sno-cones…
but it also has a ton of healthy, vibrantly coloured, densely nutritious and
visually attractive fruits and vegetables, whole grain baking, and wonderfully
tasty & inventive & healthy food truck offerings as well. It is a place
devoid of the kinds of marketing that this episode of “Ideas” finds so
insidious. It is a place where you can reclaim your parental authority around food issues and eating. It is a place where you can model healthy eating. It is
a place without processed foods that are directly marketed with cartoon
characters to your children. It is a place where you can access a wealth of
whole foods. It is a place where you can find support in your parenting journey….
At the Southwest Edmonton farmers’ Market, we will be helping you down this
path. Stay tuned…
Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee
