'Nazis sectretly eat falafel'

'Nazis secretly eat falafel' - Dies Irae, a German political activist posted pro immigration posters around
the small town of Freital: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-33691246

What would British food look like if immigration never happened? If people were restricted by man-made borders, and England, as a lone island had to produce enough food to feed itself?

Well, British food would be boring. As an island of little arable land the British were forced to look further afield to more exotic, warmer climates to find resources with which they could trade. The army, politicians, corporations, the church and the royals were one and the same: land was forcefully grabbed, valuable resources taken, and rich diverse cultures destroyed. It has taken over a hundred years to realise the extent of the destruction, which is still felt to this very day.

Despite this, it was the British who were the first to abolish slavery, and also the first to open up their borders to immigration. Through a series of waves, a variety of cultures, ethnicities, and religions have entered the tiny island, bringing with them new flavours and customary culinary traditions. Over time these flavours have infused through the country, subsequently influencing British food culture and changing the way we think and interact with our food.

The UK is now a melting pot of cultural diversity. Even though this hasn’t been spread evenly throughout the country, it still influences our everyday lives: from drinking a cup of tea in the morning, to tucking into a kebab with bare hands. Britain’s history is clearly reflected in the food we eat, to stop immigration would also naively stop our evolution as a progressively diverse and culturally rich nation.

What will we be eating if TTIP* were to become a reality?

With GMO and cloning laws becoming more lenient to suit larger corporations,
the two-headed porker may become a food of the future.
As crazy as it sounds, gobbling up twice as much feed means that he also fattens up
twice as fast, making him extremely efficient to rear. Now that’s what you call cheap meat! Yum?!

SO what could we be eating in the future? Lets take the humble porker as our example:

1.   Cloning will be a reality. These cloned porkers will be reared for efficiency, and will never see the day light as they will be reared indoors in crowded and distressing surroundings, breaking all British welfare standards we have worked so hard to maintain. The aim is to have more, more, more food, and at a cheaper price, and this will come at larger costs.

2.   Animals reared for meat will be pumped full of antibiotics that will act as a growth promoters. The only way these animals can grow to the abnormal size they do, is if they are pumped full of antibiotics, so that their bodies can’t react to infections caused by the fast rate of growth. This also puts us, the consumers of this meat, at risk of becoming antibiotic resistant. This has the potential for larger health problems to develop.

3.   The demand for GMOs will grow. Currently even conventionally reared meat in the UK is fed GMO grains and soy, but the demand for this will grow immensely as pork production grows. This will put pressure on our natural environment, leading to further destruction of fragile rainforests that will be replaced by miles and miles of mono cropping. Cash crops on this scale go hand in hand with speculation buying, making the market more vulnerable to price fluctuations. GMOs are also known to cause defected growth in young piglets.

4.   Small and medium sized UK Farmers will be pushed out of the market. Competition will open up, and there will be no space for small-scale pig farmers. The mega farm will dominate the market. This will put many rare breed farmers out of business, and will put pressure on medium sized businesses to lower their standards and upscale. This will be disastrous to the rural economy as well as the rural environment.

5.   Bigger porkers, bigger portions, bigger consumers. Cheaper food will have further health implications for the consumer. Although everyone will be able to afford to eat pork everyday, the meat will lack essential natural nutrients found in outdoor reared and organic pork. Lower food standards will also make us more susceptible to MRSA, often found in poorer quality US pork.

This is just the T-TIP of the iceberg. Make you’re voice heard here: http://www.nottip.org.uk/

*TTIP: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a secret trade talk taking place between the EU and the US. Leaked document and the history of trade deals can help us speculate what the outcome of these talks will be. The ultimate aim, is to have freer trade between both parties, which will include deregulating and removing trade barriers (which are currently there for a reason – mainly due to health, safety and consumer protection). These talks will only favour policies that benefit large corporations, leaving the state and the consumer powerless.

Resources:

http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/trade-justice/more/inform/18262-ttip-resources

http://www.iatp.org/documents/10-reasons-ttip-is-bad-for-good-food-and-farming

http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/tags/ttip