Europe’s unique trials in food ‘social security’
Kira Walker/ BBC:
On a crisp winter morning in Schaerbeek, a vibrant neighbourhood in north-east Brussels, Marie-Christine Hache walks the aisles of BEES Coop supermarket filling her cart with organic fruit, vegetables, nuts, rice, pulses and pasta. For Hache, the burden of grocery shopping amidst record-high prices has been eased through her participation in one of two novel initiatives trialling “social security for food”.
The affordability of food is a growing concern for increasing numbers of households worldwide as people struggle to cope with the greatest cost of living crisis in a generation. With some forced to cut back on food to meet other essential expenses, food insecurity is on the rise around the world.
The idea of social security for food might sound far-fetched. But through recently launched projects in Montpellier in France and Brussels in Belgium, burgeoning collectives of NGOs, farmers, researchers and citizens are experimenting with the idea that quality, nutritious and organic food should be accessible to everyone – regardless of income.
“Eating healthy and having access to quality food is expensive and only a minority of the population can afford to do so,” says Margherita Via, project manager at BEES Coop. Inspired by universal healthcare systems such as those in France and Belgium, civil society groups have proposed establishing a new branch of social security, under which each citizen would receive a monthly allowance enabling them to buy food meeting certain environmental and ethical criteria.
At its heart, the idea is about moving away from food as a commodity. “A total overhaul of [the agro-industrial food] system based on the right to food is necessary,” says agronomist Mathieu Dalmais, who has led the movement since its inception in 2017 through his work with ISF-AgriSTA, one of 11 organisations working on the idea in France. As the costs of the modern, globalised industrial food system – biodiversity loss, labour exploitation, food waste, disease – have come into sharper focus in recent years, calls to transform it have intensified. Effectively addressing these issues requires a systemic approach, which is where social security for food comes in, explains Jonathan Peuch, advocacy officer on the right to food and nutrition at Fian Belgium.
Under the proposed scheme for France and Belgium, each person (or parents for minors) would automatically receive a fixed sum every month through, for example, a designated card. Between €100-150 ($106-159/£88-133) monthly has been proposed for adults, and between €50-75 ($53-80/£44-67) for children. Like healthcare, the system would be financed through contributions from each citizen proportional to their income. In Belgium, Fian has proposed people earning €3,000 ($3,190/£2,650) gross monthly would contribute €150 ($159/£133) every month, those earning more would contribute more and those earning less would contribute less. Yet all would receive €150 monthly – in effect, helping redistribute wealth from those with the most means to those with the least.
Further funding could be raised through a state contribution, for example from taxes on profits of multinational food companies or through increasing excise duties on nutritionally unhealthy products, such as alcohol or tobacco. “Politically, some people say [the idea] is utopic,” says Peuch. “I don’t think it’s utopic, it’s just a choice for society to say we’re going to increase our contribution, and we want to put that money here.”
Only food products meeting certain criteria – such as organic certification, fair pay for farmers and workers, and short supply chains – would be able to be purchased with the allowance, which could be used wherever those products are sold. These criteria are intended to support a wider transformation of the food system to one that is more just and sustainable.Although organic foods are not healthier in terms of nutrients, studies show they expose consumers to fewer pesticides associated with human disease and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Organic farming has less environmental impacts than conventional farming and can enhance biodiversity – increasing species richness by 30% and the number of organisms by 50%, according to meta-analyses comparing the two.France and Belgium’s trials, which began earlier this year and last year respectively, will each run for 12 months, and the early results appear to be positive.