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• The Food Issue Survey
• The Food Issue Editorial: And…
• Healthy Kids’ Snacks: Concerned…
• The Mainstreaming of Organic
• Carpe Lycopersicon Esculentum…
• To Eat, or Not to Eat?
• Eating With Your Head: A Review…

g-Think has been checking out food tastes and issues around the world, and, based on our survey of four countries—Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and France—we’ve concluded that we’re all strikingly similar when it comes to the issues garnering public and media attention. At the top of the list is concern over obesity and its related health problems. What does vary from country to country are the public, corporate, and policy responses to this issue.

As far as organic food is concerned, market penetration in most countries is remarkably similar. In Europe and Japan, several scares about tainted food boosted interest—and sales—as consumers generally lost confidence in the traditional food-producing industries and demanded safer, more natural sources of production.

Except in the United States, genetically modified (GM) food has been on the public agenda; and in many countries, production of GM items has already been banned. Why has this issue failed to take hold among U.S. consumers? That’s a subject for another article.

Japan: Makudonarudo versus Sushi
Unlike the United States and much of Europe, someone who is overweight in Japan still stands out. According to Dr. Yuichi Yamada of Kanazawa Medical University, only 24% of Japanese over the age of 16 fit in this category, compared with 65% in the U.S. Nonetheless, the Japanese are getting heavier, and, over the next few years, the number of overweight Japanese is expected to soar.

The Japanese still prefer seafood to hamburgers, but their food habits are changing; Western-style fast food, for example, is catching on. Lack of exercise is also a problem. Instant communications, the increased use of cars, and the general lack of interest in physical activities are seen as contributing to the mounting problem of people being overweight in the country.

Simultaneously, after getting off to a slow start, Japan has become a huge market for organic products. According to organicts.com (August 15, 2003), “The Japanese are some of the most demanding consumers in the world. They expect quality, safety and have a high level of environmental literacy. All of which translates into an appreciation for organic food.” A series of food scares gave the country’s organic food sales a major boost.

Sixty percent of the food consumed in Japan is imported, increasing efforts by producers in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia to provide the discerning and high-spending Japanese with high-quality organic products. The catch, of course, is that much of this food arrives on fossil fuel-guzzling jets. Ultimately, though, despite the presence of large supermarket chains filled with imported products, the Japanese seem to prefer shopping at small neighborhood stores, where personal rapport is established between customer and seller.

As in many other industrialized countries, consumers are highly suspicious of genetically modified products.

New Zealand: Isn’t Everything Organic?
Contrary to the commonly held belief that New Zealanders have been consuming organic food for decades, public awareness about the strong relationship between food and health is a fairly recent phenomenon. Leading the charge in Parliament is the Green Party, which is working to pass a Food Information Bill that would require more stringent rules about food labeling.

New Zealand bans the cultivation of genetically modified foods, and no GM meat, fruit, or vegetables can be sold in the country. A substantial campaign is also being waged to raise awareness about the cruelty of certain livestock practices, such as battery hen farming. Farmers may soon be required to put clear information about their farming practices on their food labels.

Interest in organic farming is expanding, and a new government initiative would invest $2.2 million into creating an advisory service to assist farmers who wish to convert to organic farming methods. Already a number of pip-fruit orchards are obtaining far superior returns from their crops over their counterparts using traditional methods.

The future also looks bright for New Zealand’s organic dairy farmers. Their returns are proving to be similar to those of traditional dairy producers, leading some to believe that “dirty dairying” may one day be a thing of the past.

BioGro, New Zealand’s leading organic certification agency, was established in 1983. Since then, it has certified more than seven hundred operations throughout the country, accounting for more than $100 million worth of products annually.

In September 2004, representatives of a wide range of production, distribution, and marketing sectors signed the Food Industry Accord. Its aim is to encourage the creation of healthy and commercially viable food products for New Zealanders.

Like most countries in the Western world, New Zealand is in the throes of an epidemic of obesity. One-third of children aged 5 to 14 are obese, and the percentage among adults has risen from 11% in 1989 to more than 21% today. The problem is putting extreme pressure on health care institutions and facilities as they struggle to deal with the resulting rise in diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions.

There are currently numerous initiatives from the national level on down aimed at combating the growing problem of overweight among New Zealanders. For example, doctors can prescribe a program called Green Prescriptions for patients whose health issues are directly related to a lack of exercise and poor eating habits.

Also receiving national publicity is the “Push Play” initiative, designed to get people off their sofas and exercising for thirty minutes a day. Other church- and school-based programs provide education about healthy living for specific cultural and socioeconomic groups.

United Kingdom: Fix the School Lunch
During the early 2000s, genetic modification became a growing issue in the United Kingdom. Major food producers touted the process as a way to increase production, make crops more disease resistant, and increase shelf life. The debate was a noisy one and echoed similar public discussion in Europe. In the UK, however, the issue exploded on the heels of widespread concern over so-called mad cow disease, which had been detected in cattle in the 1980s.

An outbreak of foot and mouth disease followed in 2001, ushering in another crisis in the agricultural industry. All across the UK, thousands of cattle were slaughtered and incinerated in huge pits—providing something of a medieval spectacle.

It’s not surprising that the Brits have become attuned to food issues, and it’s probably not surprising that when it comes to purchasing organic food (and GM-free products), they’re near the front of the pack worldwide. As early as 2001, three-quarters of all UK households had purchased organic foods, and organic food sales in the UK are the highest in Europe.

The major UK supermarket chains all sell organic food as consumers have demanded more and more of it. On a policy level, organic farming was given a significant boost in 1998, when Parliament passed a bill mandating that by 2010 30% of all UK farmland must be devoted to organic farming. The bill also requires that 20% of all food consumed in the UK must be organic by this date.

Like the U.S. and most other industrialized nations, the UK has a growing problem with childhood obesity. Some have predicted that by 2020 as many as half of all children in Britain will be obese. To help counteract this trend, as of September 2006, junk food will be banned from school vending machines and in meals served in schools. Helping to lead the drive for more healthful choices in schools, which under an official policy must provide all schoolchildren with meals, was celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

According to a report by Datamonitor, childhood obesity is also a problem in other European countries. By 2008, the rates among children in Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands are likely to have almost caught up with the rate in the U.S. The pressure is now on to develop social policies that will help counter this trend in the growing numbers of cultures where consumers demand that meals be available quickly and easily. In general, however, efforts in the UK to reduce childhood obesity and increase the availability of organic food are more concerted than in the U.S.

France: French Women Don’t Get Fat, Right?
The French are famously forthright (and often justifiably so) about their wonderful cuisine and its benefits in achieving a long, happy, and healthy life. After all, as the title of the American bestseller proclaims, “French Women Don’t Get Fat”—or do they?

But while the French may have a lower percentage of obese citizens, the trend is definitely upward. Forty percent of the French people are now considered overweight (not too far behind the rate among Americans). Much of this gain can be attributed to the move away from traditional home-cooked meals toward snacking and the emerging fast-food culture. In fact, McDonald’s France is the best-performing subsidiary of McDonald’s Europe-wide. The French seem to love the Croque McDo and Royal Deluxe Hamburger.

When it comes to food and related health issues, the French are taking a very Gallic approach. In 2003, a French player for the UK’s famous Manchester United soccer team purposefully became obese to play a role in the film L’Outremanguer (The Excessive Eater). The idea was to draw attention to the growing public health issue.

France was way ahead of most countries when it launched an official logo (seal) for organic foods in the 1980s. This followed legislation enacted in 1981 defining organic food and mandating standards. Since then, France has become the largest supplier of organic food to Europe.

For consumers in France, the choices in organic products are wide and easily accessible. While the still-popular smaller-scale “superettes” often cater specifically to those seeking organic foods, almost all the large supermarket chains have their own organic food labels as well.

As in the United Kingdom and Japan, France experienced a series of food scares in the 1990s. Concerns about GM foods and mad cow disease have also spread from the rest of Europe. There are, of course, no mad cows in France.

by Markus Matthews & Adrienne Owen

Adrienne Owen is a businesswomen living in New Zealand.