Tap the public mood on food

If there is one mistake a politician or a public figure cannot afford to make these days, it is the food faux pas. One wrong word or a phrase that conveys a disconnect with the ordinary person’s view of food, and hell can break loose, as politicians are discovering all over the world. Food politics is a combustible issue. When the economy does not look too good, appearing out of touch with every man/woman’s food is asking to be skewered.
In India, policymakers got a taste of the food gaffe with the debate on the poverty line. How much would it cost to feed the poor and who are the poor anyway who deserve to be fed? Experts rarely agree with one another. Not surprisingly, there is no consensus among them on either issue and activists hammered deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia for his views on both. Last year the Planning Commission held that a person can meet daily expenditure on “food, health and education” with a sum of `32 in cities and `26 in villages. Dr Ahluwalia subsequently took pains to stress that food subsidy was not going to be linked to the poverty line but the controversy continues. No one knows yet who the real poor are; the jury is out on food subsidy. Meanwhile, more experts have been commandeered to gauge the poverty line even as every man/woman, above and below the poverty line, copes to the best of his/her ability with food prices that remain stubbornly high.
India is not alone in keeping a tab on politicos and public figures who are tone-deaf to the public mood on food. Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra created a stir earlier this month with her statements about “cost of living”. “People’s feelings that prices are rising are an aftermath effect of the floods. In fact, prices are declining, but this does not satisfy them. Also, every April brings the hot season reflecting their high expenses, and the back-to-school season makes them sensitive to the high cost of goods,” the Thai prime minister is reported to have said. Thailand’s aam aadmi is not amused, if Thai newspapers are to be believed. “Overexposure to heat from sunlight can cause sunburn, heatstroke or dehydration. But causing mass hallucination to the extent that the victims have it all wrong about food prices. I really doubt her theory. What customers, including me, actually feel — and it hurts our wallets — is that we now have to dish out 35 baht (about `60) to a food vendor in the neighbourhood for a plate of fried rice instead of 30 baht that we used to pay a month ago…” commented Thai journalist Veera Prateepchaikul in a recent opinion piece in the Bangkok Post.
Thai media is now reporting that damage-control measures are under way. Ms Shinawatra has been personally visiting various markets, and images of her doing her own grocery shopping are all over the media. The Thai central committee on the prices (CCP) of goods and services has decided to control the prices of cooked meals. According to the Thai commerce minister, the prices of 10 popular meals will be controlled from now on by the government. The items include rice-topped omelette, rice with curries, rice with pork and noodles. If food vendors sell these items at a price higher than what is suggested by the commerce ministry, they will face legal action and fines. How this will play out is yet to be seen.

British prime minister David Cameron has also been in trouble for his food faux pas. The telling story circulating in the British media is labelled “pastygate”. Rightly or wrongly, some of the blame for the Tories’ reverses in recent local elections is being laid at the door of the government’s “pasty problem”. Pasties — hot Cornish snacks of meat and veggies baked in pastry — are a favourite grab-and-go meal in parts of Britain. When Mr Cameron and his finance minister George Osborne slapped a new tax on hot pasties, bakers were up in arms. The politicians were slammed for being out of touch. The British prime minister was quick to respond to the crisis. He assured reporters of his fondness, even “love” for pasties in the middle of a Downing Street press conference on London Olympics. “I’m a pasty eater myself. I go to Cornwall on holiday. I love a hot pasty. I think the last one I bought was from the West Cornwall Pasty Company. I seem to remember I was in Leeds station at the time. The choice was to have one of their small ones or their large ones. I’ve got a feeling I opted for the large one and very good it was too,” he said.
However, it soon emerged that the West Cornwall Pasty Company Mr Cameron was talking about closed its outlet in 2007. Downing Street has stuck to its line that the British Premier had indeed eaten a pasty at Leeds station and only the date was unclear. But pasties obdurately surface in the news from time to time, and “Pastygate” remains politically explosive.
Across the Atlantic, there is Mitt Romney and “cookiegate”. The Republican Party’s big white hope in the forthcoming presidential elections in the US reportedly insulted a plate of cookies from a local bakery in Pittsburgh. During a campaign stop outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mr Romney met local residents at an outdoor roundtable lunch, during which he joked about a batch of cookies. “I’m not sure about these cookies,” he reportedly said, ribbing a woman at the table: “They don’t look like you made them. No, no. They came from the local 7-11, bakery, or whatever.” The cookies came from a hugely popular local bakery; the locals were incensed and local outrage found its way on Twitter and the bakery’s Facebook page.
The power of food to convey empathy or a disconnect with everyday people should not be underestimated. Food faux pas often crystallise everything that is wrong with a politician or a political party in the eyes of the public. In India, the shape of food politics to come is becoming clear. Last week Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, declared in Parliament that a Food Security Bill “cannot be made in air-conditioned rooms and should be formulated after consulting the people on the ground.” The debate on food subsidy and poverty may get shriller in the coming days. The Opposition will latch on to any word or phrase that buttresses the notion that the UPA is losing touch with the man/woman on the street. A food faux pas, against such a backdrop, would only help strengthen that point.

The writer focuses on development issues in India and emerging economies