“THE SPECULATIVE FOOD BUBBLE HAS FINALLY BURST AND THE CRISIS HAS ARRIVED: NOW PRODUCERS WILL LOWER PRICES”: A STATEMENT MADE BY NUTRITIONIST GIORGIO CALABRESE AT THE “FOOD AND HEALTH” CONVENTION HELD IN ROME

“The speculative food bubble has finally burst and the crisis has arrived. This is why we must bring prices back to that which is the real value of the food”: this was the affirmation by nutritionist Giorgio Calabrese during the “Food and Health” convention organized by Salute – La Repubblica and held recently in Rome. According to the professor from the Catholic University of Piacenza, the economic crisis is finally pushing producers to lower food prices. “We should choose fresh cheese, young wine, pasta and rice. And prefer veal to fillet, and white meat and eggs, and drinking tap water”: these are the suggestions that Calabrese offers to help keep spending down but still continuing to eat well.

Calabrese also noted that the various controls on food prices should not be conducted by NAS (the Italian anti-adulteration police unit) but by nutritionists and doctors. “Maintaining fair prices is important” – continued Calabrese – “not only from an ethical point of view, but also from a social point. Because we need people to eat well, otherwise they get sick and the costs fall back on the community”.

According to a study conducted by Format and also presented during the convention, almost 60% of Italians have modified their food habits over the past 12 months, prevalently for reasons connected to prices (43.5%). An increase of 3.8% in respect to 2007 was also registered for those who declare they have had problems eating correctly due to economic circumstances. The most alarming data, however, is the significant decrease in the consumption of fish (-26.7%), meat (-21.2%), and bread (-20.2%).
The survey revealed that economic problems are manifested in different ways: 19.8% still bought the same products but in smaller quantities, while 14.1 have changed products, choosing exclusively according to the lowest price. In respect to six months ago, 7.5% of those interviewed changed sales points as well: of these, 87% now buy exclusively in supermarkets and discount stores, 10.9% no longer buy food in traditional shops.

Food eaten outside of the home has also been reduced: 8.8% of Italians no longer eat breakfast at cafes, 6.7% have stopped eating lunch in restaurants during the work week, and 12% have cut back on eating in restaurants at dinner time.
According to Giuseppe Politi, the president of CIA (Italian Farmer’s Confederation), “The Mediterranean diet is no longer at home in our country. Products that have nourished generations over the centuries, like bread, fruit, vegetables, wine, and oil, have today begun to show evident signs of crisis”. Politi believes that the main reason for this change in consumption habits is the fault of vertiginous increases in prices that have caused Italian dinner tables to be increasingly more barren.
The new food habits, especially those of younger generations, have added further to the problem. It is necessary, therefore, to re-launch the traditional Mediterranean food habits that are recognized and vaunt the following of other countries from all over the world, but which, instead, are increasingly ignored in their own countries of origin (Italy being one of these), and where the consumption of fats and calories have increased disproportionately.

According to Politi, it is now necessary to give value to the Mediterranean diet as a UNESCO World Patrimony. According to the data from the organization, in 2007 the consumption of bread decreased by 6.2%, pasta by 3.5%, fruit -2.8%, vegetables -4.2%, olive oil -1.8%, and wine -4.6%. The forecasts for 2008 predict even further decreases in consumption (bread -2.3%, fruit -4.2%, vegetables -2.4%, olive oil -2.1%, and wine -2%) with the exception of pasta, which should increase by 1.2%.