REVIEW: By Keeara Ofren
Have you ever heard a comment which made you so outraged that you were compelled to debate it in your head years later?
One of my favourite shows is Unreported World, where journalists travel to cover an underreported human rights issue with an international “People vs Power” theme. I can easily pinpoint the worst episode for me, Series 33, Episode 7 (“Obesity in Paradise”).
This made me disappointed and angry at what I thought was an uncritical episode.
Unreported World: “Obesity in Paradise”. Video: Sophie Morgan
I interpreted the presenter as having a condescending and blaming tone to the locals she had been interviewing, instead of linking the health issues back to the source of food. When health issues disproportionately affect a group fast, there is some kind of systemic issue.
Also, I felt as though the locals were portrayed as ignorant, with the presenter picking at the food, showing disgust and insensitively raising topics of death.
I felt as though the locals were being mocked and given no dignity. This has since been scrubbed from the Unreported World social media outlets and YouTube, but can be found on Vimeo and at The Coconet TV.
The matter of personal responsibility and health is raised in any conversation about minorities. For example, food related illness, childhood obesity, obesity in general, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes; all often discussed to be caused by “lazy parenting”, “poor habits”, “genetic weakness” and more.
Food for thought
But I recently read a book which provided much food for thought to challenge often simple, overgeneralising and frankly racist explanations for obesity and health issues in Pacific communities.
The book Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the South Pacific raises the fact that what food we have available is not a coincidence and that sourcing, buying and eating food is inherently political and tangled with human rights abuses in each step of production and purchase.
For example, workplace exploitation in plantations, the exploitation of migrants and undocumented workers, factory farming, environmental degradation and so on.
Neocolonialism is defined as the subjugation and dehumanisation of another community through indirect economic, cultural or political pressures. The more the book progressed, this pattern became more evident.
Companies are knowingly selling items which have negative health impacts. How they determine the “disposable” communities to sell to is a human rights issue.
Enter: The world of the lobby
Flaps are a food known and shown in discussions of the Polynesian diet: they are the fatty belly parts of a sheep often sold in many Pacific Islands. The Unreported World episode stops at the disgust of the journalist, but the episode does not investigate why this food is so common and where it is coming from.
This is where New Zealand comes in. Enter: Ross Finlayson, once dubbed the “Kissinger of the meat industry”, we get the impression of a man embedded in international matters…and for whom the ends justify the means.
The UK was previously one of the biggest consumers of New Zealand lamb. In the 1970s, the meat industry was under pressure with increased competition with foreign products, dropping meat quality and changes to British import policies with the then entry into the European Union (then the European Economic Community 1973) and thus, new arrangements with European trading partners.
So, what’s going to happen to the meat?
Deborah Gewerts and Frederick Errington apply the Marxist theory of the “fetishisation of commodities” to the sale of meat flaps. The theory can be broken down like this: To create value and demand of an item, we “fetishise” it, which means we can create an artificial value to it, which can make us stop thinking about the exploitation which created the item, or the actual poor value of the item, because we feel good when we purchase it.
An example could be designer goods for instance.
A status symbol
It is also a status symbol as a foreign good from New Zealand, known for its prized food and drink. So flaps have the reputation as an affordable small luxury. But in reality, it is a waste product.
Necessity: Sales tactics and the skills of the lobby combine with cheap, meaty and foreign dinners. But we know the forgone conclusion of poor health outcomes.
So, is New Zealand complicit with this outcome? The question was raised in a 2002 article for The Independent quoting the then Health Minister, Annette King, who thought it would be inappropriate to interfere with other countries’ affairs.
There could be many reasons for this. Firstly, Pacific nations are culturally diverse, and intervention would be complex. Secondly, intervening can be seen as paternalistic and culturally inappropriate.
Thirdly, this touches on what I call the “Activist’s Dilemma” — how and when can we interfere with another nation’s sovereignty. We will need to play the long game and involve communities directly.
But thankfully, seeds have been sown for the public. There are no coincidences when it comes to what food is available and when. In New Zealand, there is a renewed sense of activism in lower-socioeconomic neighbourhoods against new fast food and liquor stores, a lot of which is led by Pasifika community groups who want to create safe and healthy environments.
There are also indications that the availability of healthy food or lack thereof is being understood in a policy level. For example, the Helen Clark Foundation, a New Zealand think tank based on the values of former Labour Prime Minster, Helen Clark, has taken an interest in the topic, with a 2022 report on “Healthy Food Environments” and the disproportional impact of unhealthy food advertising and availability in poorer neighbourhoods.
Part of New Zealand’s identity is as a protesting nation alongside friends, against nuclear testing in the Pacific. What’s to stop us now to defend against the deaths of our neighbours?
Well, with awareness, maybe the plucky little nation might just pay attention.
Post Script
Overall, Gewerts and Errington’s Cheap Meat is a good initial tool to debunk existing blaming narratives towards Pacific people. However, I would like to note that I have some criticisms of the book for prospective readers, namely the use of the term “genocide” without a provided definition or analysis of intent and total ethnic/national/religious destruction.
The book would benefit from further analysis.
Second, the book presents perspectives of unions, Pacific communities and the lobbies as having the same “weight”.
I felt that these groups are not directly comparable, for instance, advocating for human rights matters is not the same in effect or technique as corporate lobbying. Therefore, I felt that by presenting all sides as “equal”, this encouraged a false equivalency of all groups.
Please keep these in mind as you explore the topic. Happy reading!
Keeara Ofren is a New Zealand-born and based Filipina. She is a law and politics and international relations graduate who does communications for the public sector. Republished with permission from her blog K for Kindling.
