foodwatch goes Europe |
06.10.2010
foodwatch is a consumer rights organisation established in Germany in 2002. The objective of foodwatch campaigns is to strengthen consumer rights in the food market. These include the right to safe, transparent, sufficient and good food, nationally, Europe wide and globally. Through its campaigns, foodwatch addresses some of the most important problems in this sector: misleading product information; safety risks due to toxics (e.g. Dioxin) and contaminants (e.g. Acrylamid); the real costs of conventional agriculture and therefore unfair competitiveness of conventional agricultural production; and non-transparent nutritional information and the subsequent increase in obesity in industrialized countries which is responsible for high social cost in the health sector and others.
Since the Western nutritional model is followed by emerging economies, which are also producers of food for overseas markets, what happens in Europe is highly influential on practices in the developing world. A key theme running through all its work is the call for effective consumer information rights. foodwatch’s vision is to empower consumers to make sound and sustainable choices for healthy food.
foodwatch has been successfully established in Germany. Founded as a “NGO start-up” with seed money of € 1.5 Million (grants and loans), it is today financially self-sufficient with 17.000 paying members and an annual budget of € 1.2 Million. Meanwhile it is highly respected by the media, politics and industry and increasingly among consumers. However the rules and regulations governing the food sector are determined by European institutions (Commission, Council of Ministers and EU Parliament), which are heavily influenced by the food industry. The recent decision on food labelling is an example. To provide balance, it is essential that foodwatch now works on a more European level. In order to do so, foodwatch needs to be established – with national offices –Europe wide.
As a first sister organisation, foodwatch Netherlands was established in the beginning of 2010. The reason to expand to the Netherlands first was in response to an offer by the VARA television channel to present the foodwatch campaign against misleading product information in its weekly show “Kassa”. This project started in January and ended successfully in May with a public vote on the biggest advertising lie. The victor, the company Danone, received the award (called “Goulden Windei”) for its product Actimel. The award was reported in the Dutch media. To help it build on the momentum already achieved, foodwatch Netherlands is seeking seed money for the years 2011 to 2014 to achieve financial self-sufficiency by 2015. An estimated € 1.5 million Euro is sought. More information: www.foodwatch.nl
foodwatch is unique in Europe. There is no similar organisation in other European countries which targets specific products with scientific information about misleading claims. By developing a European scale foodwatch, our aim is to help build a consumer base that can make informed decisions about its food choices. In doing so, this will send a powerful message to producers and others in the supply chain, to regulators and to investors. This is not only healthy for consumers, but also health for a democratic Europe, and for markets around the world.
