Russia's Destruction of Banned Western Food Sparks Outrage

Hard to say who's politics will win the day and if they are actually necessary . CNN "The latest: Farmers in Europe will be paid to destroy or give away fruit and vegetables to stop prices from collapsing after Russia banned imports in retaliation for Western sanctions.

EU officials said Monday they were setting aside 125 million euros ($167 million) to compensate producers for not selling a range of perishable items, harvesting them before they ripen or leaving them to rot.

"This is a measure aimed at reducing the level of supply so the prices don't drop to crisis levels," said European Commission spokesman Roger Waite.

Russia hit back at the latest round of Western sanctions over Ukraine with its own year-long ban onimports of food from Europe, the U.S., Australia, Canada and Norway." money.cnn.com...

The sanctions on Russia were probably meant to weaken Putins position but have actually strengthened him politically . In this piece the author looks at how Russia is adapting to the sanctions as they relate to food stuff .

"It is now more than a year that Russia imposed its food embargo on the EU and other states which had applied sanctions to it over its absorption of Crimea and intervention in southeastern Ukraine. The results of the change-over in overseas suppliers and rising import substitution through the efforts of domestic producers have now become fairly clear.

In this brief report based on visits to retail outlets ranging from convenience stores and market stalls to hypermarkets and from the St Petersburg city center to hamlets 80 km away in the hinterland, I will try to make some sense of what has occurred, how Russians’ shopping basket has changed so far and where the trend lines are leading. Put another way, I will start with a number of small and specific observations and end with some generalizations and forecasts of what broad processes are underway and how they can affect the global food trade. russia-insider.com...

In holland (&other EU country's most likely) they also destroyed lots and lots of fruit since Russia stopped importing fruit from many EU country's (if they would put it on the market prices would fall allot), where is the outrage?

a reply to: MrSpad

Comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges.

hardly...food is being wasted and people are going hungry. That's the bottom line, and that's what hungry people care about. Not politics and reasons for waste.

My point is...there need not be any "outrage", since we could feed the hungry 10-times over...if we really wanted to. But...feeding the hungry does not turn any profits so it's not really interesting to anyone.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

Indeed they could have just done return to sender type of deal rather than wasting it, anyhow there are 100s of thousands of kilos of food wasted by America alone per year. Its rather crazy systems how we civilized ppl roll, while same time millions of ppl dies in starvation just because they cannot afford the food that is going to be wasted by huge porpotion anyways. Humans are greedy to the core that is my theory.

Also good example of greediness is in country i live (Finland) they start to lock down even those garbage areas where big food markets throw tons of food. Allot of students and poor ppl picked their food from these garbage`s but no more those filthy poor ppl will take our rotten food...

a reply to: romilo

Did you read the news about CM store´s garbage area where they put food which was waiting to going to dumping places.. their garbage area had rats running wild there. There is a reason why those foods are not given or sold cheap, that all is written in elintarvikelaki ( food act ) because its not safe. Microbes etc multiplies and expiration dates are for your own safety. Its not about greed of stores its the LAW.

originally posted by: Shiloh7
a reply to: Southern Guardian

I had mixed feelings about the culling ordered by our government of huge herds of cattle a while back, especially when it was reported that the cullings weren't necessary except to keep up the top end of the beef market.
Any form of destruction of edible food makes me mad as it usually protects only the ones at the top, never the workers or poor.

Can you substantiate that statement?
Beef prices have risen in the last couple of years because of the drought, but I know of not "culling ordered by our government"--especially, as you say, to keep the price of beef up.

a reply to: dollukka

It would not be that difficult to set a table let say near the garbage areas where they throw all the food and instead share em to ppl whom need em rather than just lock it a away to rats. Actually some markets does this nowdays, they give these foods to share for poor ppl and that is nice, i hope this type charity would become more popular here!

a reply to: Southern Guardian

Dispose of that evil capitalist agitprop!

Protect the proletariat from agita!

originally posted by: romilo
a reply to: dollukka

It would not be that difficult to set a table let say near the garbage areas where they throw all the food and instead share em to ppl whom need em rather than just lock it a away to rats. Actually some markets does this nowdays, they give these foods to share for poor ppl and that is nice, i hope this type charity would become more popular here!

It was until the NYC city regulators felt like their authority had been challenged so, they shut it down with prejudice.

destroying food is an act of madness.
and yes, i am also aware that hundreds of tons of food are destroyed daily because it' no longer "fresh" (in western terms...)

i think the whole food issue should be under strict international law.
can't be there are millions starving and some flight hours away the are burning edible food!

originally posted by: Pluginn
In holland (&other EU country's most likely) they also destroyed lots and lots of fruit since Russia stopped importing fruit from many EU country's (if they would put it on the market prices would fall allot), where is the outrage?

You have to remember this is about TPTB wanting to restart the cold war so everything Russia does is evil. If you are old enough to remember the first cold war you will see the propaganda of today is a carbon copy of back then

originally posted by: Azureblue
a reply to: Southern Guardian

Perhaps what is not said is that it contained GMO and was only protecting their people.

Why would something this minor; be so important to the western media anyway? Is there nothing more interesting than that??

Sounds like a anti Russian propaganda piece to me.

Nothing to see here; move on.

Yes, it's started by anti-Russian cheese, violently Slavophobe tomatoes etc...

originally posted by: MrSpad
Russia has so much stuff coming and out on the black market that what they are destroying is likely a drop in bucket of now illegal foods. And some people seem confused between food waste, a problem in all food producing societies, and food being destroyed for propaganda purposes. Comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges.

Of course it is, both are ordered by governmental agencies, wow they are so different.

Gee lets bitch at them for not allowing stuff to illegally cross the border and go to all the starving people.

originally posted by: anticitizen
destroying food is an act of madness.
and yes, i am also aware that hundreds of tons of food are destroyed daily because it' no longer "fresh" (in western terms...)

i think the whole food issue should be under strict international law.
can't be there are millions starving and some flight hours away the are burning edible food!

You should go work in a supermarket, you would go mad then in an instant.

ONE STORE destroys Trailers per day, EVERY DAY , at LEAST.