Sweet manipulation - (Hermann's 3rd entry)

After watching a French documentary about the food industry I have realized that the sugar industry happens to be one of the most manipulative industries in the world today.

Drawing on the Neo-Marxist perspective that we explored during class, we can observe that the sugar industry built its power thanks to its strong ties with politicians and governments around the world, with fierce lobbies, with control and manipulation of the information.

In fact, the lobby for the sugar industry is so strong that it influences a very important number of organizations including the medicine, schools, marketing, science and politics.

For instance in France there are meetings organized by the sugar industry (Kraftfood for instance) where nutritionists talk about the importance of the taste, the practical aspect of the product and the amount of sugar needed in the product. In fact these so-called “experts” help the marketing department and promote the brand rather than worrying about the impact of the products on customers’ health. This shows that the sugar industry is directly tied to the medical industry.

Another example of control and manipulation is the ties between Ferrero, Nestlé, Orangina and VIF France, an association created to promote healthy food and ways of consuming in order to avoid obesity. As a result, the events allow these food companies to promote their image and to associate it with healthy ways of consuming food. In addition, such events are often organized in schools in order to promote healthy habits to the younger population. That is a good way for the sugar industry to associate their products to a positive image in the eyes of children.

Some prominent scientists also happen to be linked to the food and sugar industry. As a result they can get financial compensations for promoting these industries and by delivering biased scientific studies about the impact of sugar on people’s health.

These various examples follow what we have seen in the “Food Inc.” documentary. Major industries such as the food or sugar ones maintain their power and their control thanks to their influence in diverse institutions as we have just seen. They are a good example to apply for the Neo-Marxist perspective.