An implicit food policy

An implicit food policy Wheat consumption Venezuela

changes in

W. Jaffi Carbonell and Harry Rothman

The

authors

wheat the

and

light

process

examine maize

of the

country’s

of economic

consumption

progressive

Jaffe

Harry of

policies

staple

Rothman Liberal

University

aiding of

as the

maize

by wheat. is

Norte,

Caracas,

policy

acted

policies

Carbonell Edf.

Bolivar,

food

replacement

as the dietary

maize

generally

explicit

these food

and

although

any

Ciepe,

and the

of wheat

how.

content,

W.

certain

affected

strategies

implicit

historical

policies

development

lacking

in

development. how

show

They

and

Venezuela’s

consumption

at

Fundacion

Centro

Simon

Venezuela, is at the

Studies

in

of Manchester,

and

Department Science, England.

’ For a characteristic paper for the first group of works see National Research Council, Committee on Food Habits, The Problem of Changing Food Habits, Washington, DC, 1943; for the second J. Yudkin and J.C. McKenzie, ed, Changing Food Habits, London, 1962: and A. Burgess and R.F.A. Dean, ed, Malnutrition and Food Habits, London, 1962. * This approach views the changing food consumption pattern basically within the the from framework of passage ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ societies. Foods societies have within traditional normative functions, to be viewed as part of the complex web of customs and beliefs which held together the social continued on p 306

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

Knowledge of food consumption patterns, their stability and changeability is an important element in establishing criteria for more rational food policies. Such knowledge has, of course, been used with varying degrees of success in emergencies, eg in World War II food rationing policy in Britain owed sohething to knowledge of food consumption patterns.’ We have also been made increasingly aware of the close relationship between changing patterns of food consumption and dietary induced diseases: over-consumption of refined carbohydrates and animal fats have been implicated along with the more well-established deficiency factors traditionally associated with malnutrition. Exactly why populations change their eating patterns is not easily understood. Research into this question and associated problems may be divided crudely into two schools. Firstly, an economic approach seeking to relate food consumption patterns to indicators such as income distribution, unemployment, industrial structure, balance of payments, etc; and secondly, a social-anthropological approach basing itself on functionalist concepts.* Both these schools of research have produced abundant evidence to show that food consumption patterns may change for a great variety of reasons, all too often despite their impact on nutrition - having little or nothing to do with any promulgated food policy. Consequently we are led to believe that the study of food consumption patterns and the attempt to influence the manner in which they change is of value to food policy development and ought to form an important part of food policy research. Of particular importance are changes in the consumption pattern of staple items in a diet. For example, the current trend in many countries towards increasing wheat consumption. This phenomenon, often occurring at the expense of seemingly more ecologically suitable crops, can be observed in a number of developing countries.3 The current problems of the international wheat market provide yet a further reason why this trend merits a close examination. We are not, of course, in a position here to analyse increasing wheat consumption

305

An implicit food policy

continued from p 305 fabric. Hence the emphasis we find on research into beliefs attached to particular foods. The perturbation of this traditional equilibrium by the modernizing forces is seen as dangerous since it can result in serious deficiences such as malnutrition. The methodological emphasis of this approach is on the individual and family level. Therefore, the use of the concept ‘food habits’, with its individualistic connotations, can be taken as the trade mark of this approach. 3A study of increasing wheat consumption in some non-wheat growing countries is found in AS. Young, ‘Wheat flour and bread consumption in West Africa: a review with special reference to Ghana’, Tropical Science, Vol 14 No 3, 1972, pp 235-244. “One of the very few exceptions is H. Dupin and T. Brun, ‘Evolution de I’alimentation dans les pays en voie de deveJoppement’, Cahiers de #utr~t~~n et de Dieteticwe, Vol 8 No 4, 1973, PC, 283-290. 5 For 1936 data see Ministerio de Direction de lndustria y Fomento, Servicio de Industrias, Comercio, Materias Primas de Venezuela: for 1973. data from calculations based OR Ministerio de Agricultura y Cria, Anuario Estadistico Agropecuario 19 73. “The Food Balance Sheets for the years 1949 and 1973 have been published in the Archives Venezolanos de Nutricion and directly by the lnstituto National de Nutricibn; the years 1967-72 have not been published. The Food Balance Sheets serious Venezuela present for problems related methodological basically to the very deficient statistical information available. They are used in this analysis since the focus is on trends which can be identified despite these problems. ‘The relationship coefficient between maize and wheat consumption simply expresses the relative importance of maize to wheat, or vice versa. It does not mean that changes in the importance of one are necessarily tied or caused by the other. 8 Maize was traditionally bought in the form of husked maize which can be ground into maize meal (until recently done mostly at home). the basis of the various maize dishes which constitute the of the component important most traditional Venezuelan diet. The dominant form of maize consumption is the arepa, a small (about 120 g) round cake which may be eaten alone or with different fillings. The arepa for large sections of the continued on p 357

306

as a global phenomenon, however it is our hope that the analysis we provide of the Venezuelan situation might usefully contribute towards such a global study. We have examined Venezuela’s wheat and maize consumption in the light of that country’s historical process of economic development. In particular we have attempted to draw attention to the manner in which certain development policies and strategies affected the consumption of wheat and maize, and how these policies, although generally lacking any explicit food policy content, acted, in fact, as implicit food policies aiding the progressive replacement of maize as the dietary staple by wheat. Such an approach we hope will encourage further studies of the relationship of food consumption patterns with the more general problem of underdevelopment.

Wheat consumption in Venezuela Wheat as a food and as a crop was introduced into Venezuela by the Spanish discoverers and conquerors in the early 16th century. The small white settler population grew wheat and even produced a small surplus which until the beginning of the 18th century was exported mainly to the Spanish Antilles. But as the population grew and export-oriented plantations of cocoa and coffee began to dominate the agricultural scene, wheat growing was restricted to some ecologically favourable zones in the high valleys of the Andean range. One estimate puts the local wheat production for 1936 at 15%.of the total wheat consumption in Venezuela. By 1973 this had fallen to 0~ 1% making the local wheat production for all practical purposes negligiblea Wheat consumption was, until the 194Os, limited to the population of the wheat growing regions and to the small, highincome classes in the few cities which satisfied their demand by imports of wheat flour from the USA. The majority of the population retained the aboriginal food consumption pattern based mainly on maize (Zea muys), black beans (Phase&s vulgaris) and maniac

(Manihot esculenta). This picture began to change quickly from 1940 onwards (Figure 1). In 1943 wheat flour imports started to increase steeply, with apparent flour consumption (imports + production) showing a mean yearly increment of 7.6% for the period 1946-73. These imports were later substituted by whole wheat imports due to the establishment of a local wheat milling industry. The per capita consumption data for wheat given by the Food Balance Sheets6 indicate an increase from 53 daily gram/~apita in 1949 to 130 daily gram/capita in 1973 (Figure 2). The increasing wheat consumption is correlated with a decreasing consumption of maize, the traditional staple food in Venezuela. The apparent consumption of maize (imports + production) remained static until 1958 when it began to pick up, mainly due to the demand from the growing animal feed industry (see Figure 1). This is indicated by the nationally aggregated per capita consumption figures for maize, which show a decreasing trend until 1966 (Figure 2). The relative importance of wheat consumption against maize consumption can be expressed much more clearly in a consumption relationship coeficient, that is the coefficient between the sum of all forms of maize consumption and the sum of all forms of wheat consumption.’ The development of this coefficient, calculated from

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

An implicit

‘\ ::

600 t

Figure

1.

(production

Apparent and

and wheat

flour,

of

Venezuela,

2.

’

maize

1936-73.

continued from p 306 Venezuelan population has a dietary role equivalent to bread in Europe. Pre-cooked maize flour is maize flour which is heat treated and therefore partially degraded. This treatment reduces the necessary home-processing time of maize dishes considerably, cutting the time for making arepas to about 30 minutes. Essentially, it consists of the mechanization of the partial chemical break-down of maize meal, which was formerly achieved by boiling the husked grains.

Figure

I . _’

consumption

imports)

Source: Based on data from Ministerio de Fomento. Estadistica Mercantil y maritima and Boletin de Comercio Exterior; Ministerio de Agricultura y Cria, Anuario Estadistico Agropecuario.

consumption

food policy

Wheat

and

in Venezuela,

1936

40 Yeor

the daily per capita consumption data given in the Food Balance Sheets for Venezuela is shown in Figure 3. Per capita wheat consumption on a nationally aggregated level increases from being only about a third as great as maize consumption to displacing maize as the most important staple in the early 1960s. This development was halted in 1966 by the introduction on the Venezuelan market in 1964 of pre-cooked maize flour, a product based on a new technology.8 The impact of this technology can be assessed in Figure 4, which shows the displacement of traditional maize consumption forms by pre-cooked maize flour.

-

Wheat

consumptron

----

Maize

consumption

maize

1949-73.

Source: Nutrition Nutrition,

Archives Venezolanos de and lnstituto National de Hojas de Balance deAlimentos.

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

I 60

65

70

73

YefIr

307

An implicitfood policy

Figure

3.

Development

maize/wheat relationship

of

the

consumption coefficient,

Venezuela,

1949-73. Source: Food Balance

Sheets,

Venezuela,

1949-73.

’ Based on data from the Food Balance Sheets. The percentage of calorie intake derived from the four foods providing the greatest share of total calories in the diet in 1949 and 1973 is:

Maize Wheat Sugar (refined and unrefined) Maniac

1949

1973

29.7 8.8 20.8

14.4 16.0 19.2

6.0

2.1

Changing

consumption

patterns

The growth in wheat consumption is part of a broader change in consumption patterns, as the parallel decrease in maize consumption suggests. Traditional foods such as maize, maniac and black beans have lost their former importance and a more diversified food consumption pattern has arisen. In 1949, the four foods with the greatest share of calorie intake (maize, wheat, sugar, both refined and brown, and maniac) accounted for 6 1.3% of the total calorie intake. In 1973 the same group of foods contributed 5 1.7% of the total calorie intake.9 Apart from wheat, rice and meat have taken the place 300

Figure husked

4. Pre-cooked maize

308

Hushed maze

mo,ze flour productton production

Venezuela,

Source: Ministerio de Agricultura y Cria, Estadistico

Pre-cooked

-----

maize flour and

production,

1960-74. Anuario

-

Agropecuario.

1960

I 65

/ 74

I 70 Yeor

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

An Tab& 1. income efasticitias of demand of common Venezuelan foods. ..._ Food

Rice Wheat

flour

Maize Pasta Wheat bread Potatoes Maniac Black beans Sugar Papet& fbFoW?I unrefined sugar) Meat (cattle) Meat (pork) Chicken Eggs Milk titter Vegetable

oils

Rural area

Urban area

0.40 O-38 0.25 0.32 0.28 0.34

O”19 0.31 GO4 0.18 0340 Q”34

0.11

OJE

O-18 O-38 0.15

a.23 0.29 O-16

0.33 0.35 0.25 0.34 0.55 O-24 O-48

0.35 CL27 0.29 OLxI 0*51 0.50 0.34

Source: Consejo de Bienestar Rural, Proyocciones de la Oferta y Demanda de Productos Agrpecuarios en Venezuela 1965-1970-1975. Caracas, 1965, p 59.

‘OThese income etasticitles based on a cro5s-section analysis of 4000 famifies are relatively old 1962. Hence the impact of the introduction of pre-cooked maize flour does not show up. The income elasticity for maize is therefore actually much higher. “The GNP experienced an interannuat growth of 6.8% for the period 1950-69. Nominal per capita income increased by 3.9% for the same period. By 1969 the GNP reached the 50000 M Bs. mark. See the annual lnformes Economicas by continuedonp310

Figure

5.

correlation

Regression between

implicitfood policy

of the retreating maize, maniac and black beans, The only available income elasticities of demand calculated for common Venezuelan foods, as indicators of consumption trends, support this view (Table l).l” Traditional foods present very low elasticities, in contrast to wheat based products, for example. Through a more detailed disaggregated analysis of these devetopments, it is possible to show their close relationship with other socio-economic developments in Venezuela. The most important of these are urbanization and growing income.” About 40 quantitative food consumption surveys have been done in Venezuela since 1945, in various places and with different metholologies, which makes their use for comparative purposes difficult. But these limitations for maize and wheat consumption can be overcome by the use of the maize/wheat consumption relationship coefficient described above. The maize/wheat consumption coefhcients for 37 of the food surveys have been calculated, and the correlation of these coefficients with income examined in different samples of the surveys, grouped in accordance with the population of the sites of the studies.12 This allows us to define the maize/wheat consumption behaviour in relation to income and to rural or urban location. No significant correlation between maize/wheat consumption and income could be detected for rural sites and small towns (less than 10 000 inhabitants). These sites show a very high maize consumption with a practically negligible wheat consumption. Both intermediate towns (10 000-100 OUO inhabitants) and large cities (more than IO0 000 inhabitants) show a correlation between maize/wheat consumption and income. High wheat and, conversely, low maize consumption is associated with high income. Further, we find that intermediate towns consume less wheat per equivalent income than large cities. These findings are confirmed by a sample of cost of living index studies done by the Central Bank of Venezuela in several cities.iJ In these consumption is expressed as percentages of total expenditure. The regression equations and lines for each group of studies are presented in Table 2 and Figure 5.

lines:

maize/wheat

consumption monthly

and income (mean income per family in Bsj.

FOOD

POLICY November

1977

309

A II implicitfood policy Table 2. Correlation between maize/wheat equations and correlation coefficient, r.

No of regression line

Correlation coefficient r

Significante P

Rural sites and small towns (less than 10 000 inhabitants)

_

-04X

not significant

1

Intermediate (IO 000-100

y’=0~728-0.0059x

-0.89

P
2

Large cities (more than 100 000 inhabitants)

-0.725

P
3

Cost of living index studies Central Bank; sample including large cities

y’=O.O48-0.00015x

-0.655

P < 0.001

Cost of living index studies Central Bank; sample without large cities

y’=0~148_0~00017x

-0.818

P < 0.001

4

the Banco Central de Venezuela: also Venezuela, La Central de Banco Economia Venezoiana en Jos Ultimos Treinta Afros, Caracas 197 1. food bibliography of the ” The used and the surveys consumption consumption data related to maize and wheat are collected in W. Jaffe Carbonell, University of Dissertation, MSc ‘Food consumption Manchester 1977, pattern, industrialization and technology: the development of wheat consumption in Venezuela’, unpublished, pp 182-l 92. I3 For the bibliography of these studies, see W. Jaffe Carbonell, /bid, I, 47. I4 From 1945-l 970 wheat .consumption showed a sixfold increase. In 1945 total wheat consumption was 60 639 tons, of which 9.5% went for biscuits and pasta; by 1953 the total was 137 785 tons, of which biscuits and pasta accounted for 19.4%. and by 1970 the total was 405 683 tons, with biscuits and pasta accounting for 22.6%. This is only a market measure of the rough development since it is calculated on a weight basis from aggregated production data and import statistics. Nevertheless, the trend towards biscuits and pasta taking an increasing share of total wheat product consumption is clear. On the limited information available it is not possible to say how much of the flour which does not go into biscuits and pasta is consumed as bread or as other bakery products such as confectionery. l5 See data presented in W. Jaffb Carbonell, op cit. 16About 90% of the total employment in the baking industry worked in enterprises employing between 5-20 people or less, in 1974. Based on data from Ministerio de Fomento, Directorio Industrial 7974. “The existing wheat milling industry began in 1956. The build up of the industry lasted only five years. at the end continued on p 3 11

310

and income: linear regression

Linear regression equation

_

continuedfromp309

consumption

Sample

cities 000 inhabitants)

y’=0~152-0.00021

x

Price Two important elements emerge in the development of wheat consumption.‘~ First, there is the price of wheat products. The correlation of maize/wheat consumption with income points to the importance of this for the development of wheat consumption in Venezuela. This is supported by the very high share of the total income spent on food by most of the population. It ranges from 40% for those in the high-income strata to 80% for those in the low-income strata.15 The development of prices for wheat products for the period 1938-69 shows a slightly overall falling tendency, in contrast to the rising tendency which characterises the price series for maize products for the same period (Table 3). Within 30 years the almost two-fold price advantage of maize over wheat products has been eroded, so that for 1973 some wheat products were actually cheaper than some maize products. The relatively high price of wheat with respect to maize products during the first period of increasing wheat consumption (1940-58) suggests that this trend was due to increasing consumption by the small middle- and high-income classes and, most importantly, to the expansion of these classes. Only in the period 1958-73 did wheat consumption spread to the urban low-income classes aided by a fall in the relative price of wheat compared with that of maize. This was due to a remarkable stability of wheat prices during the whole period, whilst maize prices were increasing. The stability of wheat product prices resulted from the practically constant price of wheat on the international market after 1949 and until the crisis of 1973 (Table 4). The price paid to the farmer for maize also did not change very much until 1973, fluctuating between 250-400 B&on. The difference between international wheat prices and international maize prices is one of the more important reasons of why the Venezuelan farmer did not grow more wheat in response to the rising wheat consumption. The high cost structure of cereal production in Venezuela which, for wheat, is due to the lack of high productivity varieties adapted to local ecological conditions, does not permit the Venezuelan farmer to compete with the US farmer, from whom most of the Venezuelan wheat imports originate, without a protective tariff barrier.

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

An implicitfood poliq Distribution Table 3. Mean, weighted, wholesale price series for unhusked maize, maize meal, wheat meal, bread and pasta, Venezuela 1938.69.. (in Bs/kg)

Year

Maize Unhusked meal maize

Wheat meal Bread

Pasta

1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

22.82 28.04 20.22 16.93 21.53 26.81 38.36 24.83 38.60 47.91 41.65 43.97

42.2 4967 42.43 32.34 40.46 46.15 61.84 4868 55.44 82.15 73.89 77.89

63.92 66.62 47.63 57.35 66.11 68.60 68.9 66.7 61.92 76.07 92.73 68.07

130.40 134.78 129.56 128.31 132.00 124.47 125.37 125.42 103.75 108.29 150.58 156.12

102.90 103.30 99.50 98.33 101.95 106.85 107.82 106.10 98.71 108.60 144.24 109.71

1950 1951

43.75 51.78

80.40 86.96

62.01 65.08

159.56 159.94

97.30 97.07

1952

48.50

84.13

69.85

153.76

102.33

1953

39.62

80.60

69.71

152.40

101.40

1955 1954

40.58 45.66

81.34 79.04

71.46 JO.28

152.66 147.71

103.80 108.55

1956

40.25

77.75

73.84

129.45

94.88

1957

38.55

79.32

66.93

125.29

92.28

1958 1959 1960

36.80 40.93 38.94

78.28 77.14 77.81

69.29 JO.18 71.33

126.66 127.57 123.58

95.36 106.02 107.02

1961

43.88

80.98

72.06

118.39

88.86

1963 1962

40.54 37.69

83.42 82.88

71.69 72.22

118.82

90.22 88.02

1964

49.57

92.13

72.77

117.66

93.46

1965 1966 1967 1968 1969

45.66 47.54 49.29 50.53 47.24

96.70 98.61 97.20 97.83 98.46

72.59 78.09 81.92 84.28 85.06

116.00 118.97 118.60 119.25 122.23

89.49 88.79 88.44 89.37 94.89

Source: Ministerio de Fomento, Estadistico de Venezuela 1969. continued

Anuario

from p 3 10

of which the import substitution of wheat flour was practically completed. The industry was built up by foreign capital in association with some local capital. Bunge and Born (Argentina), International Milling Co, Pillsbury, and General Mills (all USA), one case of Spanish capital, two of Italian and one of Canadian were involved (see Jaffk Carbonell op cit. p 193). The cases of Spanish and Italian capital appear to refer to local capitalists nationalities. of these Some rearrangements of capital have taken place since the late 1950s. eg Bunge and Born recently sold their interests to local capitalists. Whether this is the start of a general trend, consequent on the foreign regulations investment embodied in Decision 24 of the Andean Pact remains to be seen. Nevertheless. the present US investments in the Venezuelan milling industry are quite substantial, controlling two of the biggest mills and having an associated status in the leading mill, with a combined market share of 60%. The industry is quite highly concentrated with 80% of the total milling product market controlled by five enterprises.

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

The second import element in the development of wheat consumption suggested by the different maize/wheat consumption behaviour of rural, intermediate and large cities is distribution. Wheat consumption is very dependent on an efficient distribution network, but this is not the case with maize consumption since maize is mostly consumed in home-processed forms. The dominant forms of wheat consumption in Venezuela are as French and Italian style bread, baked in small artisanal enterprises. l6 As a consequence, the expansion of wheat consumption has been very dependent on the expansion firstly of the bakery industry, and secondly on the establishment and development of the wheat milling industry. ” The baking industry is heavily concentrated in the larger Venezuelan cities, and in 1974 42% of the employees of the baking industry were concentrated in the metropolitan area of Caracas which contains only about 15% of the total population of Venezuela.18 Thk close relationship of the developments in food consumption and urbanization which we have presented are expressed by both the linkage of wheat consumption with urban based middle- and highof the baking income classes, and with the urban concentration industry. The more complex articulation of everyday life in the urban, ‘western’ atmosphere of the Venezuelan cities calls for foods which take less time to-prepare, which are more practical, ie foods which can be bought ready for consumption or which need only a minimum amount of home mocessing. Wheat. for historical and technoloeical a -v ~~ speaking, as the baking reasons, is very ‘developed’ technologically and milling industries in industrialized countries testify. Therefore, maize had to give way to wheat in a society with almost 80% of its population urban, since it took, at least with the traditional processing techniques, almost two hours to have it ready for consumption (in the dominant consumption form in Venezuela, the arepa). This substitution process has been more extensive in larger cities than in smaller ones, due to the concentration of both bakeries and the wealthier strata of the population in larger cities. A confirmation of the importance of the convenience factor has been the impact which the introduction of pre-cooked maize flour had on the trend of decreasing maize consumption, evident in Figure 3. Important additional reasons for the position of wheat as the dominant element in the urban food consumption pattern are the relatively easy availability of wheat on the international market for most of the studied period, and the prestige elements associated with wheat in Venezuela. Wheat has been first the conquerer’s food and later the food of the dominant urban classes of landowners, administrators and merchants.

Policy measures If, as we believe, the price of wheat products and the development of the baking industry are important causal elements in the growth of wheat consumption in Venezuela, then one ought to attempt to identify the policy measures which have, in one way or another, affected these two factors and, therefore, also the increase in wheat consumption. Further, it would appear that the impact of these policy measures on the food consumption pattern has always been unintended, and probably in general, unrecognized. Through the

An irnplicitfoodpolicy Table 4. Annual, average, price of wheat kif) and maize (ex-farm), Venezuela, 194574. (in B&on) Year

Wheat

1945 1946 1947

655 785 528 675

1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974

price

Maize pricea

289

310 327 357

284 322 282 300 238 257 248 233 222 208 243 240 269 301 302 304 312 284 281 275 301 295 524 931

370 370 360 350 360 370 350 340 370 280 320 390 380 350 370 390 380 390 400 385 430 595 685

a Maize prices from 1948 to 1957 are the average minimum price paid by the Banco Aricola y Pecuario. Source; Wheat prices and maize prices 1958-74 calculated from Ministerio de Agricultura y Cria, Anuario Estadistico Agroepecuario; Maize prices 1948-57 calculated from Banco Agricola y Pecuario, InformesAnuales 1948-57.

‘a Based on Ministerio de Fomento, Directorio Industrial 1974. I9 See lnforme presentado al SeAor Ministro de Hacienda de /OS Estados Unidos de Venezuela por la Misibn Tknica Economica. Caracas, 194 1. 2oThe numbers involved in this inmigration were quite substantial. an in 196 1 5% OF THE Venezuelan population had been born in Europe. Based on Ministerio ee Fomento, Direction General de Estadistcas y Censos Nacionales, Anuario Estadistico de Venezuela 1969. 2’ See CONICIT/ First Congreso National de Ciencia y Technologia. Papel de Trabajo de Technologia de Alimentos, mimeo, 1975. **The official, legal references for the measures listed below are the followina: Gacetas Oficiales No. 25826 (1958), 892 Extr., 27438, 27466, 27576, 27630 (1964),29754(1970).

312

analysis of their explicit aims, these policy measures can be classified into two categories: 0 0

Industrialization policies. Consumer protection policies - mainly anti-speculative inflationary.

and anti-

The most important policies related to wheat consumption have been collected in Table 5. Until 1939 wheat flour imports (the main form of wheat imports) were taxed heavily. Import duties increased from 0.25 Bs/kg to 0.3914 Bs/kg in 1934 with the net effect of limiting the consumption of flour to small sectors of the population. In 1939 the government of Venezuela signed a Reciprocal Trade Agreement with the USA which, among other things, reduced to about half the tariff for wheat flour imports. Because of the almost total dominance of US wheat flour suppliers in the Venezuelan market this measure deeply affected the availability of wheat products in Venezuela. Following the advice of a US technical mission, called in by the Venezuelan government in 194 1 to overhaul the fiscal system, another drastic reduction of the tariff for wheat flour was enacted. Wheat flour import duties were set at 0.04 Bs/kg.i9 These measures coincided with the steep increase in wheat imports and anticipated by two to three years the start of the explosive urbanization of the country. During the 1950s an official immigration policy was enacted by the government, attracting mostly immigrants from Spain, Italy and Portugal,2o one consequence of which was to permit the expansion of the baking industry because of an influx of skilled bakers. In this way a bottle neck to the increase in wheat consumption was eliminated. The inability of the baking industry to keep pace with the growing wheat consumption is suggested by the high bread prices for most of the 1950s. As a by-product of these immigration policies, the dominance of French and Italian style bread in the Venezuelan market was reinforced. From 1952 onwards, wheat flour and whole wheat imports needed an import licence, granted by the Ministry of Development after consultations with the milling industry.2’ This measure was designed as a protection for the new-born wheat milling industry. The import substitution process for wheat flour was completed by 1962, and as a of pursuing such industrialization policies an consequence oligopolistic wheat milling industry has been established in Venezuela. The milling industry was and is a powerful interest group, mainly due to its concentrated structure with horizontal links with the animal feed manufacturers and the maize milling industries. The industry lobbied the government for cheap wheat imports (both for human consumption and animal feeds), which coincided with the government’s political interest in stable food prices. As a consequence a series of policy measures were enacted.22 In 1958 the price of bread and the retail form, in terms of obligatory weights, was regulated. Pasta and semolina were included in the regulations in 1964. Also in 1964, wheat imports were excluded from a general, 25% devaluation of the Bolivar and a special exchange rate for all wheat imports was established. In 1967, the import duties for wheat were reduced to 0.0005 Bs/kg, although normally these duties had been (and still are) exempted. In 1970, due to pressures from the IMF, the preferential exchange rate was abolished and substituted by a direct subsidy to

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

An implicit food policy Table 5. Most important Venezuela, 1939-l 976.

policy

1942 1950-60 1952

1958 1964 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976

related

to wheat

consumption

in

Measure

Year 1939

measures

Reciprocal Trade Agreement Venezuela - USA: lowers import duties for wheat flour from the USA. Further lowering of import duties for wheat on advice of Technical Mission from the USA. Official stimulation of immigration: influx of skilled bakers. Establishment of need for import licence for unmilled wheat and flour imports. Start of import substitution policy for wheat flour. Birth of wheat milling industry. Regulation of retail form and price of bread. Regulation of retail form and price of pasta and semolina. Wheat imports exempted from general devaluation of currency through a special exchange rate for wheat. Reduction of import duties for unmilled wheat from 0.02 to 0.0005 Bs/kg. Special exchange rate for wheat imports substituted by a direct subsidy equivalent to 25% of the fob price of wheat. Regulation of moisture content of bread. Abolition of need for import licence for wheat imports. Abolition of wheat subsidy.

wheat imports, equivalent to 25% of the fob value, which this time only covered wheat for human consumption. The wheat subsidy was finally abolished in 1976, after reaching the sum of some 300 M Bs a year.23 We see then, that the increase in wheat consumption was made possible during the first phase (roughly 1940-58) by the abolition of the barriers to wheat flour imports. This was enough to permit the expansion of the baking industry, and in this way satisfy the demand of the growing middle- and high-income strata of the population. From 1958 onwards the increase in wheat consumption was based on the stable prices of wheat, which meant wheat became progressively cheaper relative to the other important staple, maize. The consumption of wheat therefore spread to all urban social strata aided also by the 3.9% average annual increase of per capita income and the 6.8% average annual growth of the GNP from 195&69. The cost implied by the maintainance of stable wheat prices, due to such factors as inflation, high profit levels and inefficient production within the wheat industry was borne by the state through various forms of subsidies, eg import duty exemptions, preferential exchange rates, preferential credit facilities for the wheat industry, and lastly the direct subsidy.

An implicit food policy

“According to the director of the Asociacion de Molineros de Trigo (wheat millers association), see El National, 30 April 1976.

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

The change in staple consumption pattern which we have described was not brought about by a deliberate series of policy steps with that end in mind. Rather it was a by-product of other policy measures and it is this process, which we would term implicit food policy, that we now wish to examine. The coincidence of changes in the consumption of wheat with policy measures related to wheat over a long period suggests the existence of a causal link between them. We believe that such a link might be more clearly perceived if the policy measures which we have identified are examined within the context of a broader policy framework. This should allow us to relate the rise in wheat consumption (and decline in maize consumption) to wider socio-

313

An implicitfoodpolicy

economic developments such as increasing incomes, urbanization and industrialization. The food consumption phenomena we have analysed can be re-examined to see to what extent they are symptoms of a more general and fundamental phenomenon. That is, the development of a predominantly rural, agricultural-export based economy to an urban, industrially-oriented and oil-export based economy.24 As far as this study is concerned the crucial feature of this development is that it had two key phases. An initial import-oriented phase and a subsequent phase of industrialization via import substitution. Each of these phases was based on different, although related, social interest groups which possessed different outlooks and aspirations as to the kind of society they sought, ie, to use Varsavsky’s terminology, we can identify two different ‘national projects’.25 We can relate changes in wheat consumption to these two phases of Venezuela’s development.

24The important elements which define this structural change are: the insertion of the country’s economy into the world economy, and the place and articulation of agriculture and industrial production. *5The concept of a national project (see 0. Varsavsky. Hacia ma Politica Cientifica National, Buenos Aires,Editiones Periferia 1972) constitutes the framework which integrates the various developments in food consumption pattern, industrialization and technology related to wheat, into a coherent whole. It shows how the whole complex of policy measures which brought about and aided the development of the food-pattern change studied in this work was taken without any nutritional or even general economic considerations. *6 The exchange rate until 1930 was set at 5.20 Es/$. During the 1930s it fluctuated widely reaching sometimes 6-7 Es/$. From 1937 on it was set at 3.17 Bs/$ until 1953 when the currency was devalued slightly to 3.35 Bs/$. In 1964 a further devaluation was enacted, this time setting the exchange rate at 4.30 Bs/$. The currency was overvalued durinq most of the studied period by at least 2540%. See D.A. Rangel. Capital y Desarrollo. Vol 2. Caracas, 1970, P 318. 27 The alternative strategy of market expansion, against the short-term cashing in on the increasing wheat imports through import duties which had been the norm until 1939, was initiated as a response to US pressures (signing of the Trade Agreement between the USA and Venezuela in 1939). The reason for this US interest in wheat is because wheat flour was the most important export item from the USA to Venezuela. See R. Fitzsimmons, ‘Venezuela best Latin American cash customer for US farm products’, Foreign Agriculture, Vol 7 NO 32, 1969.

314

Import-orientedphase For this study the most important feature of this phase was that the country was opened up, for the great majority, to new foods and products, eg wheat. This change resulted from changes in the economic and social structure brought about by the oil companies and the increase in government oil revenues. One such structural change was the growth in urbanization. This, together with the rise of a broader higher-income class, created a larger demand for convenience, prestige, urban foods. The ready availability of wheat at a relatively cheap price on the international market was a factor in wheat becoming the most important component of these new consumption patterns. The adoption of wheat was further aided by its high prestige stemming from its traditional role as the staple food of the urban high-income class. The expanding consumption of wheat permitted the early expansion of the artisanal baking industry and its early mechanization because of the generally favourable conditions for imports, and because of the relatively easy availability of capital and the relative cheapness of imports, a consequence of the overvalued currency. 26 This sector, therefore, developed in a form based on the consumption of artisanal-manufactured bread which determined its structure for the future.*’ The agricultural, rural-based, dominant elites for this period had an outlook which was basically the same as that of the 19th century ruling elites. It was free-trading and, therefore, import and export oriented and non-interventionist in the internal economic scene. They failed to forsee the consequences which the foreign initiatives in oil investments in Venezuela would bring. Thus a basic characteristic of this period was that a fundamental structural change in the country was started by external financial interests with only minimum participation by traditional ruling circles. Import-substitution phase The second phase is dominated by the industrialization strategy of import substitution. It started with the 1945 coup which dislodged the traditional ruling classes from the government, but which was not completed in full until after 1958. The basic aim was to industrialize the country in the quickest way possible using the oil-revenues for

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

An implicit characteristics general and **The implications of this period are extensively discussed in F. Brito Figueroa, Venezuela Contemporanea, Pais Colonial?. Caracas, 1972: D.F. Maza Zavala, Ve~ezuefa, Una Economia Dependiente, Caracas, lnstituto de lnvestigaciones Universidad Central de Venezuala, 1964; D.A. Rangel, El Proceso del Capitalism0 Contemporaneo en Direction de Venezuela, Caracas, Central de Universidad Cultura, Venezuela, 1968. ** See F. Stewart, ‘Choice of technique in developing countries’, in C. Cooper, ed, Science, Technology and Development, London, 1973. 3o For an extensive discussion of this Direccibn de development see Information del Sector Agropecuario (DISA), Papel de la Agricultufa en ei Desarrollo ~acio~al con Enfasis en la Reforma Agraria. Caracas 1975. 3’ The development model concept used here is equivalent to the national project concept coined by 0. Varsawsky and others. See also A. Herrera, ‘Social determinants of science in Latin America: explicit science policy and implicit science policy’ in C. Cooper, op tit, Ret 29. 32See F. Velez Boza and M. Ruphael, ‘Evolution del Problema Alimentario y Nutritional de Venezuela y su Metodologia de Evaluation’, lnstituto Nacionai de Nutricibn Serie A No 1. Caracas, 1968. 33 For PL 480 shipments to Venezueia see, USDA, US Grain Exports under Government Programs 1954-55, through 1959-60. FAS-M 115, 196 1. Venezuela received only insignificant amounts of flour and wheat under these programmes. However, the programmes had important effects on some other receiving countries, see L. Dudley and R.J. Sandilands, ‘The side effects of foreign aid: the case of Public Law 480 wheat in Colombia’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol23 No 2, 1975. ‘a In the search of a casual model that would integrate the various developments in food consumption pattern, industrialization and agricultural production we have shown that the question of paramount importance is: to what extent were these developments responses to explicit official or other policies? To this end, the policy measures relating in one way or another to wheat, in both its consumption and manufacturing areas, can be classified according to the aims of the policy measures, which could include the following categories: 0 @ 0 0 0

Consumer protection Agricultural production stimulation industrialization policies Purely fiscal measures, whose aim is basically to increase state revenues Other related policies like policies aimed at population changes, nutritional policies etc. continued

FOOD POLICY November

on p 3 I6

1977

food

poliq

this. There was a short-term need for technology and foreign capital. The strategy chosen for industrialization was import substitution.” Now import substitution is, by definition, biased towards the manufacturing of products which have been previously imported, mostly from developed, industrialized countries and which therefore incorporate in their manufacturing a whole series of technological characteristics reflecting the historical development of factor prices in the countries of origin. Hence import substitution is a choice for modern, capital intensive methods of productionz9 Product choice under these conditions also implies additional elements like highincome bias and ecological mismatch. As far as food production was concerned this industrialization strategy encouraged and reinforced the process of replacing traditional patterns. In agriculture, despite agrarian reforms, the predominant small-scale forms of agricultural production began to be replaced slowly by forms based on capital intensi~~e methods of production. The latter had a more corporate form of organization which was more closely bound to industry, via its inputs and tied markets. In general, the terms of interchange are heavily biased in favour of industry, creating a distorted economic structure with an increasing and technolo~ic~ dependence upon industrialized economic countries.30 The changes in food consumption pattern are clearly part of this complex and, therefore, part of the distorted economic structure, which in the final analysis is the basis of underdevelopment. These two phases represent a shift from broadly agricultural, export-oriented interests to urban industrial interests. Each represent a ‘national project’ where the possibilities of a rational, in the sense of being in the interest of the majority, food policy are not contained within the logic of the fundamental priorities. Since this structural change is basically a consequence of the policies pursued by both external and internal interest groups or classes, we can say that the change in the food consumption pattern is a consequence of the development model which gives these policies their basic coherence. Such a development model corresponds to the world view and goals of the classes which dominate a society.31 For Venezuela, this model is characterized basically by the industrialization strategy pursued in the last 20 years and by the role of the state in the production process. No indication exists that the changes in food consumption patterns were intented, or even that the policy makers were aware of them. It is true that a series of measures which could be defined as elements of a food and nutrition policy, such as the creation of a National Nutrition Institute, school feeding programmes, manufacture of protein-rich foods, iodization of salt, etc have been enacted in the course of the last two decades.32 But none of these measures have had any influence on the food consumption pattern changes we have presented. The same is true for external direct influences in the food area, as for example the US programme Food for Peace under Public Law 480.33 On the other hand, certain other measures and policies can be identified as having caused to a great extent the changes. This opens the way for the characterization of an implicit food policy,34 of which the food pattern changes we have analysed are a major consequence. Some of the elements defining this implicit food policy, which emerge from our analysis, are:

315

A n implicit

food policy

0 0

0

continuedfromp315 The basic interest of this categorization model lies in the implicit identification of concrete social actors and their interests behind each cateqory. The oroblems with this model stem- from the difficulty of identifying the aims of some policy measures in an objective way, and the possibility that one measure responds to different, perhaps in the long run, contradictory aims. One way of reducing the subjective factors of this classification model is through an examination of the explicit policy statements of the relevant agencies or persons. This means doing a content analysis of speeches, decrees, political documents, etc. The result would be the definition of the explicit policy related to the relevant subject. The problem with this approach is that most policy measures have consequences which, intended or unintended, affect persons and developments which are not included in the explicit or otherwise formulated statements. The exclusive choice of the methodological strategy outlined above thus presupposes the uncritical, and probably false, assumption of total honesty and knowledge of all implications of defined policy measures by the policy makers. Therefore, we have adopted a concept which permits one to overcome this last difficulty, perhaps at the cost of again introducing the possibility of subjectivity. This is the concept of implicit policy. For a further discussion of some aspects of this concept and of the methodology for the analysis of implicit technological policies see: G. Fieres Guevara, ‘Metodologia de Analisis de Mecanismos e lnstrumentos de Politicas Technologicas Implicitas’ in K. Stanzick and P. Schenkel, ed, Ennsayos Sobre Politica Tecnoldgica en America Latina. ILDIS, 1974. 35 H. Dupin and T. Brun, op cit. Ref 4. 36 Increasing wheat consumption is a which many trend characterises tropical, underdeveloped, especially countries. This world-wide occurrence of these specific food consumption changes suggests that they are linked with some general phenomenon shared by the countries in question. The analysis of these trends and the comparison of the results with the conclusions we have reached in our analysis of increasing wheat consumption in Venezuela, will continued

316

on p 3 17

The change towards high-import content and ecologically maladapted foods. The tendency towards manufactured foods incorporating a high degree of industrial processing, eg, the change from husked maize to pre-cooked maize flour. The trend towards high-cost nutrients, as shown by the increase in meat consumption and the growth of the animal feeds industry, amongst others.

A more extensive and profound analysis of food consumption changes in Venezuela would be required to permit one to check the consistency of these findings within the general development of food consumption in Venezuela and might lead to the identification of additional elements of this implicit food nolicv. On a different level, the changing food patiern and the whole socioeconomic process within which it is embedded can be considered as a ‘cultural imposition’, the imposition of the rnodele economique occidental as it is called by Dupin and Brun.35 The indigenous pattern is replaced by an alien one. The increase in wheat consumption and the decrease in maize consumption and, therefore, to an extent, the implicit food policy have had no readily identifiable deleterious nutritional effects on a nationally aggregated level. However, a closer examination of specific sectors of the population might reveal such deficiencies. But the investigations of the impact of these changes ought not be so narrowly confined. The high foreign exchange costs of wheat imports, the establishment of a very concentrated industry based on wheat, the negative effects that widespread wheat consumption has had on the agricultural sector through its consequences on employment and on the quantity and destiny of investments, among other factors, suggests to us an assessment of this change in food consumption pattern as economically and socially negative. It is in this indirect its relationship to the general complex of sense, through underdevelopment characterized by unemployment, poverty and malnutrition, that it can be said that the changes in food consumption studied might also have had negative nutritional consequences.

Conclusions At the beginning of this article we argued that the examination of food consumption patterns was a valuable part of food policy studies, and that their analysis in relation to the broader problem of underdevelopment might throw some light on the question of why they change. Without in any way wishing to push our argument beyond the limits of our evidence we believe certain generalizable conclusions have emerged. These might be usefully related to more general discussions of development. The policies and programmes developing countries adopt as part of their strategy for development, ie their ‘National Project’ may well have powerful impacts on food consumption patterns, not necessarily arising as a result of explicitly promulgated food and nutrition programmes and policies. Thus the Venezuelan national projects contained an implicit food policy component which had a profound impact on certain aspects of the national diet. Furthermore, these changes tied in with the more general process of underdevelopment.

FOOD

POLICY

November

1977

permit the id~nt~fi~at~5n of the general parameters shared by each of the relevant countries, and further, a closer the general characterization of phenomenon of which increasing wheat consumption is but one symptom. Exampies of countries which show a dramatic increase in wheat ~onsum~ti5n include: Mexico, Colombia, most West African countries and several Asian countries, eg Japan and South Korea. It appears that in many cases - as in Venezuela this increasing wheat consumption is correlated with income and rurat-urban migration. A possible explanation for these devefopments. which we favour, is to see them as one of the consequences of development models and strategies based on a specific conception of industrialization. Dupin and Brun fop tit) have described the distorting influence on the evolution of food

consumption of the ‘Western econamic models and within such a conception the increasing wheat consumption might be seen as an element of a mare general pattern of dependence, and therefore as a symptom of underdevelopment. Certainly we think that the implications of the implicit food policy contained within such modeis of development are of sufficient importance to merit a deeper and more systematic study. For instance, the increasing consumption of wheat leads to dependence 5n imported wheat, which, in turn, places in jeopardy the gual of selfsufficiency in food supplies in such countries. The vulnerability of this situation was made clear by the whearprice rises and scarcities of the year 1973. 37 J.O. Field and F. James Levinson, ‘Nutrition and development: the dynamics of commitment’ in Scrimshaw and Behar. Nutrition and Agricultural ed. ~eQ~/#~rnent, New York and London, t 976.

FOOD POLICY

November

1977

We would suggest that the national projects created by other developing countries could contain similar implicit food policies which might, as we have shown for Venezuela, play a role in maintaining specific features of underdevelopment, It is, of course, a triuism to state that food policy studies should pay due attention to the socioeconomic context. The close refationships between food poiicy and other policy areas, such as industrial, science, technology and agricuftural policies are widely recognised. But in practise they are not easily integrated. We would suggest that their common integrating framework is the national project being pursued by the country in question. We believe many hpecialists in the field accept this, at least in theory. However, the actual practice of food policy research and advice within such a framework might raise an interesting question about the traditional, politically neutral, image of food policy. Food policy studies in the context of the national project would involve, amongst other tasks, the search for implicit food policies. That is, the identification of developments and policies which although ~uper~~iaily externat to food and nutrition matters may have a bearing, directly or indirectly, on such matters. The identification of any such implicit food policies would doubtless encourage attempts to counter, modify or enhance the tendencies they were initiating, according to how they were assessed. In so doing food policy might find itself becoming drawn into national development planning debates at a more fundamental level than has hitherto been the ease. Should this occur effective food policy, ‘as (. . . the nutritional planner) moves beyond advocacy’, in the words of Field and Levinson, would need to acknowledge and be based on its specifically political character.37 A most crucial part of such an effective food policy would be the de~nition of an ecologically, socially and economically appropriate food consumption pattern. It is a matter of speculation whether any of the national projects and development models currently utilized by developing countries would in fact prove capable of incorporating such a food policy (assuming it could be devised), On the admittedly narrow and partial evidence of our case study it seems unlikely.

317