Reporting On... - Revista F&H

F&H International 1 • November 2011
26
Opinion Piece
Optimism -
Wishful Thinking
or Courage Born
of Desperation?
It was in Düsseldorf on October 21,
at the ‘First Conference on Fruits
and Vegetables’ where I learned of
a new German food-alert website.
I do not remember the exact reason why
the launch of ‘lebensmittelwarnung.de’
was mentioned but it was surely in some
EHEC-crisis related context – most lecturers
had no choice but to touch on the
subject. There were also some speeches
that dealt explicitely with the EHEC crisis
and, above all, the lessons on crisis
management we have been taught. The
most important points that virtually all
speakers agreed on were the promptness
of reaction and the adequacy of
the communications strategy. Not stunningly
new but, of course, absolutely
true. What was a surprise to me was
that there seemed to be a rather clear
consensus that everyone would be
much smarter next time. What are the
reasons for so much optimism? What
prepares us to face and efficiently manage
similar incidents in the future? Let
us remind what happened last spring
and summer: first, there was the EHEC
outbreak; then alleged culprit upon
alleged culprit was presented to the
public whereupon each and every one
of the sectors under suspicion claimed
their innocence and demanded conclusive
evidence; that evidence could never
be found, instead someone else was accused.
No doubt, there is room for improvement,
but both the fruit trade and
the growers reacted every time they had
to. However, consumption collapsed
almost completely - against all factual
evidence. What new tools are there to
prevent the gutter press to use headlines
featuring “Killer Cucumbers”, “Deadly
Lettuce” or “Suicides Scrambling for
the Salad Bar”? Something must have
passed me by …
Unless, of course, the abovementioned
new website is what was so badly needed.
Maybe if consumers could have
looked up every morning which foodstuff
posed EHEC-related health risks
to them, nothing much would have
happened. Just imagine: mid-May –
“could be bad for you to eat beef and
drink raw milk”; a few days later - “consumption
of raw vegetables is probably
riskier than raw milk”; May 25 - consumers
are cautioned against “Northern
German tomatoes, cucumbers, and
lettuce” (Grown there? Sold there?);
towards the end of May - “children are
discouraged from eating raw vegetables,
pregnant women should do without
raw meat and raw milk products”;
May 26- “Whoopee!!! it is cucumbers
from Spain and maybe Holland”; end
of May - the German Minister for consumer
protection, to be on the safest
side, repeats the warning against “raw
tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers”; May
31 - “sorry, it was definitely not Spanish
cucumbers”; early in June - “do not
dine at the restaurant Kartoffelkeller in
Lübeck”; almost at the same time - “soybean
sprouts from Lower Saxony are
bad for you”; and so on and so forth...
O.K., I think you agree that ‘lebensmittelwarnung.de’
would not have changed
a thing. But then, where does all that
German optimism come from? If anybody
has a clue and wants to tell me,
I would be much obliged. Thank you
very much in advance.
Uwe Schwießelmann
coordinator
f&h international