The Boomtown Rats' song I Don't like Mondays joined Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall as the playground chant of the 1980s. Although it was about a Californian girl who went on a shooting spree at her school, it was not until Live Aid that lead singer Bob Geldof was established as one of the key spokesmen for a generation.
Loquacious and angry, Geldof found inspiration for his lyrics in everything from the troubles in Ireland, race riots and unemployment to a Greenpeace rally and a girl he fancied when he was in the fourth form.
So it was perhaps not too surprising when the now Sir Bob turned his attention once again last month to the campaign to get First World governments to drop Third World debt.
Speaking at the CIES World Food Business Summit in Barcelona, having just returned from Africa, he said: "For 18 years now I have been working on the disparity between our economic and political success and their failure.
"One hundred years ago the earnings gap between Europe and Africa was nine to one. Today it is more like 100 to one. Why are we so successful and why recently do we appear to be accelerating away from the poor rather than them converging closer to us?"
Geldof has asked this question of some of the most influential people of the time, from Margaret Thatcher, Edward Kennedy and Henry Kissinger to President Mitterrand, Mother Teresa and Prince Charles. This time, the question was for global food industry leaders. Needless to say he did not pull any punches.
As he closed this year's summit, which examined the theme Success in an Age of Scepticism, he berated "the corrosive cynicism so prevalent in our sceptical populations".
Globalisation was next on his list: "We tried to put regulations and rules around this dynamic of planetary business to expand the limitless horizons of free trade," he said. "But the rules were made by us (the traders), for us (the producers as well). So the rules were stacked less against them, the poor, but just more in our favour.
"They are grotesquely unfair and one-sided. Do we really have to be so brutish, so bullying in the wielding of our massive victory? Open your markets to us without condition, without demur we say, and we in turn will impose tariffs, taxes and subsidies against your puny exports to us. Trade became another new weight with which to burden the already broken."
The gap between power and the powerless breeds the scepticism that poisons our society, believes Geldof. And it is not just politicians on the receiving end of this. "Big business markets its brands in a wholly cynical manner, which is disbelieved by the media-hip consumer. Why would you not be cynical about a product that tries to sell you happiness through lifestyle and lifestyle through a drink or pair of jeans?"
The problem is we have got to the point where the very idea of success is disbelieved. And, according to Geldof, the food industry and its products will be tarnished with the sweep of this endemic, sceptical new thought.
"First you have succeeded in turning a need into a product and desire into a brand. We need to eat and you say we should eat or drink this name or that because that way we will impress our friends, feel better and live healthier.
"That's a lie. It's just food. I can grow the stuff in my garden. Why wouldn't I be sceptical?"
True, the food industry has succeeded in eliminating food shortages in the West, provided better health and removed the burden of subsistence to such an extent that food is now part of the entertainment industry rather than about sustaining life.
Industry manipulation
But along the way the industry has "manipulated the foodstuffs, distorted the markets, altered the environment, changed the landscape, impacted negatively on the lives of millions and exploited ruthlessly the weakest and most vulnerable societies" says Geldof.
"The history of Big Food is wildly successful from the business point of view, but not to be studied too closely by the vast majority who have values beyond mere economics. Ask yourself the question, then answer yourself truthfully, why wouldn't they be sceptical?"
In a scathing attack Geldof describes the purveyors of the food industry as having made the production of food, through its brands, god-like. "Buy X and you will be this, feel that, etc. In place of gods we have names or brands or personalities in ascendant.
"You have taken on the character of the gods. You have entered the realms of hubris. And as sure as night follows day, once hubris comes can nemesis be far behind? It is wise to remember the best food grows from manure. Food is mired in shit."
This is not to say that Geldof lays all the blame at the feet of the industry. He is sympathetic to the issues of day-to-day management of such complex food businesses and says the City has not played a "helpful" role, with its constant pressure for returns.
But he believes food businesses can sustain their success and defeat scepticism by following his five simple tests (see box).With regard to the first test, responding to consumers, Geldof applauds the industry, saying it should be given a big tick. He cites European supermarkets taking GM foods off their shelves in response to consumer demands and Starbucks striking a deal with coffee farmers in Ethiopia guaranteeing the farmers a fair price.
"In the US Weetabix now has a totally GM-free policy, which treats customers as intelligent human beings. But where are Kellogg's and Nestlé on this issue? Soreen, Thorntons and Cow & Gate have all followed suit and will, in my view, reap the rewards of listening to customers," he says.
When it comes to dominance and leaving room for local competition, Geldof says there is much less room for congratulation. He cites Wal-Mart's aggressive approach to labour relations and the demise of independents in the UK.
"For the most vulnerable people in society the elderly and the disabled, or those millions that simply do not have access to a car the shop is more than just a convenience. It is a basic local service."
The food industry can turn the tide of scepticism and use its power beneficially, believes Geldof. By rising above its narrow economic view and seeing the whole world it can participate, rather than intrude, in people's lives.
"Instead of a fleeting and ultimately futile customer satisfaction, which finally breeds disillusionment [the sector] can generate actual customer satisfaction by a thoroughly thought-through corporate responsibility," he says.
And, he adds, ultimately there will be no choice. "If people no longer believe in your products your business will die."
{{ANALYSIS }}
Loquacious and angry, Geldof found inspiration for his lyrics in everything from the troubles in Ireland, race riots and unemployment to a Greenpeace rally and a girl he fancied when he was in the fourth form.
So it was perhaps not too surprising when the now Sir Bob turned his attention once again last month to the campaign to get First World governments to drop Third World debt.
Speaking at the CIES World Food Business Summit in Barcelona, having just returned from Africa, he said: "For 18 years now I have been working on the disparity between our economic and political success and their failure.
"One hundred years ago the earnings gap between Europe and Africa was nine to one. Today it is more like 100 to one. Why are we so successful and why recently do we appear to be accelerating away from the poor rather than them converging closer to us?"
Geldof has asked this question of some of the most influential people of the time, from Margaret Thatcher, Edward Kennedy and Henry Kissinger to President Mitterrand, Mother Teresa and Prince Charles. This time, the question was for global food industry leaders. Needless to say he did not pull any punches.
As he closed this year's summit, which examined the theme Success in an Age of Scepticism, he berated "the corrosive cynicism so prevalent in our sceptical populations".
Globalisation was next on his list: "We tried to put regulations and rules around this dynamic of planetary business to expand the limitless horizons of free trade," he said. "But the rules were made by us (the traders), for us (the producers as well). So the rules were stacked less against them, the poor, but just more in our favour.
"They are grotesquely unfair and one-sided. Do we really have to be so brutish, so bullying in the wielding of our massive victory? Open your markets to us without condition, without demur we say, and we in turn will impose tariffs, taxes and subsidies against your puny exports to us. Trade became another new weight with which to burden the already broken."
The gap between power and the powerless breeds the scepticism that poisons our society, believes Geldof. And it is not just politicians on the receiving end of this. "Big business markets its brands in a wholly cynical manner, which is disbelieved by the media-hip consumer. Why would you not be cynical about a product that tries to sell you happiness through lifestyle and lifestyle through a drink or pair of jeans?"
The problem is we have got to the point where the very idea of success is disbelieved. And, according to Geldof, the food industry and its products will be tarnished with the sweep of this endemic, sceptical new thought.
"First you have succeeded in turning a need into a product and desire into a brand. We need to eat and you say we should eat or drink this name or that because that way we will impress our friends, feel better and live healthier.
"That's a lie. It's just food. I can grow the stuff in my garden. Why wouldn't I be sceptical?"
True, the food industry has succeeded in eliminating food shortages in the West, provided better health and removed the burden of subsistence to such an extent that food is now part of the entertainment industry rather than about sustaining life.
Industry manipulation
But along the way the industry has "manipulated the foodstuffs, distorted the markets, altered the environment, changed the landscape, impacted negatively on the lives of millions and exploited ruthlessly the weakest and most vulnerable societies" says Geldof.
"The history of Big Food is wildly successful from the business point of view, but not to be studied too closely by the vast majority who have values beyond mere economics. Ask yourself the question, then answer yourself truthfully, why wouldn't they be sceptical?"
In a scathing attack Geldof describes the purveyors of the food industry as having made the production of food, through its brands, god-like. "Buy X and you will be this, feel that, etc. In place of gods we have names or brands or personalities in ascendant.
"You have taken on the character of the gods. You have entered the realms of hubris. And as sure as night follows day, once hubris comes can nemesis be far behind? It is wise to remember the best food grows from manure. Food is mired in shit."
This is not to say that Geldof lays all the blame at the feet of the industry. He is sympathetic to the issues of day-to-day management of such complex food businesses and says the City has not played a "helpful" role, with its constant pressure for returns.
But he believes food businesses can sustain their success and defeat scepticism by following his five simple tests (see box).With regard to the first test, responding to consumers, Geldof applauds the industry, saying it should be given a big tick. He cites European supermarkets taking GM foods off their shelves in response to consumer demands and Starbucks striking a deal with coffee farmers in Ethiopia guaranteeing the farmers a fair price.
"In the US Weetabix now has a totally GM-free policy, which treats customers as intelligent human beings. But where are Kellogg's and Nestlé on this issue? Soreen, Thorntons and Cow & Gate have all followed suit and will, in my view, reap the rewards of listening to customers," he says.
When it comes to dominance and leaving room for local competition, Geldof says there is much less room for congratulation. He cites Wal-Mart's aggressive approach to labour relations and the demise of independents in the UK.
"For the most vulnerable people in society the elderly and the disabled, or those millions that simply do not have access to a car the shop is more than just a convenience. It is a basic local service."
The food industry can turn the tide of scepticism and use its power beneficially, believes Geldof. By rising above its narrow economic view and seeing the whole world it can participate, rather than intrude, in people's lives.
"Instead of a fleeting and ultimately futile customer satisfaction, which finally breeds disillusionment [the sector] can generate actual customer satisfaction by a thoroughly thought-through corporate responsibility," he says.
And, he adds, ultimately there will be no choice. "If people no longer believe in your products your business will die."
{{ANALYSIS }}
No comments yet