Karina/special issue 03 interfacing the law

MEETING NOTES

MASTER GUIDE

SPECIAL ISSUE 02 // PUSHING THE SCORE

SPECIAL ISSUE 03 // INTERFACING THE LAW

16 MAY

Film list
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Nadiners/_foodfilms

Feedback / look into

• Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri - Empire
• No Logo
• think about the platform you will work with
  • http://www.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page
  • http://foodfinds.referata.com/wiki/Special:Browse/Ali_baba
  • https://monoskop.org/images/9/94/Mondotheque_A_Radiated_Book_Un_livre_irradiant_Een_irradierend_boek_2016.pdf
• make search (e.g. show all under category 'cheese' or under 3g salt)
• why some things are mentioned, why some not?
• differences in countries?
• openfoodfacts: could we ask them for their data?
• the document liberation project - reverse engineering file formats (affiliate with, not redefine project)
• desire for transparency v.s. trying to cover up by shifting attention
• what is shown on packaging, what they gain from regulations and norms
• decrypting language that is used in marketing / packaging (e.g. 100% natural)
• confront front-facing packaging and (f)actual ingredients
• what we have already given from openfoodfacts, and what other types of information is missing?
• transparency / responsibility: make clear that what is 'on the surface' comes directly from openfoodfacts, 'beneath the surface' is what we add
• explicit reuse of openfoodfacts makes our work stronger
• sharpen difference between openfoodfacts and our research - do not overlap 'on the surface' / 'grey area' / 'beneath the surface'
• how to populate your site?
• look into expenses: what and how much?

How to call 'empires'?

• consumer goods company
• manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer foods
• multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation
• manufacturing and processing conglomerate
• transnational food and drink company
• consumer goods corporation

FFF on Referata
http://fff.referata.com/wiki/Main_Page

15 MAY

how to expand from already existing archive?
focus on one product and add to it

additions

• ethiscore
• slotting fee
• money spent on advertising
• comparison of 'empires'

Albert Heijn frozen pizza options

• AH brand
• Dr. Oetker

Albert Heijn ice-cream options

• AH brand
• Magnum (Unilever)
• Ben & Jerry's (Unilever)
• Heartbrand (Unilever)
• Hertog (Unilever, bought in 1996)

Magnum ethiscore: unknown
Heartbrand ethiscore: unknown
Ben & Jerry's ethiscore: 3.5/15

Interfacing Food app
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Nadiners/_interfacingfoodapp

ON THE SURFACE

Name of Product
Image
Product characteristics

• Quantity
• Packaging
• Sub-Brand –> Brand –> Empire Brand
• Categories
• Labels, certifications, awards
• Manufacturing or processing places
• Link to the product page on the official site of the producer
• Stores
• Countries where sold

Ingredients on packaging

• simple: origin / where grown

Nutrition facts

• Nutrient levels for 100 g

GREY AREA

Decrypting the ingredients

• complex: origin / where actually grown
• Additives
• Synonyms

Deeper look into packaging

• what is it made out of (e.g. cans)

History

• of brand
• of product

BENEATH THE SURFACE

Nutrition facts

• NutriScore

Ethical/Environmental facts of brand

• Ethiscore of brand out of 15
  • include screenshot
  • how much money you need to pay to access the information
• Ethiscore of product out of 20
  • include screenshot
  • how much money you need to pay to access the information
• ISO certificate of brand - mention even if not existent
  • include screenshot
  • how much money you need to pay to access the information

Slotting fee

• how much brands pay to be visible on shelf
• contracts with stores (e.g. dr. Oetker pizza or Unilever ice-cream monopoly)

Advertising

• money spent
• branding
• tactics
• promises (e.g. "By 2020 we will...")

Bad Press

• images of factories / how it's made
• articles if company got sued
• case itself
• reports

Also found:
Business Insider: Here's what Velveeta and Kraft Singles are actually made of

11 MAY

Vox: The hidden war over grocery shelf space
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImZD2JGxbmc

Rigged: Supermarket Shelves for Sale by Gary Rivlin
https://cspinet.org/resource/rigged

"And yet at the end of 2015, Clemmy’s went out of business. Its failure shows how today’s food marketplace is tilted in favor of the world’s largest food manufacturers and against everyone else—including companies offering better-for- you products." (Rivlin p.1)

"You can't just start selling your ice-cream. If you want to be in a major grocer, you have to pay. Journalist Gary Rivlin recently wrote about the slotting fee economy in a report for the Centre for Science in the Public Interest. His story of a real ice-cream brand called Clemmy's is a guide to what might happen to your generic ice-cream brand. To get generic ice-cream inside a freezer door you'd have to pay $30,000 to get into 350 stores. And that's at a discount. Once you got in, sometimes you have to pay up to stay on the shelf. You're competing against giants like Nestle and Unilever. Rivlin reports they control basically 90% of the available freezer doors because they've already paid up. For giants like them a $30,000 fee isn't a lot. For you, however, it might be a major cost. Even then, paying for your generic ice-cream to get on the shelves wouldn't necessarily give you control. Instead, category captains - the big buys who pay the most - draft where every item goes, which can determine how well things sell." [1:16 - 2:20] (Vox video)

• Unilever: Ben & Jerry's, Magnum, Heart Brand (Ola, Walls, Algida)
• Nestle: Nesquick, Kit Kat, Rolo ice cream
• General Mills: Haagen-Danzs

Mary W. Sullivan (University of Chicago) defends slotting fees
can purchase for $10
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/467380

• They help stores prioritise abundance of products
• Since 1980s technological advances raised amount of products from 2,000 to 18,000

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Report on the Federal Trade Commission Workshop on Slotting Allowances and Other Marketing Practices in the Grocery Industry (2001)
https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/report-federal-trade-commission-workshop-slotting-allowances-and-other-marketing-practices-grocery/slottingallowancesreportfinal_0.pdf

• slotting fees are typically higher where space is scarcer
• e.g. ice cream or candy by check-out isle
• if you're able to pay $30,000 fee, means you did your research and know your product will sell
• 80-90% of new products fail

Food Marketing Institute (FMI) - represents grocers
[Rivlin's] "report seriously mischaracterised the legitimate food industry practice of slotting fees"

Rivlin and FTC asked grocers on their opinion
Walmart: "unlike many other grocers, Walmart does not charge slotting fees... We are working with our suppliers every day to serve our shared customers" - they believe it raises prices
Whole Foods: similar opinion. Want to give test stores to give products a chance

FMI: " It is not a shadowy backroom deal cut, but an openly discussed agreement to facilitate manufacturers helping retailers recoup the labor, spacing and shelving costs entailed in marketing new product lines"

also push in-store brands to give more control, which gives less space to manufacturers (think Albert Hein!)

10 MAY

Vox: The "natural" label on your food is baloney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X72KpJKKUhI#t=4.1432982

9 MAY

https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/p/desription-food-lib

5 MAY

Found another version. Newer / outdated?



How could we represent these 'empires' as people?

4 MAY

Unilever
https://www.unilever.com/legal.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever

"Unilever is organised into four main divisions: Personal Care (production and sale of skin care and hair care products, deodorants and oral care products); Foods (production and sale of soups, bouillons, sauces, snacks, mayonnaise, salad dressings, margarines and spreads); Refreshment (production and sale of ice cream, tea-based beverages, weight-management products and nutritionally enhanced staples sold in developing markets); and Home Care (production and sale of home care products including powders, liquids and capsules, soap bars and other cleaning products).[78] In the financial year ended 31 December 2013, Unilever had a total turnover of €49.797 billion of which 36% was from Personal Care, 27% from Foods, 19% from Refreshment and 18% from Home Care. Unilever invested a total of €1.04 billion in research and development in 2013.

Unilever is one of the largest media buyers in the world, and invested around €6 billion (US$8 billion) in advertising and promotion in 2010."

Products - 13 $1 billion brands

• Axe
• Dove
• Heartbrand
• Hellmann’s
• Knorr
• Lipton
• Lux
• Magnum
• Omo
• Rama
• Rexona
• Sunsilk
• Surf

Lipton Tea
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1073495-d3655567-Reviews-Lipton_s_Seat-Haputale_Uva_Province.html

Anual Report 2015
https://www.unilever.com/Images/annual_report_and_accounts_ar15_tcm244-478426_en.pdf

More reports
https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/sustainable-living-news/reports-and-publications/index.html

Bad press
Former manager sues Unilever over ‘illegal’ sacking (Daily Nation, June 2012)
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Former-manager-sues-Unilever-over-illegal-sacking-/1056-1431282-ei34nh/index.html

Atwoli: dismissal of Unilever tea workers illegal (3 years ago)
http://www.hivisasa.com/posts/3912
"The court heard that the Kericho-based tea company dismissed a group of workers on diverse dates between November 2013 and April 2014 on allegations of violating a document termed as Code of Business Principles... The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union on Thursday moved to the industrial court to stop the eviction orders by the tea company claiming the code of business principles was not brought to the attention of the employees."
Unilever Code of Business Principles
https://www.unilever.co.uk/Images/4394-cobp-code-policies-booklet-external.v12_tcm1252-409220_en.pdf

Unilever admits toxic dumping: will clean up but not come clean (Greenpeace, June 2001)
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/unilever-admits-toxic-dumping-will-clean-up-but-not-come-clean
"The company has also agreed to undertake a clean-up of 5.3 tons of mercury wastes it illegally dumped at a local scrapyard, but it is still refusing to accept that local people and workers at the factory in Kodiakanal may have been exposed to the highly toxic metal."

Tesco and Unilever fail test (The Guardian, January 2005)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/jan/29/supermarkets.unilever

Ethical Consumer Information Systems
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/shoppingethically/ourethicalratings/environment.aspx#pollution
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/portals/0/downloads/categoriesa4.pdf

• environmental reporting
• climate change
• pollution & toxics
• habitats & resources
• palm oil

Ethical Consumer Research Association
http://www.corporatecritic.org/info/rr/ethiscore.aspx

• A company Ethiscore of 0 to 15 points. 15 is the best Ethiscore and 0 worst
• A product Ethiscore of 0 to 20 points. 20 is the best Ethiscore and 0 worst.

Ethiscores divided into categories
http://www.corporatecritic.org/categories.aspx

• Environment
  • Environmental Reporting
  • Climate Change
  • Pollution & Toxics
  • Habitats & Resources
  • Palm Oil
• Animals
  • Animal Testing
  • Factory Farming
  • Animal Rights
• People
  • Human Rights
  • Workers' Rights
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Irresponsible Marketing
  • Arms & Military Supply
• Politics
  • Controversial Technologies
  • Boycott Call
  • Political Activities
  • Anti-Social Finance
  • Company Ethos (+ve)
• Product sustainability (+ve)
  • Organic Product (+ve)
  • Fairtrade Product (+ve)
  • Environmental Features (+ve )
  • Other Sustainability Features (+ve)
  • Animal Welfare Features (+ve)

Subscribe to see Ethiscores
http://www.corporatecritic.org/login/subscribe.aspx

• Annual Rate: £899 (ex VAT)
• Annual "Not for Profit" Rate: £699 (ex VAT)
• Monthly Rate: £150 (ex VAT)
• Monthly "Not for Profit" Rate: £120 (ex VAT)
• Daily Rate: £20.83 (ex VAT)

still managed to find some info without subscription. ethiscore 7/15


Dilma
http://ethicalteasociety.org/about-us/faq
Why is Dilmah not certified as Fair Trade?

We would not join the Fair Trade movement as Dilmah tea goes far beyond Fair Trade.

Fair Trade does not address the fundamental weakness of the tea industry. Although well intentioned, in the case of tea, Fair Trade perpetuates the outdated colonial model of raw material being imported into and packaged in the UK, where all the significant branding profits lie.

Only a small fraction of the Fair Trade premium charged to consumers for tea is paid to the grower, typically only 7% of the shelf price finds its way back as the total payment for tea supplied. Dilmah returns a minimum of 10% of pre-tax profits to growers, distributed via the MJF Foundation (see www.mjffoundation.org). This has a far greater impact on the tea growers and the Ceylon Tea Industry than Fair Trade. MJF Foundation funds are used to ensure, among other things, child nutrition, midday meals, educational scholarships, hospitals and school facilities as standard provisions for the Dilmah workforce. Fair Trade is also not about quality, it’s a seal of approval to sell at a premium price appealing to consumer consciences. Any new brand wanting to sell an average quality product at a premium price can apply for the Fair Trade mark and start a “virtual marketing” firm that outsources tea packaging and sourcing of the tea to other UK firms. This means there might be up to 5 or 6 middlemen between the grower and the retailer with very little invested back to the tea growers. Dilmah is the antithesis of this model.

Dilmah Tea is entirely packaged and branded in Sri Lanka without middlemen in the West. In any industry, the fairest form of trade is for the producer to offer their product to consumers using as few intermediaries as possible. In the case of Ceylon Tea, gathering and retaining the product’s value at origin benefits the grower in the form of a fair price for a product that requires effort, expertise and dedication to produce; it benefits the tea industry, which is ailing from years of exploitation and deprivation of a fair share of the revenue from the sale of its produce; and, in our case, it benefits the under-developed economy of Sri Lanka. Importantly, it also benefits the consumer in presenting a better quality tea.

Much of the Fair Trade movement focuses on worker conditions and moving towards an acceptable quality of life for workers. In Sri Lanka, standards in tea garden worker conditions have been legally enforced for over one hundred years as it is the most established global tea producer.

3 MAY

Pineapple comparison
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L0Rba3JhbemeroViFhptdSjn2JEZAEOcmOWUDap6pjI/edit#gid=200332713

11 APRIL

good site if you want to use a site without making a login. check whether it also works for websites discussed on 10/04
http://bugmenot.com

10 APRIL

pzi pad
https://pad.pzimediadesign.nl/p/ifl.hnimeeting_100417

evernote
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s368/sh/be246973-d2c6-4610-9b59-14fdeeca02ff/cf92fe33ff257154f038298668861bc6

Balázs Bodó - Libraries in the post-scarcity era
https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2341818/162448_Libraries_in_the_post_scarcity_era.pdf

4 APRIL

evernote
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s368/sh/527452fc-0b88-4c3c-b169-63d34a849344/f1e8ac2e39abd89abeceeb1e47c93fc6