150 euros per month for everyone for agroecological food: they propose food social security
A study assures that it is viable for the Spanish state to guarantee food as a basic right like healthcare or education
BarcelonaA universal public subsidy of 150 euros per month that can only be spent on agroecological and local food. This is the Food Social Security system proposed by a report from the cooperative el Pa Sencer, which was presented this Tuesday in Barcelona at an event chaired by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Sofía Monsalve Suárez.
According to the study, if the Spanish state wanted to implement this system, it would have to allocate approximately 76 billion euros, a budget lower than that allocated to Health (103 billion) and military spending (81 billion), but slightly exceeding the budget for Education (66.2 billion). This would mean allocating 4.7% of the Spanish GDP to guarantee sufficient production for the entire population of "fresh, healthy, seasonal, and local food, with support for agroecological practices," the report states.
These 150 euros per adult and 75 euros per month for those under 25 years old are considered to cover 80% of monthly food needs. A type of food voucher (like the school voucher) that could not be spent in any food establishment but only "in establishments and circuits defined under democratic criteria" that prioritize organic and local products, says the report. "The SSA would not only be a social policy, but would have elements of agricultural, food, ecological, and territorial policy," it adds.
The theoretical proposal for a Food Social Security originates in France and Belgium, but some experiments have already begun to implement it – on a municipal scale – in some localities in France. In these cases, the adopted formula has been a card that each inhabitant receives to spend in specific establishments that are part of the circuit.
The report presented this Tuesday assures that this system is scalable and applicable to the entire Spanish state. However, "between 30% and 40% of the jobs it would involve would be newly created," meaning that the SSA would create one million jobs in the agricultural and food sector, according to Francisco Navarro, co-author of the report. "And in addition to creating these jobs, the system would allow two million people who currently live below the poverty line to get out of it," he adds.
"Just as public healthcare and education guarantee basic health and education rights, and at the same time guarantee income for professionals in these sectors, this system we propose would guarantee the right to food and at the same time decent wages for small farmers," also remarks Gustavo Duch, a member of the cooperative el Pa Sencer, author of the report.
Support from the UN rapporteur on the right to food
The impact this would have on public budgets "would be within the margins of European countries with higher public spending and higher public revenue", as it would mean allocating 4.7% of GDP to it, points out Navarro. And he also assures that the study they have conducted confirms that this state budget for a Food Social Security could be achieved "with the current capacities of the fiscal system and by eliminating tax fraud", without requiring a complete tax reform. Furthermore, according to Navarro, the jobs and productive activity that would be created with this system would simultaneously generate tax revenue through VAT and Personal Income Tax in an amount "that would reduce the initial spending by 20%".
However, the authors of the report admit that the creation of a state-level Food Social Security cannot be done overnight, and therefore they propose taking inspiration from the "pilot tests" being carried out in Montpellier or Bordeaux, according to Duch, to also initially apply it at the municipal level. "We are thinking above all about starting in rural micro-villages that are paradoxically very close to production areas, but which are losing their traditional food trade because agricultural production is moving to cities or even abroad".
"The food consumption model we have is inefficient and totally unsustainable economically and ecologically; it not only generates health problems but is also highly dependent on the volatility of international prices," states Navarro, and argues that "with criteria of economic efficiency, there are very solid reasons to defend a public provision of food." The support of the UN special rapporteur for the presentation of the report shows that this is a global debate. "We are at a historic moment – says Duch – when we are moving from demanding the right to demanding concrete public policies to guarantee it".