“Food has increased much more than other products over the past two years, and this has affected working-class circles much more,” underlines Jean Viard

A first round of negotiations between large retailers and their suppliers must end tomorrow, Monday January 16. This is the entire part of the discussions that involves small and medium-sized businesses. Increases will concern certain food products.

Today we are talking about the commercial negotiations in progress until tomorrow Monday between large retailers and suppliers. The objective is to define the prices on the shelves for the coming year, and therefore, in part, the prices of food. The subject is electric. These discussions are closely followed. The different parties respond to each other through the press, under the watchful eye of course of politicians and the French, who are waiting for reductions. But increases will also occur on certain products.

franceinfo: Jean Viard, does that mean that having enough money to eat well on a daily basis is not necessarily a given?

Jean Viard: This is not obvious. In addition, we had lost the culture of inflation. We are coming out of a long period where we were in a culture of unemployment, and so people were wondering how to get around it, how to get out of it, etc. Today, we have to learn the culture of inflation because people don’t consume the same, they adapt. Afterwards, what is true is that when you already ate pasta almost every day, you cannot adapt.

And food has increased much more than other products over the past two years. And it affected working-class circles much more, because the share of food in modest incomes is greater. Wealthy people spend around 14% of their income on food, and often on quality products, even restaurants. In working-class circles, we sometimes reach 20% of the food budget. So when it increases by 15 to 20%, it obviously produces a much more serious effect. This is why popular circles are much more sensitive. And let’s not talk about the most disadvantaged environments.

Just one remark: there was a proposal that was made a few years ago, which was to give food checks in working-class areas, where the French live below the poverty line, of the order of 150 to 200 euros per month to only buy food products. I found this measure extremely intelligent because indeed we cannot discuss the fact that people eat, but eat relatively well, especially for children.

But precisely, this food check, we learned a few days ago that it was not going to be put in place for several million French people. Conversely, it will provide aid to food banks and associations. 2 and a half million French people still go to food banks, it’s difficult to imagine that there are so many people today who are unable to feed themselves well, even though this is a major issue?

On the planet, there are 850 million people who have difficulty feeding themselves, and this increased after Covid. But it is obvious that food quality and the issue of food insecurity is not just about starving. In our societies, this hardly happens, but on the other hand, eating poorly does. Food in 1960 accounted for 29% of the household budget, today it is approximately 17% of the household budget. For what ? Because housing, which represented around 24% in 1960, represents around 31%.

Transport which was 11% represents 14%. And above all leisure. During the holidays, we went from 3 to 10%. It means that we have changed our way of life. It means that we have larger, more comfortable homes, and many more of us live alone. So obviously, there are 9 million of us living alone, in 1962, it was 4 million.

It is the way of life that has changed. The power supply has moved. And then one thing: we no longer know how to cook. This knowledge has been lost. However, you have to relearn how to cook. One of my big demands is that we bring cooking classes back to school, I had some, I found it very good because what still costs less is going on the market and to cook their own dish, especially vegetables. I’m not sure the food budget will increase. But I think that food knowledge can be redeveloped.

60% of garden people, 40% of people who have a garden have a vegetable garden. It must also be included in the calculations, particularly in Northern France and Eastern France, where there are old popular traditions. Look in the settlements, I was going to say each miner had his own vegetable garden. Because food also means knowing how to produce, knowing how to cook and then of course helping the most vulnerable. I am very much in favor of food checks. I regret if we don’t do it, because I think that, including because it allows direct purchasing from producers, we must protect the agricultural world, we must protect it. And on the other hand, we must help the weakest to feed themselves.