To feed Humankind. Hardwork

The ‘primary sector’ is the most important. The backbone of many economies, it includes agriculture, livestock farming, fishing, and aquaculture and employs more than a billion people, mainly in Asia and Africa. It also produces around eleven billion tonnes of raw food every year. The ‘secondary sector’ includes food processing, packaging, and transport, mainly in countries where the agri-food industry and trade in processed products are highly developed. The ‘tertiary sector,’ linked to in-store sales and catering, is more developed in large economies such as the United States, Europe, and Asia, where demand for catering and delivery services continues to grow. 

As far as working conditions are concerned, the global food system is still marked by inequalities between countries in the North and those in the South, as well as by the greater vulnerability of workers in the primary sector, while the more highly skilled jobs are concentrated in industrialised regions. Despite their essential role, these workers generally do not enjoy significant socio-economic recognition. They are largely excluded from ownership of the land they cultivate, the means of production they use, and the products they harvest. Trade unions, agricultural confederations, companies committed to sustainability, and treaties and laws governing workers' rights, such as those promoted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), are all striving to improve their working conditions.

They work in the fields, of farms and plantations

Since the advent of modern times in the 16th century, agricultural workers have played a central role in the economic boom and the increase in global food production. Some authors have called our era the ‘plantationocene,’ in reference to the emergence of large monoculture plantations growing staple crops such as cereals, but also non-essential export products such as sugar, coffee, tea, and cocoa. These workers have provided the labour needed for the growth of industries and the expansion of international markets. Yet their history is marked by often harsh working conditions. Until the 19th century, the majority of them were subjected to colonial slavery or other forms of exploitation or subjection, sometimes extreme. Even today, in many parts of the world, they continue to be exploited by unscrupulous landlords and industries, or in some cases by mafia networks. Despite the efforts of many employers, trade unions, NGOs, and international organisations, their fundamental human rights are frequently compromised.

Cooks in the foodservice industry

They provide meals for billions of people every day. People working in this sector occupy a variety of roles in a multitude of contexts. In restaurants, they serve a varied clientele by perpetuating culinary traditions or proposing innovations, while in school canteens, they prepare nutritious meals for millions of children every day. In companies, collective catering allows employees to eat on site, reducing the need to travel and encouraging teamwork. In hospitals and retirement homes, kitchen teams prepare meals adapted to the specific diets of the people in their care. Food is again an essential service in prisons. Armies also rely on their cooks to provide regular meals, sometimes in difficult conditions. Finally, in the transport sector, meals are served on board planes, trains, and ships to enhance passengers' journeys or simply to make them possible!

Workers in the food processing, distribution, and sales industries

They occupy a variety of jobs, all of which are essential to supplying the population. In the factories, they transform millions of tonnes of raw materials (cereals, sugar, vegetables, meat, milk, etc.) into products such as pasta, dairy products, and preserves. Their work ranges from food sorting to packaging and machine management. Logistics employees then take care of transport and distribution, ensuring that products reach local, national, and international markets on time. Finally, in supermarkets, specialist shops, grocery shops, and markets, millions of shop assistants ensure that products are available and guide consumers. These jobs, although sometimes precarious and often low-paid, are essential to guaranteeing a constant and diversified supply, and thus avoiding shortages. By guaranteeing access to a varied diet for as many people as possible, they make a direct contribution to global food stability.

Those people who feed us 

Each of our meals is made possible by a wide range of workers. From plantation workers to restaurant cooks, from pastry chefs to food delivery people, these people work in a variety of demanding and often exposed professions. Despite mastering complex techniques and possessing specific knowledge acquired throughout their careers, sometimes passed down from generation to generation, their work is often undervalued and socially underappreciated. They feed the planet in working conditions that raise social, economic, legal, and sometimes human rights issues. Child labour, for example, persists in some parts of the world. Long working days marked by stress, seasonality, and productivity demands are commonplace. What is more, the vagaries of the weather, market f luctuations, and economic insecurity add to their precariousness. In agriculture, exposure to pesticides and other chemicals affects their health, while heavy physical labour and exposure to bad weather make their work arduous. Often subject to seasonal displacement, these workers in the agricultural sector, essential to global food security, have a lower-than-average life expectancy. 
Every item of food we have at our disposal gives us the opportunity to consider the work involved for so many people.

Sugar: The chronicle of a global dependency

Initially disseminated in the Mediterranean basin during Arab-Muslim colonisation in the 7th century, the sugar industry became the spearhead of European colonial enterprise from the 16th century onwards. The large-scale production of cane sugar in the slave-owning colonies of the Americas and the Caribbean left a profound mark on world and economic history because of its rapidity and inhumanity, as many of the 12 million African slaves deported to the Americas were deported to produce sugar. Beet sugar produced in Europe diversified the global supply in the 19th century and reinforced the popular boom in pastries and confectionery. Since then, date, barley, coconut, grape, sorghum, pumpkin, and fruit sugars have also been produced, as well as industrial sugars made from maize and wheat. 

Sugar consumption has risen steadily over the centuries, reaching an all-time high of around 50 kg per capita per year in the USA after the Second World War! In 2021, the average consumption worldwide was 23 kg per person, and in Switzerland more than 36 kg per person in 2023. While consumption has now stabilised globally, it continues to rise in emerging markets as populations adopt new diets. 
The excessive consumption of sugar in today’s diets has become the leading cause of the global epidemic of overweight and obesity. Around 39% of adults worldwide are overweight and 13% are obese. The rapid increase in the number of cases of type 2 diabetes, which affects 10% of the world’s adult population, is directly linked to this overconsumption, with devastating health, social, and economic consequences. Certain regulations and the promotion of a balanced diet can help mitigate these negative effects on global health.