Steve Borg | Sunday, 10 May 2009

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New politics, new lifestyles

A few days ago I was representing the Partit Laburista in a political debate in Valletta. One topic that was discussed, albeit briefly, was on bio-foods, bio-fuels and agro-fuels. It is an issue close to my heart and that indeed deserves much more attention. The print media is a more agreeable medium to express one’s thoughts with relative ease.
I shall not delve on the dilemma that surrounds the pure plant oil (PPO) and straight vegetable oil (SVO) industries, but rather on a new concept of life that is gaining ground on the continent. It is known as the LOHAS movement. The word is an acronym for Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability. It is more than a passing trend of fancy designer-wear or fast cars, but rather developed from eco-consumers, who choose pollution-free products, buy organic foods, prefer hybrid cars and would go for an aesthetically pleasing and energy saving property to live in.
With eight million consumers in Germany alone, they have also substantial purchasing power. Tübingen in Baden-Wurttemburg is a classic example of a LOHAS city. Rather than having businesses at loggerheads with environmentalists, it is a positive synergy that only produces win-win situations. In comes corporate social responsibility, that includes companies auditing their operational carbon footprint, and consumers expressing trust and confidence in these operating businesses that openly declare their commitment towards the environment and their responsibility in the post consumer phase.
The pessimists amongst us would think that this is impossible to achieve in Malta, that it is yet another fanciful notion. Yet industrialists, knowing that they depend on consumer trust, have come up with what they term ‘responsible capitalism’. The idea has gained considerable ground, and local businesses would do well if they observed the overseas results.
There have been several local initiatives to increase organic produce in Malta, especially thanks to the endeavours of Kirkop mayor Mario Salerno and the Malta Organic Society, and individuals who opened health food shops, revived the olive oil industry and grow organic vegetables. Sadly, however, I am unaware of supermarkets that advertise organically grown produce, which I would gladly purchase, even if they are substantially more expensive due to more labour-intensive farming techniques. The same goes for free range ‘bio’ eggs.
Yet in an overtly polluted island state such as ours, a pitiful never-ending building site with roads – like the one from the Turkish cemetery in Marsa leading to Qormi – that somehow remind me of Burkina Faso, how would LOHAS consumers judge this government? How would they consider the badly designed and maintained road network and a market where hybrid cars do not have real incentives for the interested buyer?
Why doesn’t the Maltese government further encourage the use of bio-fuels – based on used cooking oil and animal fats, rather than fossil fuels. What contingencies are taken when continuous price fluctuations can make the first relatively more expensive, but still definitely less pollutant than mineral fuels? These are questions that LOHAS consumers would definitely ask.
Continental Europe has various types of foodstuffs, household goods, toiletries and body care markets, ranging from the bulk buying non-branded markets, mostly catering for the lower income bracket, the higher quality branded markets, and the specialized bio and healthy group that usually caters for the LOHAS clientele. Yet LOHAS as a concept does not appeal to the more affluent strata, but rather to the more aware, conscious and educated. One must always remember that everyone has the same rights to attain a dignified standard of living, so social cohesion is an important factor that must be kept in mind. I have seen the odd minimarket that stocks gluten free products, but item presentation at our shopping markets are still below the consumer accepted standard found at a normal village grocer in Provence.
I have visited bio markets in Germany and Austria and although it is true that price wise the items are more expensive, they are not deemed as places for eco-freaks, tree-huggers and eccentrics but rather catering for a product conscious society, which simply wants a healthier lifestyle, eating foods with minimal preservatives or colorants and offering nutritional fruits where the grower – usually in the Third World – is given a fair price for his efforts. I have never felt the need to check any expiry dates, like I am at times compelled to do here.
Bio-food markets selling exclusive bio-friendly produce do not necessarily have to indicate on each product that the item is bio-produced, since it is understood that these markets sell only such products. Naturally, consumer protection is relatively strict and the mental approach by consumers is rigid and strictly organized. All this relates to a integrated environmental management system, where the infrastructure, law enforcement and product quality all constitute towards a better lifestyle.
This also includes another EU Directive, that on Energy Performance of Buildings – 2002/91/EC, that is hardly ever mentioned in Malta. LOHAS people are aware what wood their furniture is made of, its durability and, quite naturally, if it has come from certified logging areas. It goes without saying that they separate waste at source as an social obligation, and not as though they are making civilization a grand favour. These debates linked to sustainable living are the ones that we must bring about on prime time television in Malta, rather than the ubiquitous ones based on daily trivialities and idiosyncrasies.
Suffice to remark about a report, entitled The Lisbon Review 2008: measuring Europe’s Progess in Reform, that may have evaded media attention in Malta. It was published by the World Economic Forum in December 2008, when it evaluated the EU-27 group’s performance in different fora, including sustainable development. It comes to no surprise than we placed 26th, the one before last, with Bulgaria the unglorified wooden-spoonists. Listening to Nationalist Party news sources speak about successes in sustainable management sound more contorted than Alex Graham’s Fred Basset cartoon strips. The wryful basset hound simply seems more credible in what it thinks and says. Countries that have widely adopted the LOHAS concept, such as Finland, Sweden and Germany placed first, second and fifth.
If we had community cohesion as regards to urban sustainability on par with the eagerness with which we celebrate village feasts, than Malta would be an environmental paradise. Danish friends recently asked me what registered noise pollution level my neighbourhood was in. I simply smiled, knowing that we really had quite some ground-catching to do. But that is a normal LOHAS enquiry, not dissimilar in structure than the one that Kirkop, Birżebbuġa or Gudja residents ask about the daily aircraft noise pollution that they must endure.
Cyprus, our Mediterranean and EU friends – 17th in sustainable development, have sought and obtained EU funding for a project called CYNOISE, that amongst others is researching social impacts emanating by noise pollution, including that caused by the aviation industry in Larnaca and Limassol, and assessing how it can abated and mitigated. All so for a better lifestyle. As a potential MEP, on behalf of the Partit Laburista, it is my quest to transpose and promote these ideas to our islands, encouraging their popularity while keeping social cohesion in mind. We simply need to bring about a new way of doing politics, in order to adapt to our new lifestyles. We have to discard old pasts and positively seek new beginnings. Now let’s go for it.

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