Cheap Meat--Flap Food Nations In the Pacific Islands.

Pollock, Nancy O.

CHEAP MEAT--Flap Food Nations In the Pacific Islands

By Deborah Gewertz and Frederick Errington

University of California Press. 2010

Pp: x+213

Price: US$21.95

This account of trade in lamb or mutton flaps is constructed around the authors' views that these are being dumped on two Pacific island markets, Papua New Guinea and Tonga by New Zealand sheep-meat processors, hence flaps are 'trash' for traders, but 'treasure' for consumers. This account of lamb flaps as a trend in modern consumer choices in the Pacific link expresses concern that flaps are unhealthy food thus contributing to obesity. The authors argue that morally flaps should be banned in Tonga.

The aim of the text is 'to see material forces and processes in historically and culturally located contexts of meaning and purpose' (p.7) in order to provide a 'thick description' to support the argument that flaps should be banned as unhealthy by these two Pacific governments and by the New Zealand government.

Flaps are followed from farm producers in New Zealand to Papua New Guinean and Tongan purchasers. As the under-belly or brisket of a sheep or lamb carcass, flaps processed at freezing works in New Zealand, are packed into cartons and frozen ready for sale, mainly for export. The two major purchasing nations in the Pacific discussed here provide the market for New Zealand exporters--leaving aside other exports to Asia and the Middle East, and the whole live sheep export trade. (Australian exports are not considered.)

The authors begin their historical context to the sale of flaps with the European Economic Union's reduction in the 1970s of imports of meat, and dairy products from Australia and New Zealand. This came as a particular blow as over the previous 100 years, the New Zealand meat industry had developed the shipment of frozen meat carcasses to Europe. Meat processors responded in the 1980s by replacing the whole carcass trade by selling cuts such as legs, forequarters, chops, necks, flaps and, today lamb shanks priced according to the market; sales of sides of lamb (costing $7 to $12) diminished on the home market in the 1980s as consumers discriminated in their choice of cuts. Today a whole carcass or a side of lamb that is a popular centrepiece of barbeques must be specially ordered from a farmer or small freezing works. And 'colonial goose' made from lamb flaps rolled around a stuffing is less visible for an alternative Sunday roast than sausages or high priced lamb shanks. Choice of particular cuts of mutton or lamb in the supermarkets is up to consumers' tastes and disposable income. With the declining numbers of sheep being put through the freezing works in the new millennium, the trade in flaps is also diminishing. Tongans' tastes for fat will have to come from other sources.

The authors draw on their own field experiences and questionnaires administered in Papua New Guinea to provide that cultural context of the taste for fatty mutton and lamb flaps. They also sat in on a Heart Foundation seminar in Auckland discussing povi masima, or beef brisket (proceedings subsequently published by the Obesity Action Group 2009, edited by Elaine Rush). Analysis of the PNG respondents' reasons for purchasing cooked pieces of lamb flaps in the market ranged from good, cheap, tasty to convenient foods (p.101-105). No Tongans either in Auckland or Tonga were asked for their reasons. Opinions on why the Fijian government has banned imports of flaps were relayed by epidemiologists, nutritionists and health personnel, concerned that they are 'inherently unhealthy' (p.122). In contrast trading interests referred to the ban as 'a highly undesirable precedent in international trade' (p.123), but flaps constitute a very small proportion of their trade in sheep meats.

The unhealthy qualities attributed to lamb flaps are derived from the high proportion of fat to meat, which the authors link to increasing obesity--but only for Tongans. Very few Papua New Guineans are obese. For PNG consumers the nutritionally dense flaps provide a cheap source of meat that is 'beneficial for many under-nourished and protein deprived people' (p.163). Whereas for Tonga 'the country we know least well - ... Tongans are flummoxed by flaps and by other cheap modernist foods' (p.164). But the authors provide no details as to how Tongan households eat flaps, how often, how they are cooked, nor their reasons for buying them. The link between consumption of flaps and obesity in Tonga is a complex issue of body size that cannot be directly linked to flaps until we have better data. In a recent (June 2,2010) TV documentary addressing how obesity affects families in Tonga, Mexico and California, a Tongan woman was horrified by the suggestion that she was providing her family with food that was not considered 'good', indeed unhealthy. 'Tongans pride themselves on their choice of good food,' she said. The context of flaps as one of many fatty foods in household consumption needs close discussion throughout the islands of Tonga, and elsewhere, if the unhealthy claim is to be substantiated.

That exports of mutton or lamb flaps by New Zealand meat processors should be banned is based on the authors' assumption, repeated throughout the book, that flaps are trash for traders, but treasure for Tongan and Papua New Guinean consumers. They would like to see the Fiji ban extended to Tonga, but the argument is poorly supported by their data. For Papua New Guinea government there is less reason for a ban because they are not showing signs of obesity. Detailed comparisons between consumption patterns in the two 'Flap food nations' would be useful.

If the arguments for dumping flaps and health concerns had been presented within the wider dimensions of the global Health Transition, the two Pacific examples of consumption of lamb flaps would increase our understanding of modern food choices. As developing nations, facing poverty due to lack of employment options and restricted access to food the many nations of the Pacific are seeking to meet the targets set by the Millennium Development Goals. Reduction of hunger, improved access to food and better health are two significant targets. The data presented here are too limited to provide such clarifications, but may stimulate scholars to provide an in depth discussion of the Health Transition in the Pacific. The place of lamb flaps in that discussion may indicate the many factors surrounding tastes and meat choices that are undergoing rapid change.

Nancy O. Pollock, Victoria University, Wellington