The project to introduce food cards in Russia will be ready by the fall and will become an option for targeted food assistance to the population, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The program itself will start working in 2016. Kommersant FM host Alexey Korneev discussed the topic with Andrey Bilzho, an artist, writer and restaurateur, and a psychiatrist by training.

Photo: Viktor Korotaev, Kommersant / buy photo

A system of targeted food assistance similar to the American Food Stamps should extend to perishable goods.

— Andrey Georgievich, what do you think about food cards?

— I am a complete ignoramus in all kinds of economic programs, so I, as a citizen who knows his country, can simply ask questions to myself and the authors of this program. I think that these questions will arise for any other citizen who is not very well versed in economics, and the vast majority of them are. The idea is wonderful, because any idea that contains something good and positive is good. Here the desire is to feed people who have little money, the poor, so that they do not eat hoarding products, as I understand it: cereals that are stored for a long time, pasta, and so on - but perishable products, fresh products: freshly frozen meat, good fish, milk, The cottage cheese is not in jars, which is stored for a long time, but fresh, from the farm.

But I have a question: at what expense, how will these products be fed, where will the money come from and why will the stores go to this program? They licked Food Stamps - this is a program to help the poor in America, I read that more than 46 million people take part in the program in America, $133 is spent monthly on each of them. To qualify for the program, a single American must earn less than $15,000 a year. It turns out that this lonely American earns $1 thousand and kopecks a month, let’s assume that this is 50 thousand rubles.

Products in America, as in Europe, are cheaper in stores than in Moscow. Venice is the most expensive city, although everything is brought there by boat. It turns out that if our citizen, if we take an analogy with the American program, receives 50 thousand rubles, and these are teachers, who are still poor in our country: teachers, doctors, almost all state employees, journalists - the whole country. If we take the very poor, those who receive - what is our basket - 6 thousand rubles, $100, then I don’t understand how these people can be fed with fresh food, they just need to be given these products - is the state ready?

In America, the American Department of Agriculture is responsible for feeding the citizens. Milk, meat, vegetables, fruits - this is all agriculture, and they are responsible for it. In our country, can agriculture be responsible for feeding low-income citizens throughout the country?

— So far, our Minister of Agriculture has only stated that our domestic milk will completely replace imported milk only in five years.

— Great idea, great laws, wonderful words are said all the time, but how is it implemented? I imagine that suddenly everyone decided on this, distributed these plastic cards - the authors insist that this will not be a coupon system, these are not paper coupons, these are plastic cards. Of course, today plastic cards are everywhere; after all, it’s the 21st century. I can imagine that these plastic cards were distributed in the DEZ, and somehow people will receive them at the passport office. And the person holding a pack of plastic cards thinks: “So, I have a girlfriend, a classmate, my father’s friends, my husband’s friends, children, and so on.” And these cards flowed, first of all, through the channels, through the branches of those who distribute them, this is how our country is structured, there is no escape from it.

But the idea is good, I fully support it, the main thing is that it is implemented and does not drown in the deep water of our deep-sea rivers, like all other good ideas. Be healthy, control yourself, eat the right foods!

“Products in stores in America and Europe are cheaper than in Moscow”