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Grr. This Guardian article pisses me off:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/focus/story/0,13296,951981,00.html
That's not a list of ways to change the food industry. It's a list of ways for the upper-middle class elite to change their food. Very few of the suggestions are ones which can be used by the great majority of people.
Shop locally? Very nice. What if you don't have local shops, or their produce is actually inferior to what the supermarkets stock? What if you don't have the time or transportation to go to 5 different places--especially when you remember that they often have restricted opening times?
Buy local? Again a good idea, but not always practical. And the amount of good farmland is constantly decreasing because of housing pressures. If you really care about food, pressure the council for high-density housing to preserve farmland and don't buy that new 4 bedroom detached house. If the South-East keeps expanding at its current rate, there simply won't be any room for market gardens. It'll be like New York, but worse.
Pressure schools to use local ingredients? This drives up the cost of school meals. As cost goes up, the number of parents choosing to use school meals goes down. Schools have to keep meals affordable--both to attract parents and to keep their own costs (free or reduced price meals) down. Healthy eating policies are a good idea, but you need to make the food good, or kids will just eat junk--especially as they get older and can leave school.
Buy organic? A nice choice for you, but one that I don't make out of principle. Organic farming is inherently incapable of meeting our needs (either in the UK or the US). Most organic farming is still small-scale (though business is increasingly involved) and relies on the fact that people are willing to pay higher prices. What about people who can't? If we want to change the food industry, we need to make choices that can be sustained over a broader scale. And that's before we even get into the issue of developing countries that need better yields to feed growing populations. Pesticide means higher yields. Or GM technologies can be used to eliminate the need for them. But we'd deny both choices to farmers in places like India. We want to have our cake and eat it. We're certainly not about to advocate massive land reform which would enable large-scale agriculture along the lines of Western countries (most farms in developing nations are too small to be efficient).
Fairtrade? Yet to be convinced it's anything but a salve for our conflicted Western souls, o r that it's sustainable over a wider scale.
Follow France? Ah, I see we've swallowed the propaganda line. French agricultural policy does NOT protect small farmers, who are perennially on the brink. That's what the government tells the French it does, but in reality, it's large farms that reap the benefits of things like the CAP. French retail--sure, they still have small stores, but they've also got hypermarkets.
The fact is, your average middle or upper-middle class family can already eat pretty well--_if they choose_. The problem is not lack of access to quality food, it's lack of inclination. Lists like this do nothing to address the real problems, which are mostly in deprived areas. The fact is--and the UK and US are pretty similar in this respect--that we just don't have an amenable culture. Food is fashion, not the stuff of life. I've been in houses where people have put in these huge kitchens, with top-of-the-line appliances--and never cook. At the same time, long working hours mean less inclination to take time to cook and eat. We're too tired, too willing to get a takeaway and sit in front of the TV.
It's strange--I'm a foodie, I like good stuff and I make an effort to get it. But I'm also very conscious of the fact that I'm privileged. Even if I moan about tasteless strawberries, I know that I'm lucky. I do think we have a right to demand good food, but at the same time, I want that to be available to as many people as possible. I feel extremely uncomfortable making choices which are only available to a tiny elite.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/focus/story/0,13296,951981,00.html
That's not a list of ways to change the food industry. It's a list of ways for the upper-middle class elite to change their food. Very few of the suggestions are ones which can be used by the great majority of people.
Shop locally? Very nice. What if you don't have local shops, or their produce is actually inferior to what the supermarkets stock? What if you don't have the time or transportation to go to 5 different places--especially when you remember that they often have restricted opening times?
Buy local? Again a good idea, but not always practical. And the amount of good farmland is constantly decreasing because of housing pressures. If you really care about food, pressure the council for high-density housing to preserve farmland and don't buy that new 4 bedroom detached house. If the South-East keeps expanding at its current rate, there simply won't be any room for market gardens. It'll be like New York, but worse.
Pressure schools to use local ingredients? This drives up the cost of school meals. As cost goes up, the number of parents choosing to use school meals goes down. Schools have to keep meals affordable--both to attract parents and to keep their own costs (free or reduced price meals) down. Healthy eating policies are a good idea, but you need to make the food good, or kids will just eat junk--especially as they get older and can leave school.
Buy organic? A nice choice for you, but one that I don't make out of principle. Organic farming is inherently incapable of meeting our needs (either in the UK or the US). Most organic farming is still small-scale (though business is increasingly involved) and relies on the fact that people are willing to pay higher prices. What about people who can't? If we want to change the food industry, we need to make choices that can be sustained over a broader scale. And that's before we even get into the issue of developing countries that need better yields to feed growing populations. Pesticide means higher yields. Or GM technologies can be used to eliminate the need for them. But we'd deny both choices to farmers in places like India. We want to have our cake and eat it. We're certainly not about to advocate massive land reform which would enable large-scale agriculture along the lines of Western countries (most farms in developing nations are too small to be efficient).
Fairtrade? Yet to be convinced it's anything but a salve for our conflicted Western souls, o r that it's sustainable over a wider scale.
Follow France? Ah, I see we've swallowed the propaganda line. French agricultural policy does NOT protect small farmers, who are perennially on the brink. That's what the government tells the French it does, but in reality, it's large farms that reap the benefits of things like the CAP. French retail--sure, they still have small stores, but they've also got hypermarkets.
The fact is, your average middle or upper-middle class family can already eat pretty well--_if they choose_. The problem is not lack of access to quality food, it's lack of inclination. Lists like this do nothing to address the real problems, which are mostly in deprived areas. The fact is--and the UK and US are pretty similar in this respect--that we just don't have an amenable culture. Food is fashion, not the stuff of life. I've been in houses where people have put in these huge kitchens, with top-of-the-line appliances--and never cook. At the same time, long working hours mean less inclination to take time to cook and eat. We're too tired, too willing to get a takeaway and sit in front of the TV.
It's strange--I'm a foodie, I like good stuff and I make an effort to get it. But I'm also very conscious of the fact that I'm privileged. Even if I moan about tasteless strawberries, I know that I'm lucky. I do think we have a right to demand good food, but at the same time, I want that to be available to as many people as possible. I feel extremely uncomfortable making choices which are only available to a tiny elite.
pissed off
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