Thursday, March 5, 2009

10 Things We Didn't Know About Food

How the authors of the new Rough Guide to Food lost their appetites for the food industry.

The full review is at TimesOnline.

Don't take any comfort from your location if you're a North American. The authors may be British, but the situation here is no less abysmal.

One of the issues that George Miller and Katharine Reeve raise is the distance that food travels. I have come nowhere close to achieving a 100 Mile Diet. However, since my move to Nanaimo, I have become a lot more conscious of the geography of food.

I buy most of my fresh produce from the climatic zone in which I live (British Columbia and the nearby state of Washington). A moderate amount of my produce comes from the Mediterranean zone of California.

Since I started paying attention to food miles, I have bought no tropical fruits and vegetables. To my astonishment, this has triggered no withdrawal symptoms. Who knew that a banana-free life could be this blissful?

3 comments:

ms toast burner said...

Food is such a fascinating subject! Food links up everything; culture, politics, economy, environment, health, transportation, globalization, agriculture, etc. It's so interesting to me!

I've been reading, off and on, a couple of Michael Pollan books (In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma) and both are very thought provoking.

I think we are very fortunate on Vancouver Island in terms of eating well on various levels. There are a lot of good food producers, producing a good variety of really good food (and cider and gin and beer and wine!) and doing it in good ways. We can eat very well with the bulk of our diet being 'Island food.'

But... one thing that I have observed is that Thrifties, before they were bought by Sobeys (or whomever - some big eastern based chain) use to really promote local products (produce, meats, herbs, etc from BC, Island preferably) but now... so much produce comes from Mexico; produce that use to be from BC. I suspect it will only get worse... unless customers speak up.

Anyways... I wonder if you've read any of Pollan's books? He's a very good speaker as well. This is very good, imo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-t-7lTw6mA

And, I'm very bad. I just ate a kiwi fruit... from Italy! And I know full well there is a kiwi farm near Duncan as I volunteered on it a few times! I also bought a kiwi to slice in half as a 'still life' to paint. I, and the world!, suffers for my art... sigh...
;-)

Judy Roberts said...

>>>>>>> I think we are very fortunate on Vancouver Island in terms of eating well on various levels. There are a lot of good food producers, producing a good variety of really good food (and cider and gin and beer and wine!) and doing it in good ways. We can eat very well with the bulk of our diet being 'Island food.' <<<<<<<

That was what I thought when I moved out here to Paradise, Marnie.

However, since I have become involved with people who are into gardening, food security, farming, community gardening, etc., I have come to see that, while your statements are true, they constitute only part of the truth.

Ninety percent of our food is imported from outside of Vancouver Island. At any given time in winter, the island has only three days' worth of fresh food. It would take us only a short time to feel the consequences of a major ferry disruption.

Given our climate, we could be growing a much larger proportion of our food locally. Part of the equation is education.

Here in Nanaimo, the municipal government actually is quite progressive. Unlike Calgary, vegetable gardens are allowed in front yards.

When I attended a Food Security Forum in October 2008, I heard that in every public park and every school yard in Nanaimo there is space set aside for community gardens. Yet much of that freely donated gardening space goes unused.

But my circle of friends includes very enthusiastic gardeners and owners of small farms. Bit by bit, the word seems to be spreading.

Thanks for the tip about the Michael Pollan books. I'm on a borrowed computer but, when I get back to my own, I will watch the You Tube clip.

ms toast burner said...

Though I am aware of a lot of good farms and farming practises on the Island, I have to admit that the following shocked me!

"the island has only three days' worth of fresh food."

That is quite scary! I think I still mentally live on the Island I left before going to England, the Island before such a surge in population. I still have old, year 2001, ideas about the place in my head... I need to re-learn.