Tuesday, July 17, 2007

[veges in season] twenty four seven, seven fifty two


Let me say upfront that I find all this government carbon footprinting bigfooting yeti stuff both too hard to fathom and slightly ludicrous. So that was the attitude with which I approached the subject matter dealt with by Richard Havers, as he draws attention to the Low Food Miles phenomenon:

The UK's Soil Association [may be] labelling airfreighted products so that they effectively lost their organic status due to their 'food miles.' It's been suggested that this could destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of smallholders across Africa.

Organic produce is the fastest growth area of Africa's horticultural industry, together with cut flowers and other high-value products like dried herbs and essential oils.

Then Richard cut straight to the chase:

Our 24/7 mentality is what is diving this seemingly insatiable demand for every fruit and vegetable to be available every hour of every day. Where's the fun in that. If only we lived a little more by the seasons then there would be less of a problem. Not less of a problem though for the supermarkets.

Now isn't that interesting because that's precisely what my mate and I were discussing yesterday. I asked when the produce was actually "in season" - watermelons, strawberries, apples, cauliflowers and so on and the upshot was that we both realized how far from the earth we were.

"Vegetables in season" has absolutely no meaning anymore and I, for one, wish to go back to enjoying them in their season, thank you and delaying my gratification when the season concludes, until the next season.

I love seasons and their endless variety.

It's a small fight back against the frenetic forces of faster, more-more-more, 24/7 and the other mad scrambles which society is currently involved in.

Inflicted on you by on

7 comments:

  1. WolfieTuesday 17 July 2007 at 10:14:00 GMT+1

    Absolutely. My wife and I always check the origin of our fruit and veg and do our best to select those from either the UK or EU.

    All this whimpering about small-holders in Africa is rubbish. The farmers there are paid a pittance while the locals go hungry, the benefit to Africa is minimal, its the suppliers and supermarkets that benefit while the environment suffers.

    European growers have to adhere to certain standards set by the EU, the African growers do not. Its another way to bypass legislation put in place to protect our health.

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  2. James HighamTuesday 17 July 2007 at 10:23:00 GMT+1

    I'm learning more as I go along.

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  3. Colin CampbellTuesday 17 July 2007 at 10:46:00 GMT+1

    Having lived in Singapore, where everything is imported, there were no seasons at all, just different locations from which the products are sourced and the price that is paid. This seems to be the model being adopted around the world, with price that the market will bear being the major decider as to product availability.

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  4. Welshcakes LimoncelloTuesday 17 July 2007 at 17:48:00 GMT+1

    Well, we still have them in season here. At ther most you might find a packet of frozen forest fruits, a packet of frozen peas or broad beans, plus oven chips, in the supermarket cabinets. Most fruit is eaten fresh - people here hate dried fruit - and the philosophy is to eat what is abundant, then be ready for the next thing.

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  5. James HighamTuesday 17 July 2007 at 17:50:00 GMT+1

    I'm half and half - I like dried very much with tea and fresh for other times of the day.

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  6. jmbTuesday 17 July 2007 at 17:58:00 GMT+1

    Back to eating turnips and cabbage all winter? I don't think so.

    The very sad thing is that when the local produce is in season and in the stores it costs twice what the imported does. Recently we had the local strawberries being twice the cost of the Californian. Of course they taste better so we forked out the extra cash anyway.

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  7. BagWednesday 18 July 2007 at 13:32:00 GMT+1

    and you can. Just don't buy them. Ion the other hand will pay extra if necessary for a bit of variety.

    These other guys are just trying to sell more of their stuff and drive demand, and their price, up.

    A perfectly standard use of the global whatever agenda.

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