Recently in Food Category

Yet another excellent production from Peak Moment Television. This film makes some really good points about the resources used to create and maintain ornamental gardens and lawns.  This guy even grows food on his roof.

With the ever increasing promotion of so called 'superfoods' it is alarming to find that one of them contains worrying levels of arsenic. According to a report in New Scientist, 22 Aug 2008, levels of naturally occurring arsenic are above the so called safe limits in rice bran. China has down rated its recommended safe level of arsenic but other countries have not followed its lead. 

Growing vegetables on a large scale can mean using huge amounts of water. So does processing the harvest ready for supermarket shelves.

An article in The Guardian recently highlighted the vast quantities of water used in processing. It seems absolutely crazy to me that the demand for squeaky clean produce is pushing the world to water shortages. Years back veg always came with some soil still attached, that was the norm. But then we bought them loose, by the pound or one at a time. Now everything has to be so very clean in comes plastic bags but at a price.

It really is about time we weaned ourselves off this 'perfect produce' addiction and went back to more sensible ways of producing fruit and veg.

The blog is experiencing some technical problems after a software upgrade. We are working on getting things back and hope to restore normal service ASAP.

Update 23 Aug, 1715. Most problems fixed now except that the forum is not working as it appears not to be supported by the new version of the software.

There was a good piece on Channel five news tonight about pesticide residues and the  decrease in minerals in fruit. It's good to see these issues being raised on peak time national news. I am waiting for the government to wheel out some tame scientist to tell us it's all perfectly safe and there is nothing at all to worry about! See the Ch 5 blog piece here.

There has been a lot of reaction to the comments made by Prince Charles about the mad dash for GM crops. What he said was absolutely right; GM food has no place whatsoever in the modern diet, is not the answer to the food crisis and is the biggest environmental disaster of all time.

Contrary to what the well healed biotech companies say there is a lot of evidence to show there are many problems with growing GM crops. Recently they have played a very cynical PR game by suggesting GM will 'feed the world'. Even a very superficial look at the evidence shows that is absolute rot.

If you want to see a list of research references, including some by the biotech companies that disprove what they are now saying, then click here. 

There is no doubt that many more people have started growing their own fruit and veg
as a way of reducing household bills. An unexpected side effect of this has been a
reduction in sales of organic produce particularly from box schemes.
 
"Guy Watson, founder of Riverford Organic, based in Devon, and one of the largest
delivery schemes, said: "It is a bitter irony for us but after so many years of talking
about the virtues of growing your own and British produce, people are doing it and it
is resulting in a fall in trade.

"We normally see a 20 per cent drop in sales in summer which lasts from July to
September but now that period is being extended to from June until November.
"People are still coming to us but it is for more exotic things they cannot produce
themselves and that means bigger imports. We have gone from being 85 per cent
British to 78 per cent." [The Independent 04 Aug 2008]  Read more...

This is indeed a sad outcome of the current economic downturn but is also an
environmental success. The more food that is home grown the bigger reduction in
transport and other impacts. The only negative is the increase in imports of exotic
produce as people refuse to let go of the demand for year round supply of everything.
Lets hope that eating seasonally will be the next change.

Have you ever looked around a large city and wondered how the huge area of flat roof space could be used? No? Well next time look up and imagine food growing right in the heart of a city. It can be done as this piece from City Farmer shows.























This is a fantastic project; it shows just what is possible with a little imagination but it also makes me despair. It could easily happen in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh and many other towns and cities in the UK.

I would just love to see a demo roof garden that grows significant amounts of food. Maybe a large hospital or inner city school might like to give it a try? 

Whenever there is a debate about ways of producing food organic farming/growing/gardening is pitted against the 'conventional' from of the same. I have done just that for years but recently using 'conventional' to describe non-organic methods has started to irritate.

There is nothing 'conventional' about non-organic practices. Neither have they been around for that long so really do not deserve the importance of being labelled as such. Large scale, chemical farming is a product of post WWII expansion. Most modern pesticides were developed during and after that period. Artificial fertilisers are a little older but their wide spread use also dates back to the same time. So why call this conventional when it clearly is not?

The other question is why be so concerned about a word? My answer is because it implies solidity, a permanence for something that, in human terms, is so very new. Agrochemicals are a very recent, and some say a disastrous innovation.

So, what do we call it if it is not 'conventional'?

This is from The Independent

Green entrepreneurs are helping America's backyards produce vegetables. Leonard Doyle reports

Anne Vollen jokes that when she began running her own business from her San Francisco home, "the backyard was soon more neglected than my husband and children".

But then a man called Trevor Paque bicycled into her life and everything changed. He turned the overgrown tangle of bind-weed into a productive organic garden. Trevor or his partner now shows up once a week to plant, weed and maintain it for a modest fee. He harvests what's grown and discreetly places a basket of home-grown fruit and vegetables on her back porch, before closing the gate behind him. Read more...

In many ways this is a good idea but it bothers me. It is a great way of utilising neglected land but it does not encourage people to recognise the problems. If you pay somebody  to garden for you then you might get a rosy glow knowing that your land is growing food but it does little to re-engage you with the process of food production.

It is also typical of a culture that sees a problem and then throws money at it. I know that some are spending considerable amounts to have their gardens redesigned as 'edible landscapes'. It is great work for garden designers but just another example of consumer culture.

My advice is to work less, get out into the garden and feel the soil in your hands, plant the seeds, see them grow and then eat the results. Re-engage with the process of growing food, be aware of the world that we live in and then maybe, just maybe things will begin to change.