Sustainable Food
Conservation – Comes to the table
Quick Links:
Organic food, Slow Food, Sustainable Living Foundation, Clean Ocean, True Food Network, ACF Green Home.
You are what you eat…
Obviously our bodies can only contain the materials they are fed. More importantly we will be healthy or not so healthy depending on the materials ingested, as well as lifestyle. For this reason, many people believe our food intake should be nutritious, free from contaminants and grown from healthy animals and soils free from chemicals.
When the “food debate” starts many people will quote from the media, that organic food contains no better nutrients than regular commercially farmed foods, so why do it, it costs more? This is mostly true.
What makes a carrot a carrot? Well it must contain cells of carrot with walls of fibre and the internal juices with the necessary vitamins, minerals and vegetable proteins that make a carrot a carrot. So for all carrots this “recipe” is very similar, whether organic or regularly grown.
The difference between the organic grown and the regular farmed carrot will be not much in terms of nutrients, the regular farmed one, may have been irrigated and grown a little more quickly so it may be more watery, and therefore less carroty to taste, but very marginally. The main reasons for choosing organic, is that the food is unlikely to have been “hot housed” so it will be seasonal and it will be grown in soil free from artificial chemicals, and or pesticides. This is the main reason for people choosing organics, it is to obtain food from nature, in a clean green way that means good governance of the soil, sea or animals, by the primary producers. Organic food
It leads to foods that are free from potentially harmful contaminants, except for soil bacteria, which are unavoidable and do no harm to humans unless left in ideal conditions to grow. (this is what often causes food poisoning – another topic altogether, but one often trotted out by those who wish to denigrate organic food)
Currently the world is recovering from the recent food catastrophes, mad cow disease (BSE) the potential for chicken flu (avian flu) contamination of sea food and many other smaller incidences that have led consumers to mistrust our food production and have made people question why we want to eat, for example, tasteless strawberries all year round, when in nature the berry season of summer is a joy to anticipate and a pleasure to indulge in when ripe. The Clean Ocean organisation is one participant in the awareness and good governance of our seafood environment.
The hospitality industry, being representative of “foodies” is beginning to turn their backs on the idea of all year round availability of foods as their raw material, and is making serious movement towards organically locally produces, slowly grown foods that celebrate the seasons, and enjoying the full richness of flavours that seasonal produce harvests provide.
The Slow Food Movement is one such philosophy, and 2005 was, for the first time in Melbourne, the focus of the food and wine festival. It originated in Italy where for many centuries food has been at the heart of family life and the art of food preparation has been time devoted to the expression of love for food, family and life. Slow food is not about a marketing symbol that a restaurant can display a logo on the window, and gain market share. It is an ideology that is more holistic, it is about green procurement, the paddock to plate, the care for the whole of the food production chain, the idea of using all the varieties of foods available in your region, the use of food to nurture the body and soul. The opposite to fast food, food produced for the masses, quickly, often in factories, for fast consumption on the run.
As society rushes headlong into technology and fast paced living, many feel that the things being lost are the simple things that allow us to live a fulfilled human experience. Family, friends, good food, good company, a sense of community, clean earth, good soils, fresh uncontaminated water and food sources, clean air, a living environment that is healthy for humans. We may be losing the time and opportunity to express ourselves through our senses, touch of each other (look at the rise in popularity of massage) taste, smell, texture (all from food) sound, the peace and tranquillity of getting away from the city, and sight, again food is a feast for the eyes, as is scenery or small animals, or a forest, or the seaside. There is a growing trend amongst the community to believe that unchecked wasteful consumerism is a fast way to the demise of our planet as we know it. There are groups who are looking more holistically at life and our ecological footprint left from human activities. The Sustainable Living Foundation is one such group.
Further info relating to knowledge about GM food can be found at True Food. Further reading about what needs to be addressed in terms of Australia and our likely Environmental crisis is a publication by Professor Ian Lowe Title “A Big Fix” published by Black Inc. Ian is President of ACF currently in 2005.
Another useful site is ACF’s Green Home Guide at www.acfonline.org.au where you will also find information on eco-labelling.
The current symbols to allow consumers to make wise choices, and the meaning of these symbols.
Organic VS mass grown food? What is your decision? Is it worth the few extra dollars, is this an investment in a clean earth, and sustainable agriculture, and a future for our descendants?
