I wish to identify myself with the remarks of Guy Watson, a successful organic gardener and entrepreneur in England. Excerpt:
How would you sum up your food philosophy?It's fairly simple. Eat good quality food, prepared with love and grown not too far away.
People have got so far removed from their food and how it is grown. They have lost confidence in their own judgment and are easy prey to advertising promoting processed, sugar, salt and fat laden crap. Add to this the progressive loss of kitchen skills over the last two generations and we are in trouble.
Food is an intrinsic part of culture. I can't get motivated in the kitchen if I don't feel connected to my ingredients. Connection, confidence, accessibility and affordability are key to everything we do at Riverford.
If we are going to change the lamentable way most people eat it will have to be by making it fun and helping them to discover the pleasure of preparing and sharing food. Preaching and guilt will never work.
How has British food and our attitude to it changed in your lifetime?I regret the obsession with the exotic and abandonment of culinary traditions that dominated the 40 years following food rationing. Things are getting better now.
I am really excited by the rebirth of gardening because it is a sign of people taking control of their lives rather than being passive, malleable consumers being led to the trough by supermarkets. People are paying more attention to what they are eating and realising that there is no substitute for using good ingredients.
What annoys you about food culture in Britain?Food should bring people together. Instead, it has become a divisive issue where class and education - more than income I would argue - determine what people eat, their health and, in turn, how long they live.
I bitterly resent the way organic food, in the hands of supermarkets and a few brands, epitomises our peculiarly British class system. It is seen as the food of toffs with more money than sense. It is frustrating that this perception of exclusivity undermines our own and our co-op growers' work to keep the prices of our boxes down, often to the extent that they are cheaper than buying non-organic veg in a supermarket.
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Because I have some contacts with people who have undergone cancer treatments, I see a new interest in organics that crosses cultural, economic, and class boundaries. When people connect what they eat to the fact that the nutrients (or lack of them) in their meals manifest themselves as the bone, tissue, and nerves of their own bodies -- their 'selves' -- then the paradigm shifts. They think differently about food, and about where it comes from.
It's no longer about snootiness.
It's completely about personal health, and it doesn't require any degrees or certificates to figure that out.
And from a different perspective entirely, a contact in Boise was telling me last summer about a church he's affiliated with -- their newest community activity is to turn part of their property into a kitchen garden, and any members of the congregation who work in it count that time toward their community service. The good gardeners in the congregation can teach those who'd like to learn; it's quiet, slow, and people get to see the results of their actions. (I believe the food is given to members of the congregation, but some may go to their food bank; not sure on those details.)
This is the kind of quiet, under-the-radar movement that this nation -- and we as individuals -- really need. It's only partly about food; more deeply, it really does connect people with the natural, biological processes upon which our lives depend.
Apologies for the double-comment, but just landed on this at NYTimes and it's relevant to this post, as well as heartening: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08verm.html
"Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town", agricultural economics as a foundation for saving small towns; agricultural entreprenurialism in Vermont.
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