Delia Smith was interviewed on BBC radio 4 this morning (15 Feb 2008) in relation to her new cookery book and brand of easy meals. Nothing new there per se after all she is a legend as far as cooking matters go. The presenter however tried to take her into arenas that could be deemed political
Delia w as asked what her views were on “eating only organic food” and whether she agreed with Jamie and Hugh (them from channel 4’s Chicken Run) to paraphrase Delia said
“ I am a cook and really don’t have much to do with those debates, with so much POVERTY around I more concerned about cooking and ensuring that people have enough to eat”
She was further asked about food miles and buying local food.. Delia’s view was that she will not turn down fresh peas from Kenya on the basis of the effect of how far food travels to get here and that she was quite undecided in as far as the argument of the buying local food to save the environment is concerned.
I find this whole debate about food miles intriguing, and like Delia I can’t decide on which side of the fence I sit. I grew up on fresh food that came straight from the garden onto the table without days in the fridge/freezer. It tasted great and I loved it. I would still like to have access to that sort of food and besides British Farmers grow food for a living and we must support them otherwise we condemn them to a life of POVERTY.
The other side of the debate is the African farmers, they too are trying to get themselves out of POVERTY and need access to markets for their produce, and for items like coffee, tea, cocoa, Roses, bananas, Mange tout and peas we in Europe are their best bet. But for these products to get to us they fly 7-9 hours and the environmentalists argue this is not good for the environment.
I am not fan of Politicians on the whole but this one debate where I would sympathise with Gordon Brown ever so slightly. Why?
The months leading up to Christmas Ethnic Supplies was approached by the Department for International Development (DFID) and asked if we would be able to supply baskets made in Africa. The conversation went along these lines
Ethnic Supply: of course we can, and so we can best help please tell us how you intend to use the baskets.
DFID: we would like to put together a hamper full of African food and goodies to encourage people to support African farmers, whilst you at it please send us some of your case studies and include some pictures of the producers such as those on your website. Do you mind if we use these in publications for the public?
Ethnic Supply: no we don’t mind and we will be able to meet your order
At the same time the debate for BUY LOCAL support British farmers was growing and British supermarkets started labelling their food with labels such as “locally produced”, our eggs are from local hens” etc.
So my question is where do you sit on this issue and why? And if you had to how would you advise Gordon Brown
2 comments:
I think it is very difficult to give an answer. So I buy what I like to buy and eat what I like to eat and sometimes I support this side and sometimes the other, depending if they produce what I like.
Imagine :
You only buy African food to support the African farmer. What about the African people when they see that all their food is exported to Europe ? What´s good for a farmer, may not be good for a normal worker.
Food help to Africa :
The other problem is when the governments made big food supplies to Africa and finally the African farmers could not sell their goods anymore because the prices were dropping because of the food help.
A solution ? I simply don´t know. I think the best is to help them to help themselves :
As Ida does when offering a market to the African producers...
As others do when giving them water supply and the farming they should do by themselves.
I think it is very difficult to give an answer. So I buy what I like to buy and eat what I like to eat and sometimes I support this side and sometimes the other, depending if they produce what I like.
Imagine :
You only buy African food to support the African farmer. What about the African people when they see that all their food is exported to Europe ? What´s good for a farmer, may not be good for a normal worker.
Food help to Africa :
The other problem is when the governments made big food supplies to Africa and finally the African farmers could not sell their goods anymore because the prices were dropping because of the food help.
A solution ? I simply don´t know. I think the best is to help them to help themselves :
As Ida does when offering a market to the African producers...
As others do when giving them water supply and the farming they should do by themselves.
Post a Comment