local food

Another really interesting story linked to Prince Charles – a genuine rural champion based on comments arising from his current tour of Australia and New Zealand (there are now no farming subsidies in the latter).  This story tells us:

In his article Prince Charles wrote: “On a sufficient scale the purchasing decisions of individuals can and do change markets.”

He said buying British food meant customers were “more likely to be getting fresh, high quality produce from a known and trusted source, offering good value for money”.

He added: “It seems to me that the key is to make it as easy as possible for people to know when they are buying British – and why that is a good choice.”

The prince suggested many people were perhaps overlooking the importance of farmers to the UK.

“The rural economy is largely invisible to many people,” he said. “So, it is perhaps worth spelling out, especially to those who – whether by choice or necessity – live largely urban lifestyles, that we rely on farmers to make a huge contribution to our nation’s food security, environment and prosperity.

I like this article because it points to the importance of bees, which I love and also to the importance of micro-food production. It also gives me the chance to highlight a brilliant food concept focused on local suppliers which could soon be making its way over here from Northern Ireland – the Food Pod. Here is the link http://www.thefoodpod.co.uk and if you want to know more please also feel free to drop me an email.

Once upon a time, honey was honey. It was the generic yellow gloop you found hidden below the shelves of jam and Marmite in the supermarket, and occasionally spread on your toast. In 2015 however, honey is not only big business…it’s a sought-after ingredient too. Health bloggers like Delicious Ella and the Hemsley sisters extol the virtues of raw honey, we happily pay double digits for a jar of Manuka, and now even the Duchess of Cornwall has got in on the act with a new line of limited edition honey selling for £20 a jar at Fortnum & Mason. So how did honey go from Pooh Bear’s favourite sweet fix to status symbol?

Honey sales have been soaring for the past few years. In 2014 honey overtook jam for the first time, with Brits drizzling and slathering our way through 20.3 million kg of the stuff. Honey sales are now worth £109.8m according to a January 2015 report by The Grocer. There are several reasons for this. Honey sales have risen in tandem with those of oats as a topping for porridge. The market leader, Rowse, has also spent the past few years promoting honey’s “versatility” – as toast and porridge topper, natural cold-symptom reliever and ingredient. It now has a range of Cook’s Honeys from around the world with different flavour profiles, designed to be added to everything from marinades to stir-fries.

Jamie, when he first hit our screens, buzzing around on his vespa was the ultimate, worry free young bloke, with a penchant for cooking. Now he is becoming a grumpy old man I rather like the cut of his jib. He raises a number of interesting challenges about the public sector and local food and we should applaud him keeping such things on the agenda. The full breakdown of his recent utterances is set out below:

Jamie Oliver said today he found it hard to talk about modern day poverty.

He said: “The fascinating thing for me is that seven times out of 10, the poorest families in this country choose the most expensive way to hydrate and feed their families. The ready meals, the convenience foods.”

The celebrity chef is prone to controversial opinions. Here’s a round up of Jamie Oliver’s soapbox:

On British kids

In February 2011, the celebrity chef said that British children are “wet” compared to the Eastern Europeans he employs in his restaurants.

Britain’s culture

He has also portrayed England as a wealthy country where materialists spend money on lavish TVs.

Drinking alcohol

Alcohol has already come under attack from Oliver. When an interviewer suggested that the English can’t food because they drink too much, he said: “It’s true. Historically we’ve never produced wine. We have a culture of alcohol and we’re more beer orientated: the only people who drink more than us are the Irish and the Scottish.”

On school dinners

The original campaign will always remain close to Jamie Oliver’s heart.

He said: “School food has come a long way since my original campaign, but more needs to be done to improve standards and teach kids about food. We can’t underestimate the importance of investing in our children’s health and productivity at school.”

On packed lunches

Although he said we shouldn’t monitor packed lunches, Oliver has criticised unhealthy packed meals parents give children. “I’d say some are close to child abuse”, he said.

On academy school meal standards

Oliver attacked Michael Gove over plas to allow academy schools to opt out of national school food rules.

On the health secretary

When then-health secretary Andrew Lansley said that there had been a drop in the number of children eating school dinners following the healthy eating drive, Jamie Oliver hit back.

He said: ”To say School Dinners hasn’t worked is not just inaccurate but is also an insult to the hard work of hundreds of thousands of dinner ladies, teachers, headteachers and parent helpers who strive to feed schoolkids a nutritious, hot meal for 190 days of the year.”

On farmed chickens

In one episode of Jamie’s Fowl Dinners, male chicks with no use for egg production were put in a container and deprived oxygen.

He said: “I don’t think it is sensational to show people the reality of how chickens live and die at the moment. It may be upsetting for some people, but that’s how things are.”

More grist to the local food mill!!

The ‘horseburger scandal’ continues apace, with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) once again setting up citizens panel to find out what level of horse DNA in meat is ‘achievable, detectable and acceptable’ to the public – during 2010, the FSA organised a series of ‘citizens forums’ with the public to ask for their views on current and future meat hygiene controls and supermarkets reporting that consumers are buying more vegetarian meals in the wake of the scandal.  

Now Ikea, known for its flat pack furniture, has withdrawn chocolate almond cake from its stores in 23 countries after testing found faecal coliforms – bacteria normally found in human and animal waste. According to this media report, thousands of Twitter users have expressed outrage (both humorous and genuine): “Gross – I ate that cake last month” and “Wow! Horsemeat doesn’t seem so bad now does it”.

It is the NFU national conference this week. I feature three stories arising from it. I cant help reflecting and it is not the fault of the NFU, that most national press on things rural concentrate on extremes. We consider its bucolic beauty or yet another crisis to do with food and farming. I’m afraid all three stories at the conference come from that “darker side.”  Why are these stories important to local authorities? They are important because farmers manage huge chunks of the landscape, they underpin the viability of many rural communities, we still own land they farm and most of us have little understanding of them.

The first story is about who pays to clean up the horsemeat crisis.

Hard-pressed farmers have warned that they could be driven out of business if they are forced to pay for tighter regulation and testing as a result of the horsemeat scandal.

“Profit margins on beef are wafer thin and not sufficient to bear additional costs,” said Charles Sercombe, chairman of the National Farmers Union’s (NFU) livestock board, at the union’s annual conference in Birmingham.

He spoke after Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, told the conference that the UK’s biggest supermarket would source more meat in the UK and step up scrutiny of suppliers, including installing video cameras at their factories.

That prompted a string of farmers to warn that they could not cope with extra red tape as a result. One farmer said: “That cost cannot come back to us. We are not making any money out of the system and if it comes back to us you won’t have beef, chicken, lamb or pork producers.”

Farmers’ concerns were raised as neither retailers nor the government have made clear who might bear the cost of tougher regulation after horsemeat was found in a number of ready meals labelled as beef. In recent years farmers have been forced to pay more of the cost of regulation including bovine TB testing and stricter regimes on dead animals introduced after previous food scandals including BSE.