Lots of conversations in side these weeks on a nostalgia for times gone by when things were simpler. My lateral brain goes from the news that Amazon fresh is beginning to go off. The novel idea of just picking your scannable items and walking out the door as the cost is taken out of your account is perhaps a step too far for us. Maybe just maybe we need people to interact with along the way. I am remembering being a very young child looking at the high shelf behind the shopkeeper where the tall glass jar with the black lid held the desired apple drops. Perhaps you will remember the time too when you had a human gatekeeper behind the counter who required you to point and request the desired item. Penny sweets in white paper bags. They tasted so good. I do remember wanting to be a shop keeper. How glorious that job appeared to my 5 year old eyes. A wonkaland of possibilities….Little did I know.
Back further I remember the infamous shop in Portlaoise called Boylans. Eddie and his brother wore the brown overalls, typical of service to a local community that has not forgotten their impact. As children we were not able to grasp the importance of those conversations as people were traced and stories told while groceries were collected. Shopping was a slow process. My mother would write out her list there and they discussed the latest news of births deaths and marriages. No money changed hands but the list was held on account until the farming harvest came in when the bill was paid. I can still smell the place in my memory. It remains fresh. Unlike Amazon business plans. Fast forward to today and those many gatekeepers are being made redundant with technology and the promise of progress. Self-service check outs are monotone and quite frankly annoying. There is no conversation. When it doesn’t work in the streamlined time saving way it promises, I feel like a scolded child leaving the supermarket. Unidentified item in the bagging area… Our world is enriched with opportunities to connect and communicate. Accessing food and groceries is one regular way to get that connection back and we see more people acknowledging this benefit. It is prompting those conversations again of the good old days. Memory lane is interesting and fun. Imagine trying to have those conversations with Alexa and Siri? The unfortunate price of progress seems to be disconnection. Is it worth it? Anne Maher
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Don’t you just love the 80/20 rule! It lets us off the hook somewhat especially when it comes to diet. Eat well 80% of the time and the other 20% we can fall off the wagon so to speak. I wonder is it that simple? The Pareto Principle suggests that 20% of effort yields 80% of results and thus the need to prioritise carefully with tasks and productivity. Not to be too confusing then if we consume a diet with 20% realfood would this mean that we are 80% there in terms of outcome… ie…better health. It would seem to be a fair deal to be honest!
In any case to give ourselves a headstart it really does help to be immersed in an environment that supports our efforts. Monitoring the growth of ultra processed products in the supermarkets (taking up the shelf space!) it is more and more difficult to be able to find the real stuff. Our consumption patterns are showing that we are heading past 50% ultra processed foods. Increasing evidence shows that our health problems are strongly linked with the consumption of upfs. Addictive and prolific its so hard to avoid them. Getting to a check out in a supermarket is an exercise in will power… Here at The Urban Co-op we actively adhere to the 80/20 rule. Less than 20% is UPF ( specially selected with the minimal amount of ingredients.) We want to give ourselves a fighting chance to stay as well as possible. This is not about will power, it is about changing our environment to support us along the way. Anne Maher It is increasingly recognised that social enterprises contribute a significant role to the welfare of the country. Addressing problems that are ground up there are unique characteristics that set social enterprises in a league of their own. Last year a baseline data survey in Ireland gave a glimpse into this impact. 800 SEs responded. 2.5BN generated for the economy. Large numbers employed etc.. This data only scratches the surface of the impact. But it’s a start! I was interested to note the contribution of philanthropy in this sphere based on this data (3%). In the world of social enterprise, non-profits and charity there is generally a haphazard distribution of philanthropic funds and a challenge to source and match philanthropists with aligned enterprises. There is enormous potential to harness the power of contribution where everyone benefits. Not all philanthropy though is altruistic and quite frankly the law of unintended consequences always applies…
What about the new word Philanthropath? “A wealthy person who supposedly makes a philanthropic donation, but does so knowing full well they are actually making an investment into yet another agenda of theirs.” Philanthropy can be a greenwashing exercise. I admit to being skeptical especially when powerful people exercise their wealth to nefarious ends enabled by those seduced by the trappings associated. Concentrating power in the hands of a few does not sit well with us co-op minded folk. We ask is there a better way? What if we had a concept of “philanthropy of the crowds”? Giving is good for you so the evidence says. What if more people can benefit on both sides of the system? Many small pooled contributions can make a large impact… it is through this thinking that we strive to move forward with The Urban Co-operative. We all have the power to make changes happen. This is not the benevolence mindset, it is mutually beneficial, it is co-operating. On equal terms. How good would this be for our health & wellbeing! Anne Maher More farmer protests in Germany as I write. Reduced subsidies and increased taxes put the squeeze on farmers. Meanwhile, at the latest World Economic Forum meetings farmers and fishers are sitting in the same sentence as ecocide. I seriously doubt many of the decision-makers have worked the land themselves to understand what is involved. There is solidarity in protest but selective broadcasting will keep the news off the radar for most possible recipients. Again we are distanced from the source of our sustenance. Despite the phenomenal amount of media we have access to, we have little idea of what actually truly is happening. Fear of contagion possibly justifies a media silence in power circles. Protests though suggest the end of a tether. Like a volcanic eruption, the lava eventually comes to the surface spewing forth the fury. It’s the tsunami afterwards that causes the widespread chaos. Be prepared to get to higher ground folks…
Anne Maher After the celebration season, January is a time of promises to be good. From feasting to fasting! Resolutions and regrets. Must try harder. Why do we do this to ourselves??
Personally, I do like January and the new year full of potential. Visions of a positive future… Dreaming ahead we continue to take inspiration from Rob Hopkins's book What If as it fires up the imagination of possibilities. Here goes… what if the Limerick Milk Market was open 7 days a week? What if it thrived with farmers producing locally and finding a viable route to sale? What if there were pop-up stalls of interest that kept people coming back? What if empty buildings became viable places to live so cars weren’t necessary to get your food on the outskirts of the city? What if folk enjoyed meeting each other every day there and each day had a different energy of ideas.. what if the market bustled with life day and evening so that it became a mega tourist attraction and folk considered locating in the city again? What if there were enough local farmers and suppliers to meet the growing demand? What if the market stimulated new artisan ideas and people felt fulfilled that their work was valued? What if it employed a significant group of local people who thrived in the process? What if different food theme days encouraged repeat visits in the week? Sometimes you just have to imagine what is possible... Anne Maher Did you know that Glyphosate is a patented antibiotic? When I mention this, the answer I get is “No I didn’t!” From drain cleaner to herbicide the patents for Roundup keep giving. Picture this…if the majority of our food items (let's say wheat and soya) have been contaminated with Roundup, it is not unrealistic to assume our level of antibiotic resistance is significant and growing. Anti life. At the recent Biofarm conference, we listened as a wise farmer tell us he knew something wasn’t right when he stopped seeing the crows following the plough. The soil was not yielding the worms anymore.
A further 10-year licence to use Glyphosate has been granted following intensive lobbying by all powers that be. We are not surprised. From a growing concern about the toxicity and damage this herbicide is linked with, to the corporate desire to keep business going I see echoes of tobacco and sugar wars. Despite the recognition and evidence of damage, corrective action is very slow to take place. If you worked in the business of making or promoting this product would you consider calling a halt to the lifestyle you were used to? It’s a difficult one but realistically it is much easier to stay the same than change even if it is harmful to your individual or community health. We are after all easily persuaded that those that govern and make decisions have our best interests at heart. They couldn’t possibly mean to inflict harm on us…really… Anne Maher Being an organic grocery of course we are interested in consuming foods that are not contaminated with herbicides and pesticides or GMOs. Glyphosate the main ingredient in “RoundUp” as more readily known is possibly the most commonly used herbicide we are familiar with. A weedkiller also is readily sprayed pre-harvest to act as a desiccant to help the process. It is popular! The use of glyphosate has increased significantly in recent decades and is more so due to genetic modification of crops since 1996. More studies have shown the rising level of glyphosate in our water and bodies. The full effects of which we will never fully know although the associated rises of many neurological conditions among others cannot be ignored. Independent research is always difficult to find.
Currently, glyphosate is approved in the EU until 15th December 2023 with an approval renewal process underway. However, there are strong opposition voices to this renewal with many concerns being expressed about the health risks associated such as non-Hodkin Lymphoma and serious eye damage. Noted that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans by the IARC in 2015 with subsequent significant lawsuits brought against Monsanto and Bayer yielding eye-watering sums of payouts in the USA yet reading the EU documentation you might be inclined to think it's relatively harmless! Weedkiller is big business make no mistake and there is of course a strong lobby to keep it being used. Using organic food and care products is an active way to reduce your risk of increasing exposure. Instead of waiting for research to allay your concerns you can become the case study of one. Make the switch and see how much better you will be! As a community, we need to have a vested interest in ourselves. Anne Maher A dramatic rise in olive oil prices echoes the impact of wild fires on the olive groves of Greece in recent times. It is difficult to imagine the devastation involved when a resource such as olive groves that are hundreds of years old goes up in smoke. Livelihoods, memories, traditions gone in an instant. Can we compare such an experience here in Ireland? I’m remembering the images of the foot and mouth animal pyres in the Cooley peninsula. The trauma of that time is hard to go back to and in truth at the time I did not appreciate the enormity of it.
Our reliance on olive oil though driven by years of nutrition advice and the benefits of the Mediterranean diet etc., have contributed to us forgetting about our local equivalents. Should we not be able to access olive oil at all being prohibitively expensive or not available what do we do? Use rapeseed oil for salad dressings? Use lard for cooking? Tallow for frying? What is tallow you say? This is the thing… we need to reacquaint ourselves with the foods we actually have. The nutrient dense and economical version we have on our door step. You might actually be surprised… Anne Maher |
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April 2024
AuthorsRecipes from Katie Verling & Jacques |