DRIVE THRU DISASTERS

Reading books on history I am drawn into the stories of how our food system has come to be. The ease with which we can call up food today at the touch of a button… to do this takes an enormous logistical sequence from start to finish. Standardising the product to the point that it is always available ensures the cogs keep moving on the system.
 
Picture instead the good old Downton days of hunting parties for the food. Duck, grouse, pheasant, deer involved using a gun. The system of getting good food involved the hunt and chase as well as the power of a weapon. Perhaps rabbits were kept for the peasants as they were snared. Fishing of course could yield a bounty of food on condition you had access to the water. There was reward for effort. Society organized around these activities. The gamekeepers protected the booty. There was a definite hierarchy of who got access to the best food. Poachers were penalized but there were opportunities to make money by foraging for food for the elites.
 
Where I live is known for the wild blueberries or fraochans that were collected by local children to be sent by train to eventually be consumed on English tables. There was an unfairness to it all of course as we look back. A hierarchy of health as it were. The Irish Famine is remembered for the failure of one crop heavily relied on. But food was available. Access to it was not.  
 
Ah but that was then you might say! We have lots of food now. It is true that there is lots of food around the world. But it depends what you consider food. Ultra processed foods are categorized as food. But are they really? If you are in the food manufacturing business anything that you can consume fits the bill. The recent and ongoing discussion about the school meals programme has highlighted the reality that most of the meals are UPF. The argument is it is better than nothing. Let them eat cake. This is ok for the masses. But you will find that the politicians do not eat this “food” every day of the week. Advantage is taken of the gratitude of busy parents to have access to a hot meal. I fall into this boat myself, I won’t lie.
 
The hierarchy continues and our food environments have been engineered to have the worst products closest to the most in need of good nutrition. Our petrol stations are drowning in a sea of UPFs but have become the social hangouts for school kids and disability centres.  See it for what it is. We have planned our towns around the service stations. A drive thru disaster as the health outcomes worsen along with the addictions to UPFs. The implications for society are enormous. Caring for our loved ones with chronic health conditions is a burden that we will have to face more and more.
 
Can we reverse the trend with access to good food and shifting the food environments? I would love to think so and draw much hope from initiatives around the world. History teaches us lessons on how this can be done. Can we learn from it? 

​Anne Maher